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FamilySearch Wiki:Introduction: Difference between revisions
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:''Most of this information was presented at the BYU Computerized Genealogy conference in March 2008. | :''Most of this information was presented at the BYU Computerized Genealogy conference in March 2008. Also see the article:[[FamilySearch Wiki:History of content organization, browsing, and categories| History of content organization, browsing, and categories]]'' | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
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FamilySearch Wiki was launched on the Web in an open beta using [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki] software during the first quarter of 2008. Before that the wiki was available to a limited group of users on a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plone_%28software%29 Plone] site. | FamilySearch Wiki was launched on the Web in an open beta using [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki] software during the first quarter of 2008. Before that the wiki was available to a limited group of users on a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plone_%28software%29 Plone] site. | ||
== Our mission and funding == | == Our mission and funding == | ||
FamilySearch is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide genealogical records and services to people worldwide. Our services are free, as are most of our products -- including data sets online.<ref>FamilySearch occasionally offers products at cost, such as genealogical records on CD-ROM, and we sometimes charge a fee to recuperate costs, such as the price of postage for a microfilm sent to a patron at a | FamilySearch is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide genealogical records and services to people worldwide. Our services are free, as are most of our products -- including data sets online.<ref>FamilySearch occasionally offers products at cost, such as genealogical records on CD-ROM, and we sometimes charge a fee to recuperate costs, such as the price of postage for a microfilm sent to a patron at a FamilySearch Center. We sometimes collaborate with commercial companies to provide indexes or digitized records. However, 99% of our resources are offered to the public free of charge.</ref> We are funded by contributions from members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. | ||
== Our multi-national users -- <br>and why serving every country is important == | == Our multi-national users -- <br>and why serving every country is important == | ||
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[[Image:Globe.png|right|130px|Globe.png]]We serve millions of people each year here at the Research WIki. Although the Wiki is funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the overwhelming majority of our users are not members of our Church. The folks who use the Wiki range from the richest of people to the poorest and from all over the world. They come to the Wiki to find their ancestors and to get help as they work on their genealogy. We have records here from 244 countries all over the planet and that number is growing. <br> Some people are curious as to how there could be a demand for genealogical research support regarding a country where people live on a dollar a day. If residents there must focus their time and resources so heavily on mere survival, how could anyone there be doing genealogy? One of the answers lies in emigration. | [[Image:Globe.png|right|130px|Globe.png]]We serve millions of people each year here at the Research WIki. Although the Wiki is funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the overwhelming majority of our users are not members of our Church. The folks who use the Wiki range from the richest of people to the poorest and from all over the world. They come to the Wiki to find their ancestors and to get help as they work on their genealogy. We have records here from 244 countries all over the planet and that number is growing. <br> Some people are curious as to how there could be a demand for genealogical research support regarding a country where people live on a dollar a day. If residents there must focus their time and resources so heavily on mere survival, how could anyone there be doing genealogy? One of the answers lies in emigration. | ||
When survival is tough in their nation of birth, people tend to emigrate to countries where life is not as difficult and once they settle in to their new country, their thoughts often turn to the ancestors who were left behind. | When survival is tough in their nation of birth, people tend to emigrate to countries where life is not as difficult and once they settle in to their new country, their thoughts often turn to the ancestors who were left behind. Descendants of emigrants often become disconnected from their heritage and want to learn about their families. Thus, FamilySearch receives questions regarding genealogical research in even the poorest of countries -- including those where genealogy is an oral tradition rather than a process of documentation. | ||
== Our employees and volunteers == | == Our employees and volunteers == | ||
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It takes a lot of people to provide genealogical support to millions of patrons worldwide: | It takes a lot of people to provide genealogical support to millions of patrons worldwide: | ||
*More than 1,000 employees and volunteers serve in the Family History Department and the [ | *More than 1,000 employees and volunteers serve in the Family History Department and the [https://www.familysearch.org/en/library/ FamilySearch Library]. | ||
*More than 55,000 local family history consultants help patrons in 163 countries. | *More than 55,000 local family history consultants help patrons in 163 countries. | ||
*Thousands of volunteers help patrons at 4,500 | *Thousands of volunteers help patrons at 4,500 FamilySearch centers worldwide. | ||
== Challenges in providing research advice == | == Challenges in providing research advice == | ||
In 2007, we decided that in order to serve users of the Wiki successfully, we needed to solve some challenges. | In 2007, we decided that in order to serve users of the Wiki successfully, we needed to solve some challenges. Also refer to an article that discusses the 2007 and 2011 [[FamilySearch Wiki:History of content organization, browsing, and categories|changes to the Wiki]]. | ||
*Provide content for more places. (In 2007 our publications covered less than half the world’s countries.) | *Provide content for more places. (In 2007 our publications covered less than half the world’s countries.) | ||
