Genealogy 2.0
Despite its name, Web 2.0 isn't really a new World Wide Web. Instead, Web 2.0 essentially looks at the Internet as a medium for collaboration, social networking, and user-generated content. Some describe it in terms of a virtual town meeting. Many sites with which you are likely familiar are based on the Web 2.0 concept, including sites and services such as Flickr, del.icio.us, YouTube, MySpace and Wikipedia.
So what is so special about Web 2.0? Genealogists have been using the Internet as a collaboration point for more than a dozen years - discussing and sharing their research through mailing lists, on bulletin boards, and via email - so how are these new services different? The easy answer is that most of the Web 2.0 sites draw on advanced social-computing technologies like RSS, wikis and mapping to help people interact via real-time, Web-based applications. For genealogists, this means connecting with other researchers who are searching for the same ancestors, live in or are researching in the same area, or even use the same genealogy software program as you. Imagine every time your research leads you to a new location or new ancestor, you're just one click away from names, profiles, and even faces for experienced genealogists and family history enthusiasts who have already done extensive research on that ancestor or in that location.
Many of the largest genealogy Web 2.0 applications are based on social networking - sort of MySpace or Facebook for families. This includes Web 2.0 genealogy sites such as Geni, Amiglia, MyFamily 2.0, FamilyLink, WeRelate and MyHeritage. Others are focused on providing Web-based family tree software such as PedigreeSoft and Ancestry.com Online Family Tree, which just added a nifty audio feature for recording family oral history.
Most of these Web 2.0 family sites are still in their relative infancy, with some bugs, quirks, and other annoying oddities. But they also represent the future of online genealogy - offering unique ways to connect with other researchers and easily put your family tree on the Web for all to see. Web 2.0 is not exactly the revolution that the Internet was, but it does offer a lot of potential good for genealogists around the world.
Comments
Great article! The whole social networking arena has great research value for the family historian. Flickr, del.icio.us and Wikipedia can be as useful as the genealogy-specific sites. I’m really surprised that genealogists haven’t jumped on Wikipedia to include biographies of their ancestors. Both Flickr and del.icio.us are great collaboration platforms to build grassroots directories of online resources and to present family photos - both to share and to learn more about the people and places in them. My two favorite research tools are my newsreader (NewsGator Online) and Diigo - a social bookmark platform built specifically for researchers. We are just beginning to see the advantages Web 2.0 provides the researcher. It will only get better!
I just discovered geni.com - my family & extended family have enjoyed this free website to share family trees & photos with other relatives. It’s a little cumbersome scrolling back & forth & up & down, but that’s OK. And it’s safe because the only people who can see it are ones that are on the tree & have email addresses!
Mary
I had the opportunity to review both Geni and Myheritage.com and both sites look more of a Social network site (like facebook or myspaces) for teenagers than serious tools for genealogists. Gimmicks like “face recognition” to find out if you look like Britney Spears are a complete waste of time.