Alan E. Mann, AG
alan.familyhistory@gmail.com
Accredited
Genealogist
New and Emerging Technologies
Which May
Impact Family History
The future
The world is changing. A popular think piece video which presents some interesting facts about education in the 21st century is called Did You Know? See the video at http://youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U. It is done to make people think about educating our children, but the facts and predictions given apply to more than education. Thinking about how these things affect family history and what we should be doing to be prepared for the future can help us gather, preserve, and share our family history more effectively in the coming times.
We can also participate in digitization through
FamilySearch
FamilySearch has been working on something new for several years. You can learn more about it at the BYU Computerized Genealogy conference next weekend. Here’s a few links we’ll look at this session.
Family Tree - http://labs.familysearch.org/familytree/Main.html#
Record Search - http://search.labs.familysearch.org/
FamilySearch Wiki - http://familysearchwiki.org/
http://labs.familysearch.org/blog/ - announcements about new features, record search, etc.
Publishing
is also changing dramatically. Children born in the 21st century will probably consider reading and getting information through their computer as normal and will struggle to see the point of reading paper publications. In many ways, digital distribution is cheaper, faster, and easier to absorb. Most of us who grew up in a paper age still want our news, reference, and reading in paper. I suggest that our lifelong use of paper is actually holding us back.
For the future of publishing, you should be familiar with www.Lulu.com (publish and get royalties without publication investment), www.Issuu.com (magazine publishing on the cheap, but professional), and www.scribd.com, which offers free unlimited online document storage. Scribd uses iPaper server to display documents of most proprietary types, including PDF, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, without the user needing any software to view. People can make the files they upload public or private or invite specific others to view.
Publishing by remixing – see convergence, below.
Convergence
There is more than one sense—convergence of devices, convergence of services, convergence of location & access(ibility), etc. For example, read this blog posting:
My son sits in
his bedroom with a TV, VCR, DVD player, video game systems, a small video
camera, a digital camera, a computer, and a Video iPod. Each product was initially
designed to perform a specific task, allowing us to be entertained or to record
images and sound. My son, however, spends his time mixing them together,
drawing audio and video from his video games and from movies, and mixing them
together with video and still images that he makes of himself and his friends
to produce a different and entertaining new information product. Information,
to him, is never finished. It’s just a raw material with which he can make
something new. (David Warlick, http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/archives/326)
Information is not a finished product, it is raw material. If our children can “remix” videos, audio, and images from a variety of sources and a variety of devices, perhaps a similar concept can apply to all data, which is, after all, information. An interesting tool which attempts to apply this concept is Orchest8’s AlchemyPoint (www.orchestr8.com). According to their site, you can automatically decode structured data residing within web pages and uses this information to expose a whole world of related content. Their website describes it “Our system provides advanced content manipulation and mashup capabilities that enable web sites to be manipulated as easily as children's clay. Pages can be visually remixed, content reformatted, and so on. AlchemyPoint then enables you to easily share this Internet content and web manipulations with friends, coworkers, or the entire world. Information can be emailed, sent via instant messenger, etc. Web manipulations can be easily shared, published to AlchemyGrid, and reused.”
e-Readers - Readius from Polymer Vision (a spinoff from Phillips) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_m36Gr4jzM&feature=related. Scrollable and/or foldable. Mobile phone. Store things from your computer (no browser yet) or retrieve automatically (RSS, email, etc.). Set up what content to be delivered from a computer, then content is "pushed" to it. 8 gb storage, 30 hours battery life (lithium-ion, rechargeable). Has audio capability (audio books, podcasts, mobile phone). Can synch with a computer or other device (USB/Bluetooth). 5" screen. Working on 8" full color screen. size of a mobile phone, weighs 4 oz. See www.polymervision.com/. Hits open market this summer, price not yet announced. Connectivity details not yet announced.
Amazon Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/mQOQX2V7KT9ZY:m4H02MFJUILVP. $399. It measures 7.5″ × 5.3″ × 0.7″ and weighs 10.3 oz. Reads AZW proprietary format, but offers free email based conversion from DOC, BMP, JPG, etc. (but not PDF). It handles audio (mp3 or audiobook), has an earplug. Connects to Wikipedia freely, has built in dictionary. Must transfer non-Amazon content from a PC via USB. It is not a cell-phone. Subscription to blogs is available, but for a fee of 99¢ per blog. Updates through Whispernet, built on Sprint EVDO. This means you aren't dependant on an Internet connection (except Sprint's cell phone connection). For complete info, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle.
Sony Reader - supports PDF, JPG, RTF, TXT has built-in software to convert Word. Plays mp3 and AAC podcasts. Memory only 64/192 mb, but expandable to 2gb SD or 4 gb Sony memory (claims to support 8gb not correct). It measures 6.9" x 4.8" x 0.3" and weighs 9 oz. For more complete info, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Reader. You need to supply your own Internet connectivity to get content.
Note, there are others. The iRex iLiad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILiad) at $699, the Jinke Hanlin eReader (www.jinke.com.cn/compagesql/English/embedpro/prodetail.asp?id=20) at $349, and the Bookeen Cybook Gen3 (www.bookeen.com/ebook/ebook-reading-device.aspx)at $350.
Other examples of convergence include:
- www.spinbox.com - --speak your notes, then emailed to you
- www.phonecasting.com – give a podcast a phone number, dial that number and get the podcast over the phone.
- www.callwave.com – voice mail to fax
- www.privatephone.com – get a voicemail box in any area code for free, then listen via phone or have emailed to you or texted to your phone.
- www.utterz.com – phone in your blog posting.