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*Increase the number of missionaries, volunteers, and family history consultants to accomodate patron demand. | *Increase the number of missionaries, volunteers, and family history consultants to accomodate patron demand. | ||
*Identify records worldwide. (The world is a big place. There is always room to improve the information we gather regarding local collections.) | *Identify records worldwide. (The world is a big place. There is always room to improve the information we gather regarding local collections.) | ||
*Provide local lessons. (Before the wiki, FamilySearch generally provided mostly | *Provide local lessons. (Before the wiki, FamilySearch generally provided mostly general lessons whose strategies were designed for wide areas. But the best genealogy advice is specific and local!) | ||
*Make content easy to find. (The Research Guidance tool on FamilySearch.org was | *Make content easy to find. (The Research Guidance tool on FamilySearch.org was hard to navigate. Our tools needed to have search engines.) | ||
== Our strengths as an organization == | == Our strengths as an organization == | ||
Taken together, family history consultants and the | Taken together, family history consultants and the Family History Department have some major strengths: | ||
*Knowledge of many genealogical topics | *Knowledge of many genealogical topics | ||
*Huge volunteer base (55,000+ family history consultants in 163 countries worldwide) | *Huge volunteer base (55,000+ family history consultants in 163 countries worldwide) | ||
*Many locations (4,500+ | *Many locations (4,500+ FamilySearch centers worldwide) | ||
*Excellent international records collection | *Excellent international records collection | ||
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In 2007 the Information Dynamics Laboratory, a part of Hewlett-Packard Labs, studied the correlation between [http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/idl/papers/wikipedia/index.html Cooperation and quality in Wikipedia]. Authors Dennis Wilkinson and Bernardo Huberman concluded, after examining all 50 million edits to the 1.5 million English-language Wikipedia articles, | In 2007 the Information Dynamics Laboratory, a part of Hewlett-Packard Labs, studied the correlation between [http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/idl/papers/wikipedia/index.html Cooperation and quality in Wikipedia]. Authors Dennis Wilkinson and Bernardo Huberman concluded, after examining all 50 million edits to the 1.5 million English-language Wikipedia articles, | ||
:"...that article quality is indeed correlated with both number of edits and number of distinct editors, | :"...that article quality is indeed correlated with both number of edits and number of distinct editors, and intensity of cooperative behavior, as compared to other articles of similar visibility and age. This is significant because in other domains, fruitful cooperation has proven to be difficult to sustain as the size of the collaboration increases. Furthermore, in spite of the vagaries of human behavior, we show that Wikipedia articles accrete edits according to a simple stochastic mechanism in which edits beget edits. Topics of high interest or relevance are thus naturally brought to the forefront of quality."<ref>Aaron Swartz, ''Raw Thought: Who Writes Wikipedia?'', http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia accessed 4 Mar 2008. </ref> | ||
So how does a community of volunteer writers produce accurate content? One way to look at this is to remember how Linux and Firefox were developed. Both were built by volunteer communities. Linux is an operating system used by the world’s largest corporations to serve out their Websites. If the site goes down, these companies lose millions. They choose Linux because it’s so stable. Linux is simply superior to operating systems built by some of the world’s best-known software companies. | So how does a community of volunteer writers produce accurate content? One way to look at this is to remember how Linux and Firefox were developed. Both were built by volunteer communities. Linux is an operating system used by the world’s largest corporations to serve out their Websites. If the site goes down, these companies lose millions. They choose Linux because it’s so stable. Linux is simply superior to operating systems built by some of the world’s best-known software companies. | ||
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== Subjects outside the wiki’s scope == | == Subjects outside the wiki’s scope == | ||
FamilySearch Research Wiki is about genealogical research advice. The site’s scope does not include two important domains. First, this is not a site for posting what you know about a specific ancestor. If you want to document facts about an ancestor’s life, please visit [https://familysearch.org/ FamilySearch.org]. | FamilySearch Research Wiki is about genealogical research advice. The site’s scope does not include two important domains. First, this is not a site for posting what you know about a specific ancestor. If you want to document facts about an ancestor’s life, please visit [https://familysearch.org/ FamilySearch.org]. | ||
Another type of content that is not for the FamilySearch Research Wiki is that which focuses on how to use FamilySearch products like Ancestral File, IGI, or Pedigree Resource File. Such information can be found in the [http://help.familysearch.org FamilySearch Help Center]. | Another type of content that is not for the FamilySearch Research Wiki is that which focuses on how to use FamilySearch products like Ancestral File, IGI, or Pedigree Resource File. Such information can be found in the [http://help.familysearch.org FamilySearch Help Center]. | ||
FamilySearch centers may add a page to the wiki that describes the services provided at the center, hours of operation. If a FamilySearch center has specific research aides for a specific locale then it can be mentioned in an article about that locale. See the [[Riverton Utah FamilySearch Center]] and the [https://www.familysearch.org/en/library/ FamilySearch Library] page as example pages for FamilySearch centers. (Please refer to the [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1or28V5tNZdnJkcSC9KeZj-FlmxLbhTP-vu2nLjx9YfU FamilySearch Wiki Contributor Help Forum (archived)] concerning the change in this guideline concerning FamilySearch centers.) | |||
== You can make a big difference! == | == You can make a big difference! == | ||