A new face to genealogy
I just got an e-mail about how Geni now has what they call family friends. “Make Geni your all-inclusive network for staying in touch with all the people you care about,” they say.
That’s great, I suppose, but my first thought when I read that was, “There’s no way they’re going to be able to compete with Facebook.” As of Tuesday there are 30 million people on Facebook. That’s a juggernaut.
And then my second thought was, “Wait a second. Facebook just launched their application API a few weeks ago.” Now, I haven’t looked into how extensive the API is, so I don’t know how much one could do with it, but Facebook could definitely be the foundation for genealogy social networking — it’s been around long enough, it’s huge, you can already share photos and videos and calendar events and birthdays, and it has an application API that third-party developers can build on. And even though it is massive, it still has a clean, smooth feel to it, unlike many other sites.
A cursory search through the Facebook application directory shows nothing for “genealogy” and only two for “family,” one of which is a fraternity/sorority genealogy. Close, but no cigar. :)
Security would be an issue, of course, but overall Facebook has very good privacy control — you can set it to be whatever you want. I can’t think of many other disadvantages other than that the content frame is relatively small (compared to the full browser width), but I have a feeling that’s actually a good thing. Constraints foster creativity. And if there’s not much room, it’s hard for it to get cluttered. (Not impossible, though. :))
What would such a genealogy application look like? It could either be a full-blown app in itself, or it could pull in data from an external site (the way Facebook imports blog feeds for you). The former is more preferable than the latter, I’d think, but I’m not sure how much data you can store in the Facebook databases.
Interface-wise, there’s not a whole lot of room for a horizontal family tree, but if you limited it to three generations you ought to be fine. And of course there’d need to be a search. Each person’s name would link to a “profile” for them, similar in feel to a normal Facebook user’s profile but with obvious differences. (Similar in that you could rearrange blocks however you want, and tag them in photos and such.) If the person on your tree also happens to be on Facebook, then it would link to their real profile instead. And you would absolutely have to be able to set controls on how much of this is viewable and by whom, particularly with living people. (It’d be nice to have parts of the profile visible to others and parts not, the way you can do with your own profile.) You’d also want to be able to group other Facebook users together and give them access as a group (”Immediate family,” “extended family,” that sort of thing).
And ideally you’d be able to import/export GEDCOM. :)
Again, I’m not sure how much of this is possible, but it’s good to think out loud without worrying about what is and isn’t possible, because half the time the boundary between the two is soft to the touch.
Thoughts?
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Have you seen familylink.com? It’s Paul Allen’s (of WorldvitalRecords.com) effort to create a social network for genealogy.
It looks promising, but I don’t think it’s hit critical mass yet in terms of the number of people in the network to be very useful.
Talk about reading my mind! I google search for “facebook” and “genealogy” brought up your interesting post. I’ve already begun using facebook to seek out possible relatives in my age group. I wounder how they could integrate a genealogy application into facebook.
Dan: I think I came across FamilyLink.com a few months ago, but I’d forgotten it existed, so thanks for the reminder. :) While it’s certainly great that people are starting things like this, the critical mass bit is rather important. It seems like it would make more sense to leverage Facebook’s existing user base (which is gigantic) rather than starting from scratch. And word of mouth would spread really quickly. (On a less important note, I personally much prefer Facebook’s aesthetic design to FamilyLink’s not-so-smooth look. But that’s just me. :))
Terissa: After reading your comment I went and did the same Google search, and imagine my surprise when it came up first. And I only wrote the post this morning! Thanks, Google. :) Anyway, I don’t have time myself to write a genealogy app for Facebook, but hopefully someone will take the idea and run with it. And soon. :)
WebBiographies.com has been doing something similar for a while.
And they’re at work on GEDCOM import/export too. :-)
Have you checked them out yet?
