USA Today: Tech industry spews Web companies, doohickeys so fast we can't keep up

Great Quotes and a reality check from this article in USA today:

USA Today: Tech industry spews Web companies, doohickeys so fast we can't keep up
Posted 8/29/2006 9:52 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/2006-08-29-web-bubble_x.htm

Ten years from now, when someone wants to identify a moment that epitomizes the nuttiness about this Web 2.0 stuff, I vote we designate an entry in popular tech blog GigaOm this week:

"A couple days ago, we pointed to Mooglets widgets, the creation of Rome-based Mad4milk.net. Today, we are shocked to learn that Mad4milk has been acquired by Freewebs. The Web host says it will repackage Mad4milk's JavaScript effects library, offering developer community site Freewebs Farms, and soon a widget library."

...

The tech industry is frothing. It is spewing companies and Web doohickeys and blog amalgamizers and Internet contraptions like video social-networking wiki cooking sites.

...

There is so much coming so fast from so many corners that nobody can possibly keep track, much less ever, ever try using it all.

Money is flying into ventures that most people east of Palo Alto, Calif., would find incomprehensible. Dash Navigation got $17 million from high-profile venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Dash bills itself as a "social network of traffic data" — allegedly getting cars to wirelessly talk to each other about where they are and reporting to the network if they're wheezing through bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Hard to say if it will work, but if you add "social network" to anything right now, you can get $17 million. Walk into a venture firm's office and say, "I've got a social network for hermits." Boom. Seventeen million dollars.

Which is crazy, because no one needs millions of dollars to build a consumer Web business anymore. In fact, that's why there are so many new sites. Creating a complex site is way easier and probably 10 or 15 times cheaper compared with six years ago, tech entrepreneurs say.

At the same time, ad dollars are rushing to the Web. David Court of consulting firm McKinsey says, "In the next 24 months, we will see demand for online advertising actually outstrip the supply." That's why we're getting so many consumer websites: They're easy to build and a booming market for ads.

Pretty soon, neighborhood kids will stop setting up lemonade stands and instead build Ajax-driven photo-tagging recommendation engines, or some other confluence of buzzwords.

You can tell that some insiders sense a bubble-ishness in the air.

...

Earlier this month, tech bloggers ecstatically wrote that newcomer Digg is going to replace The New York Times as a venerable news source. Digg is basically a band of a few thousand loyal Digg fans rating stories they like from all around the Web, so the stories rise to the top of the site. Here's the profound, worldly headline the Diggettes voted best on Monday: "What are the top 100 viewed Wikipedia pages?"

...

Of course, you can't win if you tell techies sites like Digg or Dash or ThisNext are just interesting tweaks to the landscape, not a reordering of the cosmos. It's like arguing against someone who fervently believes the world will end in 2012. The only way to prove your point is to wait until 2013.

Guess we'll see. Web 2.0 is a broad term for a new generation of websites that are more interactive and multilayered than the 1990s batch of websites. And right now, Web 2.0 is like a water balloon being filled by a fire hydrant. Industry jokesters call it Bubble 2.0.

A lot of the new sites are fun. I'm glad people are creating them. But it's hard to imagine how the world can absorb everything being pumped out there.to use them all. Will these enterprises fare better than the 1990s batch? "Guess we'll see."

DesNews: 'Wiki wars' rage in political arena

Deseret Morning News, Wednesday, August 23, 2006
'Wiki wars' rage in political arena
By Alan Bjerga
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — While politicians campaign and vacation over the August congressional recess, battles over their biographies and reputations are raging on the Internet.

Along with blogs, meet-ups and other Net innovations, 2006 is featuring full-scale "Wiki wars," as partisans from right and left edit candidate information on Wikipedia biographical entries to gain political advantage at the popular reference site.

Candidates across the country have been caught doctoring their own entries, erasing politically embarrassing facts and spinning their positions on issues. But their political opponents also change information, straining Wikipedia's strength as a reliable resource.
"Our primary goal is neutrality," said Wayne Saewyc, a Wikipedia spokesman in Vancouver, British Columbia. "In election years especially, people don't want the articles to be neutral."

Wikipedia, found at www.wikipedia.org, is an online encyclopedia available to anyone who uses the Internet. Unlike a traditional reference book, it's written by the readers. The idea is that people who know about a topic will add their knowledge to an entry, building an extensive information source from the ground up.

