JFK Time Line

[Brian Castle]

Aha. Found this thread. Bookmarking.

(my first post, just joined)

I have some interest in timelines. What's the holy grail here? What do people really need?

How about a searchable database where you can ask questions like, "show me everything Jack Ruby did between 11am on 11/22 and 11am on 11/24", and then you get a printable web page with results containing references (links, whenever available)?

Would that be helpful, or does that already exist?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe a good and comprehensive JFK timeline exists. The best ones [and there are several that no one has tried to merge] are on paper or exist as html, at best [which are somewhat searchable in limited ways]. Putting all that [and more] into a database format is a LOT of work. Once done, if done properly, then you can ask the kinds of questions you posed and many more complex ones. Many have suggested doing this, but to my knowledge, this has not yet been done in a comprehensive way. It is a lot of work and likely a collaborative work. I think it should be done....just as the 911 timeline should also be put into Database software, along with other such deep political timelines.

Hi Peter, it's a pleasure to meet you, thank you for your post.

I agree, it's a lot of work. The IT piece is trivial (more on that later), but the data entry is a humongous task.

Can we talk about this for a minute?

First - let's take the simple stuff. Existing timelines can be easily imported into a usable database form. And, there are already very complete compilations of most of the "official" proceedings, like WC and HSCA and so on. These latter entries would have to be annotated and cross-referenced, and that is an enormous amount of work just by itself. For instance, in the Batchelor exhibit CE-5002, we'd want individual entries for each person's name, so if you search on the name you find the entry in CE-5002.

And then of course, in addition to the "official" stuff, there are 1500-some-odd books, many of which contain vital information.

So, it seems to me, that the data-entry piece of this, would of necessity have to be a collaborative effort. I do not believe I could do it alone, for instance (at least, not in my lifetime).

And, in a collaborative data-entry environment, the concept of moderation becomes critically important. (Especially considering some of the threads I've just been reading here, which describe events occurring on the forums and so on - my observation so far is, there are plenty of people who'd be interested in sabotaging such an effort). Therefore some concept of user roles and privileges would be important in the software, and that could also be used to benefit in terms of some kind of "peer review" of the data that's being entered.

But this concept, IMO, "could" be very helpful in terms of bringing a lot of the CT side of the research community together. I mean, there is no "unified response" to the Warren Commission, even though that seems to be the one thing that all the CT'ers agree on - that the Warren Commission was wrong (or... some stronger word...). And, if you surf the JFK forums you'll find an amazing amount of bandwidth being rehashed on age-old questions... "can I have a link please" and stuff like that.

Mary Ferrell starts down this path, by providing a searchable text, but the information isn't organized in a usable form. To build a timeline we want Events, consisting of People who participate in them, in its simplest form we'd like to correlate the people with the events. And once this body of work is realized, it becomes valuable intellectual capital, because a n00b like me can go straight to the scuttlebutt instead of wasting time battling the noise.

And, it could also help a n00b like me discern what's real and what's not - because there's a whole lot of claims on the internet and most of them are somewhat laughable, although seductive enough to merit some passing attention perhaps. In other words, the "simple" concept of a timeline could certainly be expanded on in several useful directions.

Seems to me, like there would be a big benefit in something like this.