culturevis > featured > history flow

Author(s):   Fernanda B Viegas & Martin Wattenberg

Institutions:   IBM

Date:   2003

URL: http://www.research.ibm.com/visual/projects/history_flow/index.htm

Project Description:

History flow is a tool for visualizing dynamic, evolving documents and the interactions of multiple collaborating authors. In its current implementation, history flow is being used to visualize the evolutionary history of wiki* pages on Wikipedia. The history flow application charts the evolution of a document as it is edited by many people using a very simple visualization technique.

What we can learn from history flow:
Using Wikipedia articles, history flow maps patterns in date (of posting and or editing an article), vandalism, authorship, growth patterns, and persistence of specific information. Future research with history flow plans to compare Wikipedia to other "wiki" type sites and study authorship patterns based on how the site is designed, also use the history flow interface to map the evolution of source code.