Talk:Timeline of Our World in Data

Review by Vipul on 2024-07-28 (for expansion, but the timeline was evaluated holistically rather than just the edits since the last payment)

General standalone evaluation comments

Overall, the timeline looks pretty good! A few things I would like to see more:

• Competition/alternatives: What other resources existed prior to OWID and/or were created or expanded along with OWID? It'll be good to understand the ecosystem in which OWID started and currently operates, and how it differs from the competition. Gapminder comes to mind as something with overlap, though they don't exactly serve the same needs.✔
• What are the blockers to finishing up the things in "What the timeline is still missing" on the page? The last two items in particular seem easy to pick up and execute -- the first three seem more broad-based and I can understand if you want to defer them to the next expansion.✔
• Disclaimer: In many of the timeline rows, you paraphrase OWID's views in the article as if they are your own. I think it's fine to do this, but it may be worth including a disclaimer that the paraphrasing of rows is done for convenience of exposition and doesn't mean that Timelines wiki or you (as the author of this timeline) endorse OWID's views on all matters.✔

Line-by-line comments

• Pre-launch "article publication": What does it mean to have published articles before the website's launch date? Were these articles accessible only to people with logins? Or were they also published in some other venue?✘ (Sebastian:I couldn't find early venues for those premature publications. If you agree, I can place the item as pending)
• Go-live date: In the "Summary by year" you say May 2014, but the full timeline gives June 2014. Can you reconcile?✔
• Missing reference for "A guest author shares how she utilizes Our World in Data (OWID) in her medical practice to understand and address complex mental health issues." Also, you say "A guest author" but later refer to "Gordon"; if you're using the name, you should put it upfront so that its appearance is not confusing.✔

External verification

I read through the Wikipedia page Our World in Data. The information in there seems to be covered in this timeline.

• One thing I did notice is that Wikipedia says upfront that OWID is a project of the Global Change Data Lab. You mention Global Change Data Lab further down in the summary by year and then in the full timeline, but don't explicitly call out OWID as a project of it at the beginning. Is this something you want to change? ✔ (Sebastian: Global Change Data Lab was incorporated by OWID in late 2018)

I also asked ChatGPT for a timeline of OWID and the timeline it provided seems to be largely a subset of this timeline.

Extended timeline

Year	Month and date (approximately)	Topic	Event type	Details
2013		Famine	Publication	Our World in Data publishes a comprehensive overview of famines throughout history and their devastating impact on human populations. It explores the causes and consequences of famines, including natural disasters, conflicts, and policy failures. The page includes data on the frequency, duration, and mortality rates of famines, highlighting significant historical examples and their death tolls. It also discusses the global decline in famine-related deaths due to improved agricultural practices, economic development, and international aid. Interactive charts and visualizations illustrate these trends and provide insights into preventing future famines.
2013	August 2	Violent death	Pre-public launch work	A data review authored by Max Roser explores quantitative information on violent deaths in non-state societies, drawing from archaeological and ethnographic studies. It highlights the abundance of ethnographic evidence for violent deaths in the recent past (since the late 19th century) and archaeological findings for the more distant past. The review notes the limitations of these sources, such as the inability to distinguish between homicides and deaths from warfare in some cases. Overall, it suggests that violence levels in prehistoric times and non-state societies vary widely but tend to be higher on average than in modern state societies.
2013	August	Nuclear weapons	Pre-public launch work	A study provides an in-depth analysis of global nuclear arsenals and their impacts. It tracks the history and current status of nuclear weapons, including the number of warheads possessed by different countries and disarmament efforts. The page features data on nuclear stockpiles over time, the distribution of nuclear weapons among nations, and the geopolitical implications of their existence. It also examines the effects of nuclear weapons on global security and the ongoing efforts to reduce their numbers and prevent proliferation.
2021	May		Team	Lars Yencken joins the team.