Danno: I just checked them out, and what I have to say to them is what I have to say to pretty much all the sites I’ve come across so far: their intent is good, but their implementation is lacking. Being a designer, I tend to focus first on the aesthetic appearance and information design of the site, and while that may appear to be a partly superficial perspective, I think it reveals a lot about the site or application. And so far I’m just not impressed. The only site I’ve seen that doesn’t make me cringe is Geni, which I haven’t really looked at in detail but I do plan to in the near future. And all the rest? I wish I could commend them, but the words just aren’t coming.
I don’t know if it’s just the graphic design on all these sites that bothers me — to a large extent that probably is indeed the case, but my gut feeling is that there are other pieces missing. Too cluttered (conceptually, not just graphically). The wrong perspective. Too many of the wrong features. Not smooth enough.
All of which could just as easily mean that none of them fit my own internal vision of what a genealogy app should be, and that we’re muddling about in the realm of personal preference. (But then again I do think I have good taste. ;))
I know what you mean, but I guess I’m a little more forgiving, providing it’ll do what I need it to do. :-)
I was able to make a memorial for a friend of mine who was killed in a car crash a couple of months ago. She had friends and family all over, and we were all able to leave our remembrances together on her memorial page.
Here’s my site there: http://bio.webbiographies.com/dsargent
Love your blog, by the way. :-)
I thought of the same idea. Also being (on occasion) a web developer with some interest in genealogy (but much less knowledge), I would entertain collaborating with you in design and development of a Facebook app to that purpose. Let me know if you are interested. I would have to start doing it over the next few weeks before other things get busy.
Danno: Thanks. :) If you’re fine with using it, then by all means, go ahead and use it. Being picky isn’t always a good thing. ;)
Joel: Well, I really wish I had the time and energy to collaborate on that, but I’ll have to decline. I will, however, continue to blog as new ideas strike me, and if anyone else on here is interested in helping you, I’m sure they can contact you at your website. Best of luck! I hope you succeed wildly. :)
I just checked out Geni. It’s VERY cool but without import and export options. It’s useless to me.
I’m also not liking the closed source/potentially commercial nature of it.
From the site:
“Geni was founded by former executives and early employees of PayPal, Yahoo! Groups, Ebay, and Tribe. It is backed by venture capital firms Founders Fund and Charles River Ventures.”
Sounds like some venture capitalists think so too.
Jay: True. I’ll never upload my info somewhere that doesn’t preserve my copyright ownership.
Ben: :-) I’m sure that if WebBiographies had $20 million in VC cash to spend, you’d like their graphic design. :-) Money can buy the best developers…
Guys,
Take a look at http://apps.facebook.com/ifamilytree/
They are killing it on Facebook and have alot of the functionality described herein. I have spoken to the developer and all the other things requested here (like Gedgcom Import)are on the way. The site can also be accessed at www.ifamily.com.
Have fun with it..I have found it quite addictive!
I’ll repeat what I’ve said in replies to other messages here… It may look nice, but facebook is still not a genealogy database application for documenting family history. I don’t see anywhere to enter sources (what is genealogy without sources?)… it requires a valid email address per person - how many ancestors do you know who have email? I could go on….
I believe a system such as this needs to start with a full featured genealogy system, and add social networking features, rather than a social networking site adding bits and pieces of a genealogy application. See the site I have put together (and continue to upgrade) - it has all of the above.
Jay: If it’s going to be closed source, then it should at least be free like Google or Facebook or Flickr.
Danno: C’mon, graphic design doesn’t cost that much. And just having the cash doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll end up with good design. :)
Andy: It’s a nice beginning, but it’s rather slow and not all that appealing aesthetically. (Facebook apps need to fit in with the Facebook look; iFamilyTree doesn’t.) Perhaps with a redesign and some optimization…
Ray: We’re not saying that Facebook itself ought to be a genealogy database app; the sources and ancestor info would go within the app itself, not on Facebook proper. There’s a difference. :) I’m not so sure that a site like this necessarily needs to start as a genealogy app — it could, certainly, but I could see it just as easily going the other way round. In fact, genealogy from a social networking perspective would open up new ideas and attitudes that we haven’t even thought of yet. I say it ought to be explored thoroughly before we dismiss it out of hand.
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