Since it started in 2001, the system has proved incredibly popular: In July, Wikipedia sites had more than 28 million visitors, ranking 18th among all Web sites on Earth, according to comScore Media Metrix, an online popularity rater.
Wikipedia is more popular online than Disney, Wal-Mart and ESPN. And as more people view it, its offerings grow more extensive. But its open-source approach creates problems when it is applied to controversial topics, as contributors use sites to push their versions of "the truth."

Last week, Wikipedia briefly banned all editing of entries done from computers linked to congressional offices, after staffers for Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., were found deleting a promise Gutknecht once made that he would limit himself to 12 years in office. That promise was about 12 years ago. Gutknecht is campaigning for re-election this fall.

Staffers for Sens. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and others have been found doctoring entries in the past year. But although congressional offices have come under fire for trying to make lawmakers look good, Wikipedia is also filled with examples of political opponents trying to make lawmakers look bad.

Last winter, for example, the entry for Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., focused first on his career as a 1960s track and field star, then on his political career.
Now, his entry devotes more space to the 2000 purchase of a Washington, D.C., townhouse from a family values group connected to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff than to any other aspect of Ryun's life, which includes a silver medal in the 1968 Olympics and world records in the half-mile and mile.

The townhouse information includes footnote references to The Washington Post and to Talking Points Muckraker, the investigative offshoot of a blog that promotes Democratic candidates.

Some politicians shrug off the news of bio editing. Ryun spokeswoman Michelle Schroeder said Wikipedia monitoring isn't a high priority in the congressman's office.

But Brian Hart, spokesman for Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said he monitors his boss' site regularly and at times has tried to reason with "editors" whom he finds hostile to his boss.

Brownback, who opposes abortion, favors citizenship for some currently illegal immigrants and is contemplating a 2008 bid for the White House, attracts fire from some Wikipedia contributors that isn't always fair, he said.
"With Wikipedia everyone knows you need to take things with big grains of salt," he said.

Saewyc said debates on controversial topics can become incredibly time-consuming and sometimes maddening. In the entry covering Scientology, for example, contributors argued for nine months over whether the Scientologist method of childbirth should be called "silent birth" or "quiet birth."

Wikipedia monitors can take several steps to control political squabbles, Saewyc said. Along with blocking access from entire sectors, such as Congress, it can freeze sites, ban users who abuse the system or slow the rate at which people can post changes.

Open-source editing itself can fix many of the abuses, especially on entries that get a lot of attention, Saewyc said. But no solution is perfect, due to the site's nature.

"Sometimes you end up with the least offensive language that both sides can live with, but it's not the most accurate or in-depth information you could have," Saewyc said. And with thousands of political candidates now having bios online, close monitoring of all of them is highly difficult, he said.

In some ways, Saewyc said, the debates over Wikipedia entries are the same debates that writers and editors have always had over reference articles — the open process just makes them much more public and much less polite.

But that's true of many Internet innovations, from blogs to discussion groups to Wikipedia, he said. For its strengths and weaknesses, Wiki wars are here to stay.

"It's always a work in progress," he said.

© 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company

DesNews: 'Wiki wars' rage in political arena

Deseret Morning News, Wednesday, August 23, 2006
'Wiki wars' rage in political arena
By Alan Bjerga
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — While politicians campaign and vacation over the August congressional recess, battles over their biographies and reputations are raging on the Internet.

Along with blogs, meet-ups and other Net innovations, 2006 is featuring full-scale "Wiki wars," as partisans from right and left edit candidate information on Wikipedia biographical entries to gain political advantage at the popular reference site.

Candidates across the country have been caught doctoring their own entries, erasing politically embarrassing facts and spinning their positions on issues. But their political opponents also change information, straining Wikipedia's strength as a reliable resource.
"Our primary goal is neutrality," said Wayne Saewyc, a Wikipedia spokesman in Vancouver, British Columbia. "In election years especially, people don't want the articles to be neutral."

Wikipedia, found at http://www.wikipedia.org/, is an online encyclopedia available to anyone who uses the Internet. Unlike a traditional reference book, it's written by the readers. The idea is that people who know about a topic will add their knowledge to an entry, building an extensive information source from the ground up.

Since it started in 2001, the system has proved incredibly popular: In July, Wikipedia sites had more than 28 million visitors, ranking 18th among all Web sites on Earth, according to comScore Media Metrix, an online popularity rater.
Wikipedia is more popular online than Disney, Wal-Mart and ESPN. And as more people view it, its offerings grow more extensive. But its open-source approach creates problems when it is applied to controversial topics, as contributors use sites to push their versions of "the truth."

