The Shades of TIME project by Drew Conway.
Drew writes:
A couple of days ago someone posted a link to a data set of all TIME Magazine covers, from March, 1923 to March, 2012. Of course, I downloaded it and began thumbing through the images. As is often the case when presented with a new data set I was left wondering, “What can I ask of the data?”
After thinking it over, and with the help of Trey Causey, I came up with, “Have the faces of those on the cover become more diverse over time?” To address this questions I chose to answer something more specific: Has the color values of skin tones in faces on the covers changed over time?
I developed a data visualization tool, I’m calling the Shades of TIME, to explore the answer to that question.
An interesting data set and an illustration of why topic map applications are more useful if they have dynamic merging (user selected).
Presented with the same evidence, the covers of TIME magazine I most likely would have:
- Mapped people on the covers to historical events
- Mapped people on the covers to additional historical resources
- Mapped covers into library collections
- etc.
I would not have set out to explore the diversity in skin color on the covers. In part because I remember when it changed. That is part of my world knowledge. I don’t have to go looking for evidence of it.
My purpose isn’t to say authors, even topic map authors, should avoid having a point of view. Isn’t possible in any event. What I am suggesting is that to the extent possible, users be enabled to impose their views on a topic map as well.