12 February 2011

RootsTech 2011 (watched online): My highlights

This post has been compiled long after the conference to highlight what I learned from RootsTech 2011. It will be more sparse than future years as I only viewed online content for the 2011 conference year. Unfortunately, the 2011 videos were removed from the video archive at RootsTech.org (presumably to save room and post the more recent year). Fortunately, some are still available through a page of the Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical & Historical Society of Virginia (MPAAGHS).

The 2011 conference was held February 10-12th, although I believe I did not watch any until March 4th. I wrote in my journal that day that I watched a couple sessions, but I gave no comments. I did comment briefly in a couple blog posts that year. I was busy with many other genealogy and family things, though I distinctly remember being impressed. After 2011, I committed to attend in person.

Talk highlights
FamilySearch image viewer
Recently I spoke to Brian Pugh for more details on the HTML viewer he mentioned in his speech at RootsTech 2011. Going to any historic document you will see the document within what we call a viewer. There have been some good blog discussions lately about ways this viewer could be updated in the near future. Brian was able to tell me how to access the HTML version of the viewer. Simply remove "/show" from the URL in your browser's address bar and hit enter to load the image in the HTML viewer.

While functionality differences are not earth shattering in scope, it is fun to know there are 2 versions of the viewer online right now.
From my post, "FamilySearch Family Tree: Sneaking up on us?"

Interview highlights
11 Aug 2011 - Genealogy Gems Podcast YouTube Channel: Interviews with Genealogy Experts
There are several interviews available on this channel from RootsTech 2011 and a few from other conferences within the past few years. While each interview is "expert," the most memorable interview for me this week was "Family History and Mobile Strategies with Ty Hatch." This month I've been spending a lot of time exploring the new BillionGraves mobile app. This app uses crowd-sourcing to photograph and transcribe graves. A unique feature is the automatic geo-tagging. The BillionGraves apps were released in May and June this year. This interview with Ty Hatch, from 3 months earlier, discusses the genealogy mobile market and the need to use mobile technology such as geo-tagging.
From my post, "Highlights - August 2011"




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