Last week, Wikipedia briefly banned all editing of entries done from computers linked to congressional offices, after staffers for Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., were found deleting a promise Gutknecht once made that he would limit himself to 12 years in office. That promise was about 12 years ago. Gutknecht is campaigning for re-election this fall.

Staffers for Sens. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and others have been found doctoring entries in the past year. But although congressional offices have come under fire for trying to make lawmakers look good, Wikipedia is also filled with examples of political opponents trying to make lawmakers look bad.

Last winter, for example, the entry for Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., focused first on his career as a 1960s track and field star, then on his political career.
Now, his entry devotes more space to the 2000 purchase of a Washington, D.C., townhouse from a family values group connected to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff than to any other aspect of Ryun's life, which includes a silver medal in the 1968 Olympics and world records in the half-mile and mile.

The townhouse information includes footnote references to The Washington Post and to Talking Points Muckraker, the investigative offshoot of a blog that promotes Democratic candidates.

Some politicians shrug off the news of bio editing. Ryun spokeswoman Michelle Schroeder said Wikipedia monitoring isn't a high priority in the congressman's office.

But Brian Hart, spokesman for Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said he monitors his boss' site regularly and at times has tried to reason with "editors" whom he finds hostile to his boss.

Brownback, who opposes abortion, favors citizenship for some currently illegal immigrants and is contemplating a 2008 bid for the White House, attracts fire from some Wikipedia contributors that isn't always fair, he said.
"With Wikipedia everyone knows you need to take things with big grains of salt," he said.

Saewyc said debates on controversial topics can become incredibly time-consuming and sometimes maddening. In the entry covering Scientology, for example, contributors argued for nine months over whether the Scientologist method of childbirth should be called "silent birth" or "quiet birth."

Wikipedia monitors can take several steps to control political squabbles, Saewyc said. Along with blocking access from entire sectors, such as Congress, it can freeze sites, ban users who abuse the system or slow the rate at which people can post changes.

Open-source editing itself can fix many of the abuses, especially on entries that get a lot of attention, Saewyc said. But no solution is perfect, due to the site's nature.

"Sometimes you end up with the least offensive language that both sides can live with, but it's not the most accurate or in-depth information you could have," Saewyc said. And with thousands of political candidates now having bios online, close monitoring of all of them is highly difficult, he said.

In some ways, Saewyc said, the debates over Wikipedia entries are the same debates that writers and editors have always had over reference articles — the open process just makes them much more public and much less polite.

But that's true of many Internet innovations, from blogs to discussion groups to Wikipedia, he said. For its strengths and weaknesses, Wiki wars are here to stay.

"It's always a work in progress," he said.

© 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company

Female Given Name Distribution in 1990 Census

The most popular female names according to the 1990 Census is:
Surname.....%......Rank
MARY............ 2.629...........1
PATRICIA...... 1.073...........2
LINDA.............1.035...........3
BARBARA......0.980...........4
ELIZABETH....0.937...........5
JENNIFER..... 0.932...........6
MARIA............0.828...........7
SUSAN............0.794...........8
MARGARET.. 0.768...........9
DOROTHY......0.727........... 10

The top 10 names represent only 10% of all female names. This means that female names have a greater variety than male names, where the top 10 male names make up almost 25% of all names.

Mary clearly has its roots in Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the other Marys in the New Testament.

Linda and Maria both have roots in both English and non-English ethnic groups. This allows them to rank much higher than male names and surnames which are predominantly English in origin.

Mary and Elizabeth are also names of famous English Queen's names.

Male Given Name Distribution in 1990 Census

As a follow up to yesterday's blog about surname distribution, I wanted to talk about the most popular given names in 1990 Census.

The top 10 male given names in the 1990 census are:
Surname..........%......Rank
JAMES 3.318 1
JOHN 3.271 2
ROBERT 3.143 3
MICHAEL 2.629 4
WILLIAM 2.451 5
DAVID 2.363 6
RICHARD 1.703 7
CHARLES 1.523 8
JOSEPH 1.404 9
THOMAS 1.380 10

James is the most common male first name with over 3%. I wonder if this popularity has its roots in King James of England, the person responsible for commissioning the King James Bible. It could be a result of James, the apostle, in the New Testament.

Myself and two of my 4 sons have a first name listed in the top 10. My son Stephen is the 34th most common name. My son Andrew has the 35th most common first name.

It is interesting to note that the top 10 male names make up almost 25% of all male given names. So there is a 1 in 4 chance that a male name will be in the top 10.

