Introduction

Have you ever imagined if you could play, pause or stop the world history?

Or maybe accelerate and decelerate the events that happend in the past?

Yuxtap was imagined as a User Interface (UI) of the World History, instead of just reading texts, the user can play with all the information contained in this little time machine.

Best of all, you can know where the historical people were on a certain date and what they were doing there. You can also see how the stories of these people were related to each other or maybe, unknowingly lived very close at a given time.

Google Maps was invented to guide us through the world paths. And now, the way we use Google Maps in Yuxtap, was invented to guide us through world history paths.

What are we?

Yuxtap is a for-profit organization whose purpose is to explain the history of the world in a very peculiar way, which is through this graphic interface.

While working on the development of this website we realized that it is impossible for a single person to explain the whole history of the world. That is why we open this website so that anyone who wants to explain any part of the history of any topic will do so.

We know that we have the support of all those people interested in creating the history of different topics. On the home page you can activate your account to be Yuxtap content generators and have your own map.

Do you want to create your own content on Yuxtap?

On the main page (https://www.mapjumpers.com), in the upper right corner click on the button that says Sign Up, write your data and generate your account so you can create your own content. Each user has their own map and can use the icons that they want to recreate the story.

Yuxtap graphical interface tutorial video.

This video answers the question: How to use this map? So we recommend that you watch it at least once. Then if you have doubts about it read all the information below.

The graphical interface.

In this graphical interface, on the left, you will first see the orange tab that allows you to select the configuration. At the bottom of the screen, you will see a yellow tab that allows you to control the actions. If you click in any of them, a menu will displace into the screen.
Let's talk about the orange tab.

Orange Tab.

Let's see in detail the content of the orange tab. It has 3 options:

Object: select to see the actions of only one of the objects of an event. (Only one object from an event).
Event: select to see the all objects that are grouped in an particular event. (All the objects from an event).
Time: select the initial year, from which actions of all the objects of all events begin to occur. (All the objects from all the events).



General explanation of the Yuxtap structure.
An object can represent a person, an animal, a place or a thing.
Each object contains any number of actions that represent its history through the world map. The object can have only 1 action, 200 actions or more, depending on the level of detail.
Objects can be grouped in higher levels named events. Objects can be placed within events, depending on the relationship to the event.

For example:
You can create an event named: "The Titanic". This event contains an object named "RMS Titanic", another object named "Iceberg" and the last object named "Edward John Smith".

Another example:
You can create an event named: "Russian Revolution". This event contains an object named "Vladimir Lenin", another object named "Leon Trotsky", another object named "Alexander Kerensky" and the last object named "Joseph Stalin".

Third example:
You can create an event named: "Writers' biographies". This event contains an object named "Ernest Hemingway", another object named "Jane Austen", another object named "Carlos Fuentes" and the last object named "Jose Saramago".


Object: First select the radio button with the name Object and then click on the list with the name Select object... . Select or type on the wanted object.






Here you can select only one of the objects from an event that you desire to watch.



Event: First select the radio button with the name Event and then click on the list with the name Select event... . Select or type on the wanted event.






Time: First select the radio button with the name Time and then click on the list with the name Select initial year... . Select or type the wanted year.

Yellow Tab.

It has 6 options:

Play: After you select the initial configuration in the orange tab, you can click on this button and the action will start.

Pause: Click on this button to momentarily stop the action. If you want to continue the action, click on the Play button.

Fast forward: This button functions as two buttons: Play button and Pause button. When you click here an action is carried out, then pauses and waits for you to click on this button again in order to go the next action. This button is ideal if you want to read each one of the actions of an icon.

Stop - delete: When you click here the action stops completely and all the icons, color lines and/or frontiers are deleted . Now the map is clean and ready to be reconfigurated.

Normal Speed: The normal speed mode is the slowest one because it changes date by date regardless of whether the actions occur or do not occur in that date. In the short term this is faster and in the long term is slower.

Light Speed: The speed of light mode is faster because it changes only between dates where the actions occur and ignores the dates that don't have any action. In the short term this is slower and in the long term it is faster.

