What happened to Kinfolio?

This post will summarize some history of FamilySearch Photos, and how it compares to the Kinfolio beta. Another post will show how you can be part of FamilySearch Photos today in the much more inclusive current beta.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that the current version of FamilySearch Photos (as of this post) is still a beta, and may have glitches or a lack of user interface. FamilySearch never said FamilySearch Photos is replacing the early FamilySearch Kinfolio beta, but uploading photos was one of the key features tested in the Kinfolio beta.

UPDATE: Kinfolio might have more to do with the "something in the works to allow users to share information to work together on living genealogies" that Ron Tanner is said to have mentioned. See "Family Tree Futures" a recent post by Ancestry Insider (30 January 2013).

Plan
FamilySearch employees have publicly mentioned plans to add an image upload feature at least as early as April 2011, when Tim Cross mentioned this at a Riverton FamilySearch Library Saturday seminar.

Early private beta "Kinfolio" is mentioned by bloggers and Deseret News
Bloggers started talking about a project known as FamilySearch Kinfolio as early as February 2012. My second blog post about Kinfolio provides the links to these blogs.

Kinfolio on the FamilySearch Labs website
In April 2012, I became aware of the program one day when I clicked on the Labs.FamilySearch.org site to see if anything was new. I wrote this first post then:

Kinfolio | A Mysterious FamilySearch Project

Speculation about the future

During my internship at FamilySearch I heard something about the program again. This peaked my interest, so I wrote a second blog post (referenced earlier). When I wrote the post I was careful to leave out anything that I could not already find online and in other blogs (workplace privacy you know). I took it offline temporarily due to those privacy concerns, but information about the beta is publicly available.

Differences between Kinfolio and FamilySearch Photos

If you read my 2nd Kinfolio post now, and use FamilySearch Photos you will notice a striking difference. In my opinion, FamilySearch Photos is a logical stepping stone towards a more integrated user experience that may yet involve more features of Kinfolio.

First, they use very basic (non-creative) naming--like FamilySearch Wiki, FamilySearch Indexing, FamilySearch Historical Records etc). Kinfolio was catchy and creative, but not typical naming practice. FamilySearch Photos is exactly the name I would have expected to be integrated initially.

Second, they are generally focused more tightly on specific technology for specific outcomes. Kinfolio tried to use Facebook and a Facebook app to encourage photo sharing. It also used a book-like family tree layout for sharing information about living relatives. These were additional sharing features that needed a lot of refinement, while simply sharing photos to the FamilySearch Family Tree would easily take priority in the organizational prioritizing of user requested features. 

This does not guarantee that FamilySearch is scraping plans for more integrated sharing, but I suggest you don't hold your breath for a Facebook app. FamilySearch tries to stick to things that will be stable for many years as they are a large non-profit with a focused mission. 

Perhaps less ambitious, but much more practical and reliable, FamilySearch Photos is now available to just about anyone who... read my new post to find out how to start.

Kinfolio also featured the ability to record and share audio histories/interviews. The interface and social media emphasis may be developed further, and I for one hope it is. At least we have photos for now.

Kinfolio | A Beginner Experience in Alpha (pre-Beta)

 Disclaimer: This post contains my speculation and/or opinion. The rest of what I am sharing is project content available to the public at labs.familysearch.org, or accessible by Googling Kinfolio FamilySearch. 

 FamilySearch is always working hard to improve the user experience. Many FamilySearch users are familiar with new.familysearch.org, FamilySearch Alpha, the Family Tree (beta), and other such projects; although, few have heard of Kinfolio.

