Visualizing change

Recently I wished out loud for an automated way to animate revision histories in Wikipedia. Andy Baio liked the idea and sponsored a contest for a script that would do that. There have been several entries, and today's short screencast explores one of them: Dan Phiffer's Wikipedia Animate.

This is wildly cool stuff. But I'm not just trying to highlight Wikipedia's collaborative revisioning or showcase another cool Greasemonkey hack. There is a larger theme. In the realm of content as in the realm of software -- two domains that seem determined to merge -- everything is changing all the time. We will increasingly require, and come to depend on, tools that help us visualize and manage the flux.


Former URL: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/06/24.html#a1257