Let's see a graphical explanation about this:



We strongly suggest that you use the Light Speed mode unless you don't care about your time.

Normal Speed: First, check the Normal Speed checkbox and then drag the slider to the left if you want the actions to occur slowly or drag it to the right if you want actions to occur faster. Then click on Play button.



Light Speed: First, check the Light Speed checkbox and then drag the slider to the left if you want to actions to occur slowly or drag it to the right if you want actions to occur faster. Then click on Play button.

Real World Date / Historic World Date.

Real World Date: This is the current date in real life.
Historic World Date: This is the current date on this map and starts changing after you click on the Play button.
If an action of the selected object occurs on this date and if you click on the icon of the object, you can see that the same date is displayed on the object information window.

Historic World Date: BCE and CE

The dates on this webpage will follow the Common Era notation:

BCE: Before Common Era
CE: Common Era
Read: Common Era on Wikipedia

Google Maps Features.

Map: Click here to display the map in a normal mode.



Satellite: Click here to display the map as seen from a satellite mode.



Full Screen: Click here to change this window into a full screen mode.



Google Street View: Drag the yello icon man into the map to have a detailed view of the streets.



Zoom in / Zoom out: Click on the + button to zomm in and click in the - button to zoom out.

Object and Event types.

There are 3 types of objects on the map:
1) Normal
2) Ghost
3) Frontier

The Normal object type is the most common one. This shows an icon that moves over the map and leaves a color trace on its way. Generally, this type of object is used as the main object in the event. This object can be seen if in the orange tab you select any of the three options: Time, Object or Event.

Normal object example 1:
In this example the selected object is the writer Ernest Hemingway and forms part of the event: Writers. Here you can only see one object.



Normal object example 2:
In this example the selected object is the FIFA World Cup and forms part of the event: FIFA World Cup Finals. Here you can only see one object: the world cup.



The Ghost object type, is similar to the Normal because it also has an icon that moves on the map, but the difference is that the Ghost doesn't leave a color trace. To the eye it seems as if it appears and dissapears on the map (that is why is called a ghost). Generally, this serves to use as a secondary object in the event. The Ghost objects appear working together with the Normal object type.

Ghost object example 1: on the event, FIFA World Cup Finals, there are 3 objects, the FIFA World Cup object is a normal object because it has a color trace. But the other 2 objects, the 2 flags, are ghost objects because they don't leave any color trace.



On the same example, this is what you will see if you zoom all in:



Ghost object example 2: on the event Mexico Independence, there are 21 Normal objects and 13 Ghost objects. Zooming in one section of this event you will see 4 Normal objects (with color traces) and 6 Ghost objects (without color traces). The Normal objects are the principal characters of the event and the Ghost objecs help to illustrate and be a compliment the story.



The Frontiers object type, is designed to explain how the frontiers in different places of the world changed through time. So instead of using icons and color traces, we use polygons that create the frontiers. This type can be seen if in the orange tab you select any of the two options: Object or Event.

Frontiers object example:

Important: an event can contain objects in two possible ways:
1) Only Normal and/or Ghost objects.
2) Only Frontier objects.
Up to this moment, Normal and/or Ghost objects cannot be mixed up with Frontier objects in an event. This is why the Frontier objects cannot be seen if in the orange tab you select the option: Time.

Object information description.

Date/Time: moment when the action happens.
Description: a written explanation of the action that is happening.
Attribution: a subtitle that best describes the action.
Link: an URL to an external webpage that helps compliment the description information of the action.
Extra Link: this takes 3 forms:
a) Empty (nothing is displayed).
b) Youtube: an embedded Youtube video that helps compliment the description of the action.
c) Podcast: an URL link to an external server where the sound file is stored. In Yuxtap you can listen to this file that helps compliment the description of the action.

Youtube example:



Podcast example:



Empty example:

References (Bibliography).

When you click on this button you will be redirected to a page where the list of all the Bibliography or References citec by the a user will appear.