Will genealogy move towards Wikipedia-like openness?
June 20, 2014 3:25 PM Subscribe
Is it likely that a single open, freely editable genealogical database might one day become as authoritative and widely-cited as Wikipedia, surpassing closed, commercial competitors?
Why is researching genealogies such a private affair? Why aren't more people contributing to open Wikipedia-style databases, such as Werelate or Wikitree? Most genealogical information is in the public record, after all.
I can think of many reasons why some people want this data to remain private (especially for living persons), and it's easy to see why commercial databases want it so. But surely large numbers of people would be happy to put their family trees into a free, open database if it provided the same features as commercial software, benefiting from the network effects of data contributed by others. Not to mention the value to society of such an open database.
Why is researching genealogies such a private affair? Why aren't more people contributing to open Wikipedia-style databases, such as Werelate or Wikitree? Most genealogical information is in the public record, after all.
I can think of many reasons why some people want this data to remain private (especially for living persons), and it's easy to see why commercial databases want it so. But surely large numbers of people would be happy to put their family trees into a free, open database if it provided the same features as commercial software, benefiting from the network effects of data contributed by others. Not to mention the value to society of such an open database.
This post was deleted for the following reason: This needs to be a question, not an essay, sorry. -- restless_nomad
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