Genealogy
is exploding in popularity world wide, with more and more people taking up the
search for their ancestors. Many of
these people are teenagers and young adults: no longer is family history the
preserve of the aged, people who have retired and now have the time for
time-consuming research, and trips to distant libraries. For a genealogist, these are the best of
times[1].
Yet genealogy societies around the world are struggling to remain
relevant. To the new generation of
genealogists the web is all-important, and the traditional activities of
societies are largely irrelevant. To survive and prosper in this new age
genealogy societies must actively exploit the web, not just having a web site
but providing valuable content – resources such as family trees and reference
databases – on line. People will join
groups if they see value in these resources, increasingly they will stay away
if the group has little of value on line.
A web site cannot duplicate the social value of meeting friends at
physical meetings, but physical meetings cannot duplicate the value of the
information resources and geographical reach of a web site. Groups need to do both!
Famnet has
many features especially designed to appeal to genealogy and family history
societies, local history societies, and similar groups.
A group can
purchase membership subscriptions for all of its members[2],
paying a discounted fee to FamNet that gives their members full
(subscriber-level) access to FamNet.
Discounts depend on the group’s size.
This allows
the group to advertise as one of its benefits; that members get full access to
FamNet. If a grant has been obtained
to pay for FamNet membership, then the group may be able to advertise a “$25
benefit” that actually costs the group very little.
A group may
elect not to provide bulk membership, but to encourage members to subscribe to
FamNet individually through a link to FamNet on their web site. Naturally the discounts are not as great as
above, but FamNet will pay a commission on any subscriptions that result from
people following this link. This may
prove a useful revenue source for the group, depending on the level of interest
in FamNet from their members
Even
greater benefits are realized with a branded FamNet
site, where an interest in FamNet may even be converted directly into
society membership.
If a group
has chosen the bulk membership option,
then they will have supplied a member list to FamNet to give these members
access to FamNet, and one or more of their members will be their group
administrator. Because there is now a
group membership list within FamNet, the group administrator has facilities to:
-
a.
Manage
the group’s membership list, either on line or by download/upload of
spreadsheets.
b.
Group members
into sub-groups – committee, project teams, etc. Members can belong to several sub-groups
c.
Send
messages and newsletters to group and subgroup members.
d.
Create
and manage the group’s event calendar.
The group may
decide to continue with their existing membership system and web pages, or use
the facilities provided by FamNet.
FamNet membership lists could be downloaded and synchronized with the
group’s local membership system.
A group’s
membership list is confidential between FamNet and the group. Individual FamNet members may be a member of
several groups: a group administrator cannot find out the other memberships of
their own members.
A group may
pursue a strategy of becoming the center of genealogy expertise and information
for their area. To do this, they need
to create databases such as cemetery burial lists, public notices, electoral
roles, etc., and then make these available on line, perhaps for a fee, or to
their members only.
FamNet
provides facilities to make this easy.
Tables (databases) can be easily defined, becoming immediately available
to the table owner for update, either on line or via spreadsheet
download/upload. Tables may not only contain simple field types – text, number,
dates, etc – but can also include images and attachments so that the original
forms of documents can be put on line as well as the transcribed index
information.
The table
owner (usually the person who creates the table) may choose to make their table
freely available to all FamNet users, to restrict it to members of a particular
group, or to charge a subscription for access to the table. FamNet will charge a commission or fee for
restricted and subscription tables.
These
digital resources could become a significant reason to join your group,
especially if valuable tables were “members only”.
For larger
groups a branded version of FamNet can be delivered, making the site appear as
your own genealogy database. Branding
would involve these changes: -
a.
You
would use your own “FamNet URL”, either from a browser or from a link on your
own existing web site.
b.
Visitors
to this URL who want to subscribe to “your FamNet” might have to subscribe to
your group to do so, especially if you have selected the bulk membership option for your
group. This would directly drive group
membership. Alternatively, if your
group have made FamNet an option, then a subscription to FamNet through your
URL would earn a commission payment for your group.
c.
This
URL would choose your master page and theme: -
i.
The
master page provides a “frame” in which the content is displayed. Look at a few pages from www.famnet.org.nz: you can see that each
page appears with a standardized heading, left-column, and footing. There could also be a right-column, although
this is not currently used. Your group
might define your own master page, with graphics and text to give it a distinctive
appearance, and make it appear part of your normal web site.
ii.
A
theme defines the colours and fonts that are used. Currently FamNet uses the default theme, but it is set up so that
groups can define their own themes.
d.
Advertising,
if carried, could be different to that carried by the base FamNet site. You would be responsible for selling
advertising and setting up the advertisements, FamNet would charge a commission
on the advertising revenue.
e.
The
text of the Introduction tab of the home page can be specific to your
site.
f.
When
trees are submitted to the GDB (genealogy database), they are identified as
your trees. GDB searches can be
restricted to just your trees, or be general.
However the GDB itself is a single database, so that (for example) duplicate
matching finds duplicates anywhere in the database.
g.
The
facilities general resource databases,
Documents, and Community will default to your resources, documents, and
community facilities only, although options will allow users to see all
resource databases, documents, and community facilities by choosing appropriate
options.
h.
Languages
other than English can be supported.
The group may need to help with translation, and there will be some
extra costs associated with this.
Subject to
user demand, facilities could be developed so that individual users and groups
could develop their own template-based web sites, to be hosted within FamNet.
FamNet is
rapidly developing, adding new features and improving existing ones every
month. For example, FamNet is currently
in discussion with some individuals within the LDS about participating in a
program to develop a new genealogy standard, replacing the GEDCOM standard that
is now woefully out of date. When
available, FamNet intends to be among the leaders supporting this new
standard. Also, expect liaisons with
other sites extending the value of FamNet searches.
Within
FamNet’s own development, expect improvements in facilities for uploading media
(scrapbook) items, more functions for viewing tree data (improvements to
GDBChart), and ongoing development in response to user feedback. (Groups are particularly influential in
helping to determine development priorities and decide matters of policy). All these improvements will be available to
groups as they are to individual FamNet users, and most will be available
within the general subscription without further charges.
With more
than five man-years of development so far invested in FamNet and more to come,
supporting FamNet is far more cost effective than licensing or developing your
own software.