It is also interesting that each of these top ten names are common English names. The most common name that is not of English origin is Jose, which is the 28th most common name.

Surname Distribution in 1990 US Census

One of the quick tests that we use to evaluate how results are handled at WorldVitalRecords.com it to search a data set for the surname “Smith.” We also used this at Ancestry.com. It must be a fairly common test in the Genealogy and Family History industry.

In working with some United States Census data I came across the distributions for surname and both male and female given names. This data is very telling and there are many stories that can be told from this type of
name analysis.

It turns out that our instinct to use the name Smith is a good one. Smith is the most common surname (or last name) in the 1990 Census. Over 1% (1.006% to be exact) of all people counted in the 1990 census had the last name of Smith. Since this is the most common last name, it is a good way to test for results when doing a search in a genealogy database.

Below are the top 10 surnames according to the 1990 United States Federal Census:
Surname.....%......Rank
SMITH ........1.006 .....#1
JOHNSON.....0.810 .....#2
WILLIAMS ..0.699.....#3
JONES ........ 0.621 .....#4
BROWN ........0.621.....#5
DAVIS.........0.480 .....#6
MILLER.......0.424 .....#7
WILSON......0.339 .....#8
MOORE........0.312 .....#9
TAYLOR.....0.311 .....#10

All of these names are common names in England. This is a clear indication of the genealogy roots from the USA that link to England.

The first name in the surname distribution that is not a common English surname is Garcia at #18. That is the most common Hispanic surname and the most common surname of any ethnic group other than English. Martinez #19, Rodriguez #22, and Hernandez #29 are other high ranking Hispanic names.

“Lee” #24 benefits from having both ethnic English and Chinese bearers of that name.

My last name, Lifferth, is so uncommon that it does not even appear in the surname distribution. That may be the reason that my wife and I named all of our children with common names. I will report on that and common given names in a future BLOG.

Funny story from Genealogy Conference

I heard this funny story as told by Rebecca Olpin of the LDS Church History Department. It is one of those urban legends that is not true but it sure is funny. I don't have the exact version of the story that she told, but I found a close version on the internet. Her purpose in telling this is to show how much effort can be put into family history to 'paint the picture' of a relative.

Remus Starr

An amateur genealogical researcher discovered that his great-great uncle, Remus Starr, a fellow lacking in character, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows. On the back of the picture is this inscription: Remus Starr; horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, Escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged 1889.

In a family history subsequently written by the researcher, Remus's picture is cropped, scanned in as an enlarged image, and edited with image processing software so that all that's seen is a head shot.

The accompanying biographical sketch is as follows:

Remus Starr was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory. His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to service at a government facility, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honour when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.

Demographics of BYU Genealogy Conference Attendees

Demographics of BYU Genealogy Conference Attendees

This following is not a scientific analysis of a complex survey of the attendees at the 38th BYU Genealogy Conference. These demographics are based on my observations. These demographics are not intended to offend or upset anyone. As a key member of the WorldVitalRecords.com team, it is important that we understand who our customer is and provide quality products and services to meet the needs of our customers. The following are the frank and candid observations that I made about the attendees.

Older demographics: Most of the attendees are in the 50+ age category. This was also skewed by the fact that many of the attendees are retired and this is how they choose to spend their available time.

Very few are in their 20's or 30's. Most of the younger people in attendance were from technology companies such as WorldVitalRecords.com, Ancestry.com, etc that were presenting or selling products. I have to face the fact that I am now getting into this older demographic and am no longer in the 20’s and 30’s.

Predominantly Female: there was a two-one or three-one majority of females that were in attendance. There were many men in attendance. The presenters had about a 50-50 split between males and females.

Heavier: Most of the attendees are living the good life because they appear to be large people. This may be a reflection of the population in general, or it may be an indicator that the attendees spend their time sitting doing genealogy instead of working out at the gym. (I am trying to use some humor here and not offend any of the attendees.) This may have been more noticeable because the conference was packed and that most of the BYU facilities are planed with teen sizes and shapes in mind. The over crowding seemed to pack the conference rooms, halls, and stairs. I didn’t notice the cramped conditions when my sons went to BYU soccer camp earlier this summer.

Cheerful: These people are genuinely happy. They all seemed to have smiles on their face. It was clear to me that they enjoy what they do and attending the conference made them happy. This may be true of all attendees to conferences of any type. I can only imagine that Star Trek fans would be very happy to attend a Star Trek conference. However, I did get the feeling that these conference attendees are people who are happy and content with their lives and chosen hobby.

