Axiell to bring ChronoZoom history visualization project to next level

Lund – Axiell, the leading provider of IT and web solutions to archives, libraries and museums worldwide, today announced it will be responsible for advancing ChronoZoom, an open-source community project dedicated to visualizing the history of everything.

ChronoZoom, initially developed by Microsoft Research in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley and Moscow State University, has been a research project focused on visualizing history via different timescales. ChronoZoom’s unique zoom-in and zoom-out technology allows users to zoom from a view of 13.8 billion years all the way to a single event in time.

Axiell’s vision for ChronoZoom is to make it easy for users to browse through millions of time-related events in history, providing unique perspectives on history and humanity.

“We are taking responsibility for this community project because we believe ChonoZoom can help change the way we look at history,” said Bert Degenhart Drenth, Axiell’s chief technical officer. “With our technical expertise and access to the vast range of information from archives, libraries and museums, we look forward to advancing ChronoZoom and making it available for all to share.”

“The unique zoom-in and zoom-out capabilities of ChronoZoom created a new paradigm for data visualization,” said Roy Zimmerman, Microsoft Research’s director of education and scholarly communication. “We are delighted that Axiell will take ChronoZoom forward, expanding it from a teaching and research tool in schools and universities, to a helpful tool for libraries, museums and other audiences.”

Axiell will be partnering with the Fontys University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands to scale the technology to broader audiences.

“Until now, the focus on ChronoZoom has been on the user experience in developing dynamic historical timelines,” said Marcel Koonen, Fontys University. “With Axiell’s expertise and wide range of information from archives, libraries and museums, ChronoZoom can be taken to a new level.”

Axiell offers a wide range of solutions that meet the information-management requirements of archives, libraries and museums worldwide.More information about Axiell can be found at axiell-alm.com.

For further information, please contact:

Bert Degenhart Drenth, Chief Technical Officer, Axiell, +31 (0) 653 41 27 07, b.degenhartdrenth@axiell.com, www.axiell-alm.com