I used SlideRocket to put together the slide deck. Their app is very nice. Also used Inkscape and Google Docs (Presentations) to create some of the graphics. The slides are too bullet heavy at this point, I'd like to liven them up with some more images and such.

Audio is available here: podcast.utos.org

Turnout tonight was decent, and I got some good feedback. I hope to submit this for the Utah Open Source Conference later this year. Omniture graciously provided pizza and drinks. Thanks to all who attended!

What I found interesting in the video was how this guy generalized what he was doing by looking at each game as an algorithm that could be applied to problems other than those he was interested in solving. Of course, the natural question that arises in my mind is, how can we apply this approach to problems in family history research? Can we use this sort of thing to make indexing as fun as playing a game?

This is yet another example of harnessing the power of the Internet masses. As he describes it, you can almost look at this as a human computational grid, where human brains are being used as the processing units. In his talk at the 2008 Family History Technology workshop, Paul Allen mentioned the possibility of applying some kind of 'by-product' from all the computer games the rising generation like to play towards solving problems in family history work. I think gwap.com's approach is perhaps a step in this direction. Are there other, more meaningful interactions with our computers from which we can harvest computational 'by-products' to solve important problems in the world? Is there some way I can harness some aspect of, say, reading my email, or perusing my blog reader to make the world a better place in some small way?

Perhaps it was these tours that instilled in me a great love for a good roadtrip. Packing up the car and heading down the Interstate still gives me a bit of a thrill. I love to see new places, and half of the fun is stopping at odd, out-of-the-way (though interesting) spots like Wall Drug, and the Mitchell Corn Palace.

Today KSL.com ran a story about 3 guys from Utah who set out to travel to the 48 states in the span of just 100 hours. You can read about their adventure at The Great American roadtrip. Makes me want to pack up and try it myself.

My favorite part of these conferences is the "hallway track," where I'm able to meet and talk with others who are enthusiastic about challenges in family history technology.

If you're interested in this kind of stuff here are some other forums you might be interested in:

• BeyondGen Google Group - "a place to talk about things like innovation, genealogy data models, user interfaces, interoperability, new software and sites, and so on."
• Evidentiary Document Model Google Group - Discussing "a model, which would allow us to describe historical documents in a normalized fashion."
• FamilySearch Forum - Discussing the new FamilySearch system
• GenealogyXML Yahoo Group - Discussing "the use of XML for storing, displaying, and exchanging genealogical data."

Enjoy!

One thought that came to me tonight was an idea for a mobile application that could potentially aid in family history research by putting you in contact with those of your relatives whom you may not even realize are relatives. The application would work like this. Each user of the application would upload to their device some form of genetic information--the same kind of info you get back from the DNA tests currently used in family history research. As your mobile device comes into proximity of other mobile devices belonging to users who are also using this application, it would check the markers in your DNA with those of the mobile owners around you to find which, if any of the individuals you are physically close to most likely share a common ancestor, and how far back that ancestor would likely be. You would get an alert indicating that you were near someone with similar DNA markers.

The implications of such an app are both intriguing and spooky all at the same time. There are obviously privacy and other security issues related to going around with your personal DNA markers displayed like a virtual name badge. What kind of personal information (aside from being able to discern the likelihood of a common ancestor) is also available from such a DNA fingerprint?

What other family-history-centric apps will we see arising from these platforms? What will be the next platforms? What will be the next layer in the stack? One question Paul raised that has had me thinking is how do we use these technologies and platforms to engage the rising generation in family history? Are there ways we can harness these technologies so that the side-effects of everyday interaction with technology can provide beneficial information to family history research?

What's so exciting about it? Well, back in September of '05 I expressed my hope that APIs would be made available for the then emerging microfilm imaging and indexing effort of the Church, as well as the new Family Tree system. Fast forward to 2008. According to the FS DevCon website, the "FamilySearch Family Tree API has been released. Learn from the engineers and community developers that have created public libraries, tools, and products. Get the facts for the source on the soon-to-be released Record Search API." Here we are a few years later and it's all becoming a reality. Woohoo!

Back then "Web 2.0" was just emerging, and my head was ablaze with all the cool ways APIs, rich web interfaces, and collective intelligence could be used to further genealogical research. We've seen a lot during that time of the ways in which AJAXiness and collective intelligence / social networking (witness Geni, FamilyLink, Verwandt.de, WeRelate and others) can be used for this work. But I think we've only scratched the surface of what is possible. I think we're on the cusp of a veritable explosion of what will be possible with the APIs the church is making available for the massive amounts of data they have. To me, these APIs are the 3rd leg on the stool. With the APIs in place, and the data accessible via programmatic means we'll be able to move to a new level of possibilities.

While this feels like a culmination of sorts, it's really only the beginning. What amazing things will the next decade yield in this field? What amazing things will the rising generation be able to do with all this data easily available to them? One only has to look at the amazing variety and usefulness of the tools that have cropped up around the Amazon, Google, Yahoo, and other APIs to get a feel for what might be possible when clever and talented individuals with an itch to scratch are given the means to access data using their favorite language. I can't wait to see what happens when we can plug the FamilySearch data into the growing mashup ecosystem.

At $60 for the day, the conference is a real deal, and BYU provides some excellent facilities for these events. I hope to get involved with whoever is interested in working on some Perl code to interface with the new APIs. I'd love to see a one-day hackathon sometime with a group of Perl folks to hammer out WWW::FamilySearch for CPAN. Anybody interested?

Some other blog entries of interest about all this:
Pat Eyler: FamilySearch Conference Announced
Andy Lester: Genealogy, web services and Perl
Renee Zamora provides a press release about the conference

"I would enjoy sitting in a rocker ... listening to soft music and contemplating the things of the universe ... But such activity offers no challenge and makes no contribution."

There is so much more I could be doing. We'll miss him.