Wednesday, July 16, 2008

World Archives Project Beta Begins

Last week Ancestry.com released the beta of its World Archives Project, its entry into the volunteer indexing arena. Those selected as beta testers received an e-mail invitation reading in part,

We’re excited to let you know that you’ve been selected to participate in the World Archives Project private beta test.

The FamilySearch Indexing application is written in Java so that it, theoretically, can be used with any computer system (PC, Mac, etc.) that supports Java. In contrast, the Ancestry application is written specifically for the Windows PC environment.

The screen image, below, shows the World Archive Project Keying Tool which looks quite similar to the FamilySearch tool. Both display the image across the top half of the window and a table at the bottom in which to type the information from the image.

I'll try and come back and give more general information at a later time. Stay tuned...

6 comments:

  1. Looks like Legacy isn't the only software company that copies competitor's products.

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  2. Why wouldn't you just do family search indexing, which is free usage, if the only thing you get from Ancestry is an atta boy! Come to think of it I don't even know if you get an atta boy.

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  3. I think both tools will be fantastic. Ancestry has said that it will make all indexes created through the World Archives Project free to the public. This is good news for everyone.

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  4. Indexes aren't much use without access to the underlying document/image. BOTH will be free at FamilySearch. Why anyone would volunteer to work for free for a profit-making company that charges an exorbitant amount for its subscription is a mystery.

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  5. Their niche could be the Catholic parish registers which are now 'off limits' to the LDS. Better to contribute and have access to them then do without.

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  6. Well, for Mac users, whether to participate or not is a moot point. Once again, ancestry is ignoring a large population of their users. I'll just continue to volunteer at Family Search and, if a mac version comes available at ancestry, I'll remember how they didn't remember me.

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