DearREADERS and webinar participants,
Here are some important links I'll be using during the
"Setting Up a Webinar" DearMYRTLE's Workshop Webinar tonight. As usual, we will begin the
"pre-webinar warm up" 15 minutes prior to the official recording the webinar.
Late registrants can sign up by going to: | https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/535092497 Attendance is limited to the first 100 computers that log in when the webinar begins at 9pm Eastern US, 8pm Central.
We'll use the example of setting up a webinar using the "GoToWebinar" service provided by Citrix, a fee-based service located at http://www.gotowebinar.com/ . The service supports Windows and Mac platforms.
501C Non-Profit Organizations will benefit from registering for GoToWebinar at a substantial discount. Today the TechSoup.org website is down for scheduled maintenance.
http://www.geneawebinars.com/ is the central place for genealogists to find info about online genealogy seminars (webinars). This site includes blog postings announcing upcoming events, a Google calendar, listing of webinar hosts and virtual presenters. Virtually all known genealogy webinar "givers" have been invited to belong to this organization. When your group is ready, please send Ol' Myrt your Gmail address, so you can have administrative rights to the calendar and author rights to the blog. I recommend setting up a special "webinars" gmail account for your society, so that you'll be able to pass on the access to future webinar coordinators fairly easily.
This is the link to the webinar survey form: http://blog.geneawebinars.com/2011/05/survey-your-feedback-on-webinars-needed.html
FOR FURTHER READING
From GoToWebinar User Help
Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
NOTE from DearMYRTLE: The following was received from our friends at the Board for Certification of Genealogists. Please address all inquiries tooffice@bcgcertification.org.
The Board for Certification of Genealogists is pleased to announce that one of its key publications, The BCG Application Guide, is now available as a free download from BCG’s website.
The Application Guide, in which the Board describes its requirements for certification, was previously available only in print form by purchase. The decision to provide it to all interested parties at no cost is a significant change in approach for the certifying body. It means individuals will more easily be able to answer questions they may have about the certification requirements and process. The change may especially benefit individuals as yet only casually interested in certification.
The 32-page Guide is also newly revised and replaces an edition published in 2007. It features a new “Getting Help” appendix that organizes in one place material previously scattered throughout the publication.
Changes in the 2011 edition include elimination of a five-year waiting period for board-certified associates who want to apply for the board’s lecturing credential. Certification in the Board’s research category—Certified Genealogist (CG)—remains a prerequisite for those who seek the teaching credential—Certified Genealogical Lecturer (CGL). However, associates may now apply for the second credential as soon as they like after they have earned the first. Other changes are primarily aimed at helping new and renewal applicants to choose stronger work samples.
The Board’s transition to the new Guide will be carried out with the usual consideration for preliminary applicants who may have already prepared materials using the old Guide. Individuals who have submitted preliminary applications may continue to use the 2007 version of the Guide. New preliminary applicants and those who request extensions will be required to use the 2011 edition.
The Guide can found on the Submission Requirements page of the BCG website at http://bcgcertification.org/certification/requirements.html
BCG is an independent credentialing body; its name is registered with the USPTO. Founded in 1964, the board’s mission is to foster public confidence in genealogy by promoting an attainable, uniform standard of competence and ethics among genealogical practitioners, and by publicly recognizing persons who meet that standard. For more information visit http://www.bcgcertification.org/ .
Is your society considering webinars as an alternative education platform?
Join DearMYRTLE as she walks through the process of setting up a live webinar using the GoToWebinar.com service. Also included is information about adding events to the GeneaWebinars.com Calendar, and making a post at the GeneaWebinars blog.
Particular attention will be given to creating a welcome page with a custom logo, recording the webinar, handling questions during the presentation, using the poll option, answering questions after the webinar, and publishing the webinar in archive format at Lulu.com.
Title: DearMYRTLE’s "Giving a Webinar" Workshop Webinar©
Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Time: 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM EDT 9:00 PM Eastern (U.S.) 8:00 PM Central 7:00 PM Mountain 6:00 PM Pacific
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
Register now: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/535092497
Seating is limited to the first 100 computer connections than click to join the webinar.
DearREADERS, For over a year, the programmers at Ancestry.com have worked on the newly released "Web Search" involving members of the geneablogging community such as Ol' Myrt here in the "thinking" process. Entries in an Ancestry.com "hit list" for your progenitor may include items on other websites that may mention your ancestor. You'll have to go to that other website to obtain all related information. Please also note: - Each web entry on the hit list is clearly labeled with the prefix Web:
- Each web entry on the hit list has an "external link" icon, as shown above.
- When clicking to view the Web Search information, researchers are faced with a page that explains the item to be visited is on another website.
Some geneabloggers are concerned, yet Ol' Myrt feels Ancestry.com has this Web Search 99% right. (Yes, Ancestry Insider, there are always problems with citations, aren't there?) Ancestry explains: "We follow web standards for restricting crawling (robots.txt files). If a website has a robots.txt file that prohibits crawling the genealogical records, we don’t search those records. If records from your website are included, but you would like them removed, simply send your request to websearch@ancestry.com or call our member services team at 1-800-262-3787."
