5GW Theory Timeline Update

Additions to the 5GW Theory Timeline have been slow of late, since I’ve been focusing my attentions elsewhere.  Many sites/sources that should be on the timeline are therefore absent; e.g.: Thomas Barnett, John Robb, Kent’s Imperative, Thomas X. Hammes, etc., who have each discussed fifth generation warfare multiple times.  Other sites already on the timeline have posts which are not yet listed in the timeline.  The process of building the interactive repository of 5GW-theory-related blog posts, comments, articles, and books will be ongoing.  Generally, I want a clear head and focus before adding entries, in order to be as objective as possible when writing the summaries; this is not always the case, if my attentions are elsewhere.

Meanwhile, I’m working on a beta flash presentation of the 5GW Theory Timeline utilizing the Timeline Tool from the University of British Columbia:

Integrating it with Movable Type has been relatively simple, once I knew how to use it.  Basically, I set up a new template in MT to print out an XML which is used by the Timeline Tool, inserting the relevant information from the timeline blog.  Thus, the flash presentation will update whenever a new entry is added to the timeline.

Options to add video, sound, etc., to the flash presentation are pretty cool; although, I’m not certain we will have any such thing on the timeline!  I can, however, add images to the flash presentation, so I’ve been creating blog icons to display with each entry — anyone who has an entry listed on the timeline can leave a message here or email me if he doesn’t like his blog icon.  Some sources may not have an associated icon; or, one that hasn’t yet been built.

Please let me know if you experience problems with the flash presentation.

Additionally — if you haven’t noticed it yet — the main page of Dreaming 5GW displays an RSS feed of the timeline in the right sidebar which will update as new entries are added to the timeline. That feed can be accessed externally as well:

Update:  I’ve had one reported error of a blank white page loading whenever the flash timeline link is clicked. Looking into it. Needless to say, your browser must have a shockwave flash plugin in order to view the timeline — I wonder if that’s it? The flash timeline should look something like this, and will scroll horizonatally with the cursor position:

Additionally, you should be able to click on any of the dates and have the timeline entry for that item load…

Update#2:  Ah, yes. The flash timeline loads as a pop-up, while loading a blank page in your current window or a new tab if you use tabs. So…If you have a pop-up blocker, you might be seeing only a blank page. You’ll need to tell your browser to accept pop-ups from the site to see the flash timeline.