If you attended the route, Tech 2015 had a large number of employees, passed the fancy casino, and moved to the fairground. You may have seen several vendors, including GenMarketplace, Ancestral Cloud, RootsBid, promote and demonstrate “Online Genealogical Marketplace.” Don’t worry about your pretty hair, it’s really just a really fancy term for a very simple idea. You need something. Someone else can bring you something. When you connect, and the price is set, money and goods change hands.
Simply imagine the resources you want as genealogically relevant records, and you can get ideas by putting a technical conference badge on both of the root people and arming each with your chosen Internet access device. Family researchers working for fellow family researchers. The genealogical community is already surprisingly cooperative, and this only adds some coin incentives.
I saw three ideas marketing at RootsTech 2015 was lucky enough to see each lightening discussion at a family history technical workshop in BYU prior to the conference. These lectures were briefly presented by developers themselves with the latest apps and software ideas, and your lectures were really attended and drooled. (Yes, the developers were mostly handsome young men, but alas, I now drool for good ideas, maybe, pink frost donuts.) Then, in the hallway, we baked them, demonstrating the apps of handsome young presenters. And even though the group leans to the family search app (who can blame them?) it was refreshing to talk to a lot of bright, passionate people. Among them, the centiment poker app was the most interesting.
Although each of the three has a unique focus, they work almost the same. When a user enters a post or action request, others search or search for that post or request to flag the post or action request to be performed. They wander around and work, and they are rewarded with the approval of the requester.
an ancestral cloud
Have you seen a booth with a “We Find the Dead” T-shirt and buttons? It’s them. Developer Wesley Eames wanted to talk about his site. I want you to get one of those buttons. Because they could just be collector’s stuff (more detail later).
Task: Users can request records, photos, translations, or research help and specify in advance how much they will pay for the task. The site uses its own currency, the “Ancestral Coin,” and whatever it is, it will cost real dollars. The performer will be paid for each completed task. They can then use the bank to pay their requests or cash them. In one of our numerous conversations, Wesley mentioned that they plan to work with a genealogical group to create an online store where ancestral coins can be used for books, T-shirts, etc. Both the website and the video claim that the service is free.
Nitty Gritty: Incomplete user interfaces at meeting time were friendly, modern and uncomplicated. Compliments for using colors! I’m disappointed that it’s not coded enough for an actual test drive. I stood undaunted and explained how I imagined it would work, and I was asked “Yes,” “Exactly,” “Uh-huh,” “Uh-huh,” and I nodded a lot until I said, “And I can get a notification of a new job posted to my location by email Stop. Then, “Oh, that’s a good idea. I’ll add it to my list.”
Gotchas: Now, remember what I said about buttons? I was going to use the site today, but LO! I saw the website that died. If you enter your email address when you log in, it’s no use thinking that you created an account in that booth. So I’m just in a hurry? I checked my notes, I couldn’t find a release date and it wasn’t mentioned on FB or Twitter. Then, the plot thickened! Found a genealogical star review of them in last year’s rootsTechnology where the product of the same name is not a bidding work site, but a cloud-based storage/sharing site for photos, documents, and records. WTF? I admire their agility and explain their weird names, but I’ll be releasing a market version soon, guys. Wouldn’t I feel silly otherwise? Also, I can’t talk about fine print because I don’t have access to their terms of use.
General Marketplace
Matthew Faulkner is the brain behind this case and he’s a really nice guy.