- www.SimulScribe.com utilizes cutting edge voice recognition technology to convert your voicemail messages into text. We deliver your transcribed voicemail, along with the original audio, to your mobile phone, PDA, and/or email account. This process streamlines your communication flow, saving you both time and money.
- www.evoca.com – podcast from telephone including conference call (Podscope then makes it all full word searchable immediately at evoca)
- www.tellme.com – interact with the Internet via voice (any phone or microphone-equipped PC) – get sports, directions, shopping, news, or whatever…
- www.twine.com - finally, you can search and browse everything and everyone you know, about anything, in one convenient place
Web-based computing
is where programs are on the Internet rather than on the individual user’s computer. It is also called cloud computing because the software resides in the clouds of the Internet. It offers the advantage of always being up to date, instantly available, and operating system independent (it runs on MAC or PC, Windows or Linux or whatever). These applications usually save data on the Internet rather than on the users local hard drive, but that’s a problem which has easy solutions. Examples of web-based applications include Google Docs and Spreadsheets, SlideRoll, JumpCut, SnipShot, AjaxPresents, and dozens of others.
Several companies are seeking to take web-based computing in another direction—software developed which can run either on the web or on your computer, but which run on any computer or operating system. The leader in this effort is Adobe, which uses the appropriate acronym of AIR, which stands for Adobe Integrated Runtime, which is an html- & flash-based runtime environment. eBay and AOL are early adopters of AIR. Read more about AIR at www.adobe.com/products/air/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Integrated_Runtime. Note: Google’s similar effort is called GEARS, which is still browser-based, but allows local computer access when online and internet application access when offline. Learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Gears.
An older example of web-based computing is automated backups.
I’ve often mentioned automatic backup services, and I’ve tried to use several. One of my long time favorites, Mozy, has introduced unlimited size backup service for a fee of only $4.95/mo. Alternatively, you get a free 2 gb (and I get an extra 256 mb if you use this link - https://mozy.com/?ref=6H24GG).
Social
Originally, the web gave people democratized access to
information. This concept is now being called web 1.0. New ideas,
services, and applications are being referred to as web 2.0. What is web
2.0? One way to express it is democratized
participation in information. The difference is significant in
understanding the social nature of the future of the Internet. Central to this
difference is the concept of user-generated information.
www.twine.com - You are like a snowflake – you are totally one-of-a-kind. Twine recognizes what makes you special: your unique interests, personality, knowledge and relationships, to help you find and discover things, and be found by others, more relevantly. Twine provides one place to tie everything together: emails, bookmarks, documents, contacts, photos, videos, product info, data records, and more. And, because Twine actually understands the meaning of any information you add in, it helps you organize all your stuff automatically. Finally, you can search and browse everything and everyone you know, about anything, in one convenient place. Find and be found.
New Technology or Concepts
Another technology which is having impact on family history is podcasting. A podcast is a digital audio file distributed over the Internet. In essence, it can be a radio show on the web which you listen to on your computer. With the free iTunes program, you can subscribe to dozens of weekly genealogy podcasts, including the Family Roots Radio Show (www.familyrootsradio.com), Eastmans Genealogy Newsletter Show (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/podcasts/index.html), Genealogy Guys (www.genealogyguys.com), and DOZENS more!
Wireless
Power
There are three basic technologies for wireless charging: radio, resonance and induction. The first to market uses radio technology. Replace four AA batteries with a radio frequency receiver and two AA rechargeable batteries, and you have wireless power. Powercast (www.powercastco.com) is now working with consumer product makers to offer wireless power for computer peripherals, flashlights, lighting, toys, MP3 players, phones, PDAs, remote controls, watches, and wireless headsets. See a video featuring current products at www.powercastco.com/index.php?page=cesMovie. An MIT researcher is working on a higher capacity wireless charger which uses resonance (see www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=20248&ch=specialsections&sc=emerging08&pg=1).
How to Find More on Your Own
There are thousands more such sites on the internet. It would be impossible to list them all here. Even if I could list them all, there would be more that weren’t listed by tomorrow! So how can you find more? There’s a lot you can do to be aware of developing technology. I would suggest:
- Read online newsletters, chiefly Dick Eastman’s newsletter (www.eogen.com). See www.cyndislist.com/magazine.htm#E-zines for a list of many others.
- See http://tech.lds.org/ (note forums link near top, list of blogs under community)See www.webware.com/8300-1_109-2-0.html for cool web sites & services
- Participate in or read technology Blogs (www.mashables.com, www.ldscio.org, www.netvibes.com/techcrunch, http://eatslikeahuman.blogspot.com, http://labs.familysearch.org, or others).
- Subscribe to blogs, podcasts, and searches via RSS (see www.rssgenealogy.com, or The Bluster about Blogging ).
- Review Wikis (www.eogen.com) and similar items.
- Attend conferences & institutes like this one. Check both speakers and vendors.
- Participate in societies with technology topics or publications (such as Blue Chips, www.ucs.org/index.php and Utah Valley PAF, www.uvpafug.org).
- Read industry publications such as Genealogical Computing, PAFology (www.uvpafug.org), and Internet Genealogy (www.internet-genealogy.com) , and society publications--most include technology articles in current issues.
- Use search tools and directories, such as
- Linkpendium (www.linkpendium.com)
- Search Systems (www.searchsystems.net)
- Genealogy Sleuth (www.progenealogists.com/genealogysleuthb.htm)
- State Archive site list (www.sos.state.ga.us/archives/what_do_we_have/other _state_archives/default.htm).
- Cyndi’s List (www.cyndislist.com/primary.htm#Online)
- Genealogy Links (www.genealogylinks.net)
