Wow, this is the first I've heard about the new record manager. This is good. :) (It's unfortunate that they're probably going to do it in Java -- they do almost everything in Java, it seems -- but maybe time will sway them away from it.) Thanks for the heads up!

I missed all the perl lightning talks at OSCON this year :( And now I'm hearing the siren song of ruby, so perl may not get much of my attention this year (would be more exciting if something would happen with Perl6...) What's the appeal of C++/C#/Java? All the dynamic languages just aren't hard enough? (I prefer 'dynamic' language to 'scripting' language). My guess it has more to do with what's taught in universities (Java & MS platform) than anything else. I definitely agree about API's and open services -- where it's been applied, it has really changed the game. I expect to see the same thing happen in the family history realm.

Daniel, does, "open-source personal record manager", mean on a windows OS? Dave

Hi Dave. As I understand it, this record manager will be cross-platform, able to run on Windows, Mac OS, or Linux.

You mentioned "tech talks" where can one find out about them? I am wondering if I can give some input to either of those fellows you mentioned - Clarke & Ward? I also like your idea about API's... just wish I knew more programming...

Found it... http://www.lds.org/techtalks http://www.ldscio.org/ http://beta.tech.lds.org/ too bad I missed that techtalk...maybe they will have some more...