MIX Online recently released a social timeline prototype that has a lot in common with my research. The MIX tool is essentially a visual FriendFeed:
(courtesy visitmix.com)
I thought it was extremely apt to see a FriendFeed timeline because I've been describing my tool to others as "a visual FriendFeed for your software development team." I haven't written much about my tool yet---apart from my thesis paper, which will be available online soon---so I'll give you a screenshot here. My design ended up being very similar to the mock-ups that I developed last summer. Each time a developer in your team makes a change to an artifact (source code, bug report, document, etc.), a little colored dot shows up on the timeline with a short description of what changed.
The interfaces are optimized for different audiences, but my tool and the MIX social timeline are very much alike in that they display discrete 'events' authored by peers. They are both intended to foster a kind of social awareness. Kudos to the MIX team on this prototype!
I'll be posting some more details on my tool and my research shortly, but for now check out my UI mock-ups and a recent research poster.
Update: I've posted a demo version of my UI. See it here!