This is also tied to the fact that most are extremely out going and talkative. Almost everyone was very willing with only the least amount of prompting to share story after story about themselves or their ancestors. There were very few shy wall flowers in attendance. Maybe the shy ones don’t bother to attend a conference with thousands of fellow genealogists.

Technical: The conference attendees were extremely technical and knowledgeable of modern technology. I am sure that in the age demographic that they are in, they are more technical than their peers. They were all able to quickly give their email address when asked to do so. Almost all of them had personal access to high speed internet. Many of them carried CD’s with their personal genealogy records on them they had burned themselves on their own high end computer.

One of my memories of the conference was of a 50 something lady sitting next to me. She won a drawing for a 256 megabyte flash drive. She was very excited to win it. The lady sitting behind her was 60-something and she wanted to see it and excitedly claimed that she wanted a flash drive for herself. Flash drives are “all that” in the teen and 20 something demographics. It was telling that genealogy and family history has driven technology into the hands of an older demographic. They have watched Genealogy technology change from odd size paper and binders to leading edge database merge technologies and server farms and digital cameras and PDA’s. They are fearless in adopting technology that works and adapt much quicker than the general population.

In addition I noted that they almost all:

• have and use email
• have and use internet
• have and use technology: cell phones, digital cameras, pc's, etc.
• have disposable income to invest in newer and better ways to do things.

Dedicated: It is clear to me that the attendees at this conference are dedicated to their work. They have honed their family history skills through years devoted to their labor of love. They participate in every aspect family history, from data extraction to writing personal histories.

Opinionated: Because of the time spent in their chose field, to a person they are very pointed and are quick to explain why they feel the way that they do. They know why that have stuck with PAF over the years or which PC based PAF competitor they use and when they changed to it. They are quick to jump into the free versus paid resource model debate. They will tell you which subscription model works for them. Most of those that prefer free resources are willing to support their cause with their own time and effort. Very seldom did I hear the phrase “I don’t know.” Because of this, they are willing to share their ideas and hard earned experiences with others. They are very willing to teach others because the have confidence in their own opinions.

Notes from 38th BYU Family History Conference

Family History Conference
BYU
August 1-4, 2006

Keynote Address
Elder Marlin K. Jensen
(his mother wrote his intro)
•Elder Jensen’s talk was supposed to be a devotional on family history.
•His talk is for those devoted to family history.
•Attendees at the conference known as 'enthusiasts'
•Hard at work developing an Internet based system
•One of the biggest challenges that they are addressing is dealing with duplication of work
•Their goals are to consolidate software and simplify steps
•They want to use technology that the lord has blessed us with

Major components of new system:
•'Common pedigree' begins with self-info
•Tell at a glance if temple work has been done
•Providing support for members
•New section of genealogy handbook for temple and family history
•New structure for support
•Make more records avail over internet/digitize records/2 billion microfilmed names/described and indexed
•Family search index w/links to original documents
•Allow users to participate and contribute to extract names
•Ohio genealogy society is currently cooperating w/church fhd
•FamilySearchHistory.org
•Online research help/assistance
•Family History Research should be the primary source of names for temple work

•Beta 2 will begin soon
•Those who create seek to copywrite and profit, we should share their works as a Christian act
•He hope that system will be simple and attract new participants
•Enthusiasts should share their personal spiritual experiences
•We need to get along with our living relatives as part of our efforts to work on our genealogy efforts for people on the other side
•We have an obligation to become better acquainted with those known members in family tree if pedigree is 'done'


•Alma 5: Do you look forward with an eye of faith?
•Spirit of Elijah: have been touched turning hearts of children; Elijah came to restore - manifestation of Holy Ghost confirms importance of family ties
•Unequaled satisfaction of helping the lord to save souls
•Obadiah described the “Saviors on Mount Zion

Impact of technology on Genealogy & Family History
Claire V. Brisson-Banks,BS
Cave drawings to flash drives
Demonstration of time lines-chronologies
Demonstration of drop line direct line charts
circle charts
Google easy genealogy searcher

The primary steps of Genealogy haven't changed with the advent of new technology
What do you know
What do you want to learn
What researches do you need
Search Locate
Record

