5 ms·
Neat, and interesting that his conclusion is that it's too much effort to do for oneself. My take on this is Timelinize[0], which is capable of downloading all
by mholt 5y ago
Neat, and interesting that his conclusion is that it's too much effort to do for oneself.
My take on this is Timelinize[0], which is capable of downloading all your data from various digital records like social media, your phone, arbitrary files and unstructured folders, your Google account, etc. So it can aggregate data from Google Photos, Location History, Twitter, Facebook, text messages, and more, onto your computer, organized into a single timeline.
(It is the successor to Timeliner[1].)
I suppose Timelinize can support personal body metrics from various devices, and it is planned to support manual entries as well like journals. Analyses like his would also be possible.
Data can be automatically imported on a regular basis via APIs (like, backing up your new tweets every day). The arbitrary file importer can also be scheduled to watch a directory for changes: just write a file or folder to that directory, and Timelinize will automatically import it (and optionally delete it when finished).
Timelines are stored locally on your own computer, as plain files on disk, with a sqlite database as an index, so it should be a breeze to back up and use/read without proprietary software.
The idea is to:
- Back up your precious data that is otherwise held more-or-less hostage on somebody else's computers
- While creating a detailed, personal journal for your family history
- In a way that can show you your life in context with others' timelines and the wider world.
[0]: https://twitter.com/timelinize https://twitter.com/timelinize (No actual website yet.)
[1]: https://github.com/mholt/timeliner https://github.com/mholt/timeliner
- anotherevan 5y agoI'm subscribed to your timelinize twitter account, awaiting the initial release. Hoping it can suck in my missives from Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Hackernews as a minimum!
- mholt 5y agoGreat! First releases will probably be private betas. Twitter yes, Facebook somewhat (for now -- the API and data graph are very complicated!), Reddit probably not initially (but on my lists; need to learn how to get the data), and Hacker News probably eventually (also need to learn how to get the data).
- scottharveyco 5y agoIs Timelinize going to be a commercial product or open source? Why did you stop making updates to Timeliner?
- mholt 5y agoStill deciding; I want it to appeal to general audiences, rather than only techies. Timelinize is taking a lot of my free time (along with a new family life, etc.), so Timeliner isn't being updated right now. (Also, I'm in the market for a better, available name.)
- miguelrochefort 5y agoThanks for sharing Timelinize and Timeliner. It's always great to meet other people in this space. My own take on this problem is Chronomize [0], which I've been working on since 2020. It's interesting how we independently came up with similar names. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to chat about personal data management. [0]: https://chronomize.com https://chronomize.com
- mholt 5y agoOoo. I signed up for updates. (Your website looks a lot nicer than mine ever will!) I like your projects' name better too... would still like to see if I can find a better one for mine that is available.
- nicky0 5y agoFWIW I rather like timelinize as a product name. I could instantly understand what it meant.
- mudkip 5y agoOoh, other people in this space - I remember seeing Timeliner a while ago while researching UIs for the backend I had built before starting on my own frontend [0]. Chronomize looks interesting (I used the macOS calendar for a while before outgrowing it, but still mostly maintain compatibility), but I'm curious how you'll handle certain UI things (like showing financial transactions, which generally have a date but not a time, or things like photo albums where I could mark off that an album existed but not link to any images within it). [0] https://tylerfreedman.com/hindsight https://tylerfreedman.com/hindsight