I do hope that someone picks up the ball and runs with it, though.

What on earth happened to your Collaborative Beyond Geneology Project?

Is it up and running?

However, I think you’re on the right path here. I do not yet see any way to stop using a desktop client (i.e. there are things you can do in iPhoto that are impossible to do in Flickr (at least for now), and vice-versa). Let’s face it, data entry on the web is poor to fair at best (though sadly many desktop apps don’t improve that significantly). But right now, I think the most bang for the buck is in collaboration and synchronization, and right now that’s firmly in the web domain. There are plenty of good/decent data entry desktop apps already, and unless you have a breakthrough idea there, not much win.

So starting and focusing on the web client is indeed likely to be the best solution at this time. The desktop has been done for a long time, and breakthroughs there are going to be harder to come by. It seems the next wave of innovation will be web-focused, then I think a time of specialization. For right now, Google can only realistic happen on the web, and good 3D can only realistically happen on the desktop. We need good interoperable solutions on both ends to create web/desktop mashups that harness the strengths of each. Those connections right now are sorely lacking. Good Luck!!!

But in the meantime, here are my first impressions:

1. Collaboration along these lines (on a Flickr/Facebook/last.fm scale) is certainly something I’m interested in. It’s the wave of the future. I haven’t yet figured out the best way to pull it off, though, because genealogical data is a wee bit more complex than photos, with hierarchies and all that. But I don’t plan to let that stop me. :)

2. Starting something like this (a central location) would solve the one problem with Beyond as it stands: namely that you’d have to have your own web server. Most people don’t, and so most people wouldn’t be able to use it. A Flickr for genealogy (”Ancestr”? “Linkr”? :)) would be able to offer free accounts up to a limit (perhaps 1000-5000 individuals in the file) and then charge a modest amount ($5/month, maybe).

3. Ideally (perhaps) you’d be able to use Beyond on your own file, separate (and this is where you’d do all your research and stuff), and then you’d be able to publish it directly to Linkr (or whatever it gets called). Or would people prefer to do their research directly on the site, sharing it with others? Hmm. I suppose it could be a “share with friends/family only” kind of a thing, in which case there’d need to be no separation.

3.5. Which means, Beyond would be the software running Linkr (or whatever). You could install Beyond on your own site if you wanted to. That’s probably not good business practice, but I want people to be able to do that.

4. It would definitely have OpenID login support. :) But that’s irrelevant at this stage of the discussion.

Just thoughts hitting the fan…

I became disenchanted with my research because it was too isolated, and many of the most interesting trails were three or four steps removed from my central line, so that it didn’t make sense to be investing much effort following them. I’d like to see a site where I can enter my family, and it will find connections to distant relatives who are also members and interested in collaborating, much like myspace connects friends of friends or last.fm finds others who share taste in music. The person who might be most interested in some primary sources that I have could be my fifth cousin twice removed living across the world in Australia, but she also might have old letters or photographs that open stories into the people I’m primarly researching.