The genealogy community has become more internet savvy, and is accustomed to Google searches since Ancestry.com's publication of the very different (100% scraping!) Internet Biographical Collection that went down in flames several years ago.
Here's an opening screen shot I took this morning of an Ancestry.com Web Search page.
LEGEND:
From this screen shot above:
Note the use of the prefix "Web:" (circled twice) clearly indicating this is not Ancestry's content.
A = Reference to the location of the data, including clickable URL for the non-Ancestry.com site.
B = Explanation of Web Search, including a clickable link to more information including answers to such questions as: - Do I need to register or pay in order to access Web Records?
- Which records are included in Web Search?
- What if you wish your website to be included (or excluded) from Ancestry.com's Web Search.
C = This icon clearly tells the story that the content is external to the Ancestry.com web site.
When I searched for the marriage of Mr. Smith Brown and Lorene Wilson circa 1925, I received this detail:
LEGEND for the screen shot above: 1 and 3 = While it is possible to save the "record" to my tree or shoe box, any responsible researcher prefers to get to the "source" of the information, and not take the deriviative information summarized in this page.
2, 5 and 6 = This is clearly labeled as being "not from Ancestry" and that a new page will open.
The following is a screen shot of the notice "You are about to view a Web Record" page, again stating that this record is not from Ancestry.
Once on the Marion County, Indiana website, I typed in the name of S Wilson and found the following marriage entry, listing the reference to new information, not found on the Ancestry.com website: Reference Book 126, page 72. With this book and page number, I can obtain the marriage record from the Marion County Circuit Court clerk. (Responsible genealogists don't rely on indexed entries, but strive for the first, original publication of info on events in an ancestor's life.)
Would I have found this entry without Ancestry.com Web Search? Probably. But I'd have to know the marriage took place in Marion County, Indiana, AND I'd have to figure out where to find this index on the web. Both components of that equation often elude researchers.
Does Ancestry.com's Web Search simplify things for researchers? Most definitely.
Ancestry Insider says "I think web page owners will be more amenable to Web Search than to the Internet Biographical Collection. And I think Ancestry.com haters and conspiralists will like it in their own way; it gives them more fodder."
Say what you will, conspiralists -- I think the new Ancestry Web Search is helping researchers by pointing to possibly relevant ancestral hits throughout the internet, and clearly providing links to that information. It is important to me that the bulk of the info to be obtained remains on that other website. Wisely, Ancestry.com is keeping access to Web Search free.
THANKS, Ancestry.com for making internet genealogy research easier for this dedicated family historian.
Happy family tree climbing! Myrt :) DearMYRTLE, Your friend in genealogy.
DearREADERS and LISTENERS, TONIGHT's the night! Ol' Myrt will be sitting in for our friend Thomas MacEntee. He has asked me to host the 17th episode of the GeneaBloggers Radio.
Friday, May 20, 2011
10pm-12:00am Eastern US
9-11pm Central US
8-10pm Mountain US
7-9pm Pacific US
3am London UK (sorry Audrey!)
12pm Saturday Sydney AUS
Here's the link to the show, so you can listen. (If you log in you can chat!)
For instructions on using Skype or the chat room, click here.
OUR THEME? Embracing Technology – Where To Turn Next? Guests
Tami GlatzTami Glatz is a lecturer, author and researcher, specializing in the use of computers and the internet for genealogical research, following industry-accepted standards and principles. She is the president of the Second Life chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists, which meets in the virtual world Second Life. Tami is the creator of the Relatively Curious Internet Genealogy Toolbar, a free downloadable toolbar with hundreds of great genealogy websites http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com. Links
Bruce BuzbeeBruce Buzbee is the founder and president of RootsMagic, Inc., and the author of RootsMagic genealogy software. For over 20 years Bruce has been writing genealogy software, having originally written the popular Family Origins program. Bruce has taught thousands of users the ins and outs of RootsMagic, from the basics for beginners to advanced topics for the genealogy professional. Bruce currently serves on the board of directors for the Federation of Genealogical Societies and is a member of the FGS Technology Initiatives Committee.
Earl Mott Earl Mott graduated from Brigham Young University in 1974 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He became involved in computer systems long before the personal computer burst on to the scene. He has worked with computer systems for such companies as John Deere, Haworth, Black & Decker and i2 Technologies. In 2005 he returned to BYU and received a Master of Business Administration degree. Earl founded Real-Time Collaboration / SharingTime in 2010 so that he could apply his long experience in computer systems to the problems faced by genealogists. In February of 2011 Real-Time Collaboration / SharingTime combined with Ohana Software to marry desktop technologies with web technologies. Together these two companies have even better tools to try and solve the issues facing the genealogy world. Links Noah Tutak Noah Tutak, CEO of Geni, joined Geni as a user on launch day in January, 2007 and joined the Geni team shortly thereafter. Through Geni he has discovered and met a number of new cousins from all over the world, including members of the Geni community and other Geni employees. Noah was born in Los Angeles and has a degree in Math and Computer Science from Cal State University, Northridge. Links
Genealogy News So join Ol' Myrt tonight as we have a full two hours of time to discuss how 21st century genealogists can embrace technology. (I kinda live in the 1820s, but with indoor plumbing!)
Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
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