Here is a current (2 May 2012) screenshot from labs.FamilySearch.org/Fresh:

Read my earlier post: Kinfolio | A Mysterious FamilySearch Project
There have been several blog posts or tweets about this service starting in February:
History in the Making on ThisMike.com - 24 Feb 2012
Sarah Howard on AnnieValentine.com - 25 Feb 2012
New and upcoming around the Bloggernacle on Deseret News - 28 Feb 2012
Helping to Make History on Mormon Mommy Blogs - 1 Mar 2012

Kinfolio.com, Family History Through Story Telling on JosephScott.org - 9 Mar 2012

Tweet by Michelle Barber - 1 Apr 2012

UPDATE:
Since my post there have been a few more:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 29 April to 4 May 2012 on Genea-Musings - 6 May 2012 (thanks for the mention Randy)

Poindexter at FamilySearch on Family History with the LineageKeeper - 7 May 2012
FamilySearch Poindexter on Genealogy's Star - 7 May 2012
More on Poindexter on Genealogy's Star - 7 May 2012 (thanks for the mention James)

All about user experience
The idea behind Kinfolio is to focus completely on user experience. Your family tree on FamilySearch will be shown in a non-traditional fashion with an emphasis on photographs and stories. You will be able to view your family tree like a book, turning from one page to the next with the click of your mouse. While the FamilySearch Family Tree experience is user friendly, the current experience does very little to bring your family to life. That would improve with the planned feature to upload photographs to your FamilySearch Family Tree. The average user will admit that the experience is far from perfect, or as an early mock-up stated: "Genealogy or family history are admittedly a bit difficult to jump into. We're working to change that."

Share with your friends and family
The Kinfolio experience will be marketed (Kinfolio is free of course) to new users through social media avenues, especially Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest (as shown in the screenshot). You will be able to share content from your Kinfolio (online family book) to your followers on any of those social media platforms, and then those followers will be able to click through to your content. This will likely result in bringing many thousands of new users into the genealogy and/or FamilySearch Family Tree realm. This is good for both seasoned genealogists who want to communicate with all their less seasoned relatives as well as beginners who simply wish genealogy was a little more fun.

How does it compare?
The data used in Kinfolio will most likely (eventually) be drawn from and sync with the Family Tree data contributed by FamilySearch users. I wonder if this will become the primary sharing platform for interested individuals of all experience levels. Sometimes I have tried sharing my Ancestry.com Member Trees with relatives and they are discouraged by an ad asking them to sign up for Ancestry.com which they know as a paid subscription site. Sharing through a site that everyone knows is free will help, I think. I wonder if Kinfolio will morph into a combination of a Family Tree and a MyCanvas like experience. I think it would be fun to be able to order a printable professional level book based on your online Kinfolio book. There are a lot of things about Kinfolio that are only speculation and I would not expect it to be public for another year at minimum.

Here is a teaser for the Kinfolio experience:

Kinfolio | A Mysterious FamilySearch Project

There has been a strange and mysteriously delightful beta coming to light at labs.FamilySearch.org late last month. I have no idea what will become of it, or if it will ever see the light of day--although it does look promising.

The website gives the following detail:

Archive Photos

Kinfolio℠ makes it easy to finally dig out those old shoe boxes and start to preserve.
Save those awkward family moments, Ansel.

​Simply Easy​, Totally FREE!

Genealogy or family history are admittedly a bit difficult to jump into. We're working to change that. Sign up to receive news, updates, and launch details.

I signed up so maybe I will be one of the first to see what this does. You can sign up too.

FamilySearch Labs

For some time I have had a link to FamilySearch Labs Blog listed on the side of my blog as one of my other favorite genealogy blogs.

I have not made an effort to duplicate all the announcements from these other good blogs and I recommend you subscribe to them. I was surprised when recently I was informed of a new service in beta by FamilySearch that was not detailed on their Labs Blog. Generally, all of their beta or pilot projects are discussed there. Goes to show they just keep on going even if we do not get the news updates. It is comforting to know that such an influential genealogy organization is moving forward with so many projects.

The project I speak of is Community Trees. Check it out: http://histfam.familysearch.org/

I can't wait until all of their tools are brought together into their home page:
http://familyseach.org

UPDATE: The FamilySearch Labs Blog stopped being updated on 14 Apr 2010, but the projects discussed on the FamilySearch.org Labs site continue to show FamilySearch's efforts to improve user experience.
"tools are brought together" on FamilySearch.org in January 2011. See my blog post about it.