Genealogy WikiThe Family Pursuit genealogy wiki enables contibutors to track database changes made by others in the family tree and undo mistakes as new evidence is discovered.
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What is a Wiki?A Wiki enables multiple individuals to contribute information about specific subjects to one website. Each user is free to make changes to any of the information. As information is added and changed, each modification is tracked. If a user feels a change is incorrect, the information may easily be reverted back to its original state. If the change is in question, the two users may discuss the change and the sources used to support the information before changing it back. The most well know Wiki website is the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.org. Entirely contributed by the community, Wikipedia has shown that individuals can work together to define topics and resolve conflicts about information. Before creating a genealogy Wiki, we decided to test Wikipedia. The results of our test were outstanding. A member our team modified an article on Wikipedia by simply misspelling a name. Within minutes of making the change, the spelling was corrected and an email was sent to our team member reciting the sources that supported the original spelling. The Family Pursuit Genealogy WikiCreating a genealogy Wiki has the same advantages of an encyclopedia Wiki. Genealogists can come together to contribute and share dates, facts, and sources about their ancestors. As they share this information, incorrect data can be disputed and disproved by the community by evaluating sources. When incorrect information is entered and proven wrong, any user can easily undo those changes. Family Pursuit has implemented a special genealogy Wiki design into our Community Tree and Private Family Tree products. In Family Pursuit, every date, relationship, source, fact, etc. carries its own unique change log. This means, undoing a change will only affect a specific piece of information. We have also added the ability to merge and un-merge. It is a common occurrence for incorrect genealogical information to be perpetuated throughout most family tree websites. Utilizing our Wiki technology our Community and Private Trees can prevent this from occurring. Because each change is tracked, Family Pursuit can identify when a user is attempting to reenter a disproven fact. As a result, we have created restrictions to prevent disproven facts from being reentered. As new information is entered, and changes are made to our genealogy Wiki, our users receive notification of these changes. We have developed a Watch List system that works hand in hand with our genealogy Wiki change log. Users may select the individuals they would like to keep track of. When changes are made, an email is sent and the user may log into Family Pursuit to view each new change. To accommodate the need to discuss ancestor details, we have also added genealogy message boards to each individual. Users can freely discuss facts, ask questions, and propose theories with the genealogy community. These tools and others allow users to network with other genealogists and easily collaborate. |