Elder Jensen's talk is available on familyhistoryconferences.byu.edu


8.2.06
Jay L. Verkler
Wed Keynote
"sorting out the roots with family branches"
New system runs on 1500 computers; large scale
Member focus
Education management
The role of the church in the genealogy industry: new partnership; previously the dominant provider
Digital images and data
New learning & cognitive models
World wide support organization; same language and time zone
The Family History Library teaches the teachers that then teach others
Bring data, tools, and expertise together to create the community
A non-LDS author compiled a book containing 1,200 supernatural experiences in a book describing genealogy experiences
Enable other organizations to connect with the community
Think about the whole user experience, not just the tool
Collaboration unavoidable: we must overlap with others. We find out when we submit to the temple about duplicate work. We need to learn earlier that we are duplicating work. Hundreds of duplicates. Experience must be collaborative
Show data in context of family relationships
Preserve links
Families include both living and dead
It will include a rich set of tools for editing & maintaining data

FamilySearch Release Strategy
v0.9 release for members only
v1.0 general public
v2.0 gen pub more functionality

1 billion records are part of the Family Search data

Warnings:
overly combined persons
duplicate persons
duplicate family members
relationships to wrong people
ordinances applied to wrong person
inaccurate gen info

Combined records experience demo. Maintain person identifier.

World Vital Records: Can we license a re-badged/OEM version of family search?

New Family Search
allows evergreen picture of data
links individuals together
provide framework
reduce massive duplication
used for entire process

There will be a lot of work to organize, clean, verify
The framework for additional sources, info, collaboration

#32. What's new on Familysearch.org
Stephen W. Anderson
*repeat of presentation at BYU genealogy technology conf last February

LDS and non LDS participate in Family History at same rate
Launched site 1 year ago
Next site version will launch 1q07
Search box on home page
7 search boxes
Search on home page increased traffic by 20%
Getting started button: research guides, on homepage
Immediate success gets people more involved
They add 6k films each month
Digital family histories are being added at BYU, over 5K in .pdf
Option to add your own family tree info
1 million names submitted every 3 weeks
lot of submitted names come from non- LDS
3 sets of english probate maps
Register to set up profile of interests, get newsletters, press releases, etc.
>6 billion people on earth 2 billion will die w/o any record of their existence
Who will preserve the records of the remaining 4 billion?
Vital records are being destroyed every day

record, access
digital capture
online indexing
online availability
enter into fam tree
collaboration
record & preserve

digitizing Granite Mountain vault
scan
digitize
qc
cut into images
post online

Online Internet extraction
real time updating of index
indexes are linked to original images
lds and non lds extractors
worldwide operation

familysearchindexing.org
log in
get batch of records
Automatic highlighting of field that should be extracted
drop down boxes to select from known fields
double blind test of double keying, if match then it goes live, otherwise it is sent back to editors


Jim Green
New FamilySearch & its Family Tree

Rumor
people may stop work until the new software comes out
"a rumor without a leg to stand on will get around some other way"
- Jim Tudor

Ending duplicates
Replacement for temple ready
PAF will need to bring paf up to date
Connect with digital pipeline
Provide records

No longer creating microfilm
Family tree is global pedigree chart

Duplicate efforts=wasted effort
Eliminate dulication
Simplify the temple process
There is an estimated 5% duplicate work

Audience continuum
Ordinary member---enthusiast
Scared of each other
Technology can break down the wall or divide

Patrons no longer start with a blank page
not much info on living people unless you enter it yourself

2 ways to add Data: GedCom or by hand

each life event is recorded as a stand alone document
objective to store recorded events in a common personal folder
personal folder in a pedigree
Titus Billings has been baptized 25 times; endowed 21 times: sealed to wife 18 times: sealed to parents 16 times; definitely
Preserve all data, only contributor can remove
combine instead of merge
“separate” instead of uncombined

Rich Running
Bill Mangum
Opening the Granite Mountain Vaults

The Granite Mountain Vaults has been an icon for church since 1960's
2.4 million microfilm rolls
1.7 million microfiche
Need first pres approval to get into Granite Mountain Vaults
Most secure place church owns
Family history center in Granite Mountain Vaults
Film is $5.50 to order

Targeting: what content to deliver
Record acquisitions:
Photograph: 200 cameras worldwide, 60 are digital: 15 megapixel cameras

2-3 terabytes of data sent to salt lake each week
digital processing to deskew, contrast, sharpness
Can't digitize as fast as they are creating it
1 photo 100 feet long 2 inches tall, then cut into individual frames
136 terabytes of info in lib of cong
18 petabytes of info at gmv
Decreased cycle time from 18 months to 4 hours
Family finder

He did a demo of Family Finder

Six years to scan entire vault at full capacity using current technology

System to vote on which films to digitize