Catching up

brightsolid offices

I've had (an am still having) an unusual and pleasantly busy week, so I am a bit behind with my blog posts. However, having started the Olympic torch route series I am going to keep it up, although the illustrations might be a bit restricted for the next few days.

I'm in the USA at the moment, waiting for a plane to take me on the next stage of my travels - to Buffalo, since you ask. The first part of my week involved two interesting events in London; a conference, which they call an 'executive briefing' for some reason at CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, and the following day a reception at the smart new offices of brightsolid, a converted nonconformist chapel. So I was out way past my bedtime that night, which didn't leave much time for packing for this trip.

The 'executive briefing' was called 'The Social Media Revolution - how user-generated content is changing the way we work'. It was a very interesting day with good speakers, and if you are among the Twitterati you can find some comments on the day using the hashtag #socialmediaeb. We still had handouts in the form of printed PowerPoint slides, which seemed like an awful lot of dead tree for an event that was all about online media.

The brightsolid event was much more of a social event, and I was lucky enough to be shown round their lovely new offices, in a converted nonconformist church near Old Street. I met lots of nice people, some that I already knew and some that I had not previously met. It was a lovely evening. Someone had a lot of fun choosing the decor inside, all very tasteful in the various brightsolid brand colours.

Right now I'm in upstate NY, heading back to Boston tomorrow. I shall return.

Meanwhile, happy Jubilee weekend for anyone whois celebrating it

 

Rootstech Day Two - no let-up in the pace

Another early start, with the FamilySearch VIP breakfast at 7:30. It helps if you are not facing the screen, which has a rolling slideshow of photos and biogs of all the attendees; it's a little disconcerting to glance up from your scrambled egg to see your own mug shot beaming inanely at you. It was, as usual, a very informal occasion, but there is a seating plan and place cards. I found myself sitting between Mike Hall, deputy chief genealogical officer with FamilySearch, whom I know quite well,  and Joyce Homan of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, whom I had not met before, who proved to be good company too. I was pleased to finally meet fellow blogger Janet Hovorka The Chart Chick of Family Chart Masters; we already have many mutual friends and I loved her 'Quick Insider's Guide to Salt Lake City'. Later I was introduced to Dennis Brimhall, new CEO of FamilySearch, who told me he will be visiting The National Archives at Kew in the near future.

The highlight of the day was the keynote address 'Exabyte Social Clouds and Other Monstrosities by Josh Coates, founder of MOZY, and you really had to be there, or at least watch the live-streamed version to appreciate what an event this was. He was funny, profound, thought-provoking - and barefoot. I did see him wearing shoes later, though. If you haven't already, catch it on the Rootstech site, you won't regret it. There is a good summary of the main points by The Ancestry Insider who understands this stuff better than most of us, and who helpfully explains the zombie in-joke.

Today was a key day for me, the day of our joint presentation on social networking, my geni-mates being Geniaus Jill Ball and We Tree Amy Coffin. I've already mentioned that our Canadian friend, Lorine McGinnis Schulze was unable to attend, but Jill, the driving force behind the whole thing, had left a slide showing Lorine's Olive Tree Genealogy Blog in the PowerPoint presentation, and Lorine herself was following the proceedings from afar, writing blog posts and commenting on Twitter. We had some nice messages of support beforehand (by various social media, of course), and it seemed to go quite well; several people said they liked it, no-one said they hated it, the room was pretty full and most people stayed to the end. and we had fun too. I call that a result. I promised to put some links and details of the example I quoted on a new page on this blog, and I will, but not just yet - one more day of frantic to get through first.

A personal highlight of the day was meeting my friends Martyn Killion and Heather Garnsey, from the Society of Australian Genealogists. I hadn't seen them for over ten years, so it was great to see them again. I'm looking forward to a proper catch-up over coffee before they fly home.

The NGS lunch was next, with a terrific double act from Josh Taylor and Barbara Rennick, looking at some (not all that) old technology - remember typewriters and mimeographs, writing letters and making calls on corded phones attached to a wall socket? Josh doesn't.

I attended the afternoon presentation on Google searching, and learnt some useful tips, but I was flagging a bit by then and had lot the ability to make coherent notes, so I'll have to catch up on that one later myself. After the Expo Hall closed I met up with some friends for an early dinner and rounded the day off watching the first episode of the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? featuring Martin Sheen. It was a good 'un too, with some particularly good revelations about the Spanish side of his family. I was surprised to find that he doesn't speak Spanish, though, considering his real name is Ramon Estevez. We were a small group, but we were Facebooking and tweeting with other groups watching elsewhere. There goes that social networking thing again.

It was late night at the Family History Library, just like last year, but I gave it a miss because I was pretty tired and my hotel is a good cab ride away from the Library. I still have Monday and Tuesday to get more research done. I even missed the anniversary edition of Geneabloggers Radio but I will catch the podcast later. Meanwhile, tireless ace reporter Geniaus was on hand and she posted a link to some great photos.

 

Rootstech minus one - the calm before the storm

This is the last day before Rootstech, and I am not the only one trying to get some research done in the Family History Library before it all kicks off tomorrow, in my case starting with a breakfast meeting at 7:15 - if I tell myself it's really 2:15pm (GMT) it's not so bad. It will be good training for the 7:30 breakfast on Friday! I weakened this morning and had one of the hot cinnamon rolls in JB's, that I have managed to resist for the last week. Just in case there isn't enough fat and sugar in it for you, they serve it with a big ball of butter (no, I didn't, since you ask). I'll be out of temptation's way for the next few days as I'm moving hotels, to the Hampton, where they don't do don't serve them.

On Friday we (Jill Ball, Amy Coffin and me) present our panel discussion on Web 2.0 and social networking in genealogy. I have to report that it has already been very much in evidence these last few days, principally in facilitating genealogists' dinner arrangements. I had intended to have a quiet night in last night, planning today's research, when I saw on Facebook that there was a big table with some empty spaces at the Copper Canyon girl in the Radisson, anyone want to come over? I was there in 5 minutes. I had a very pleasant dinner with, among others, arch-Geneablogger Thomas McEntee who apparently has a hot-tub. The things you learn over dinner!

Seriously, sites like Twitter and Facebook are an ideal way for people to keep in touch and find each other when there are literally thousands of us spread between several hotels, the Family History Library, the Salt Palace Convention Center and (be honest) the Gateway shopping mall. Most of these places have free wi-fi. Phones are all very well, but trying to contact groups by text or voice messages would be much more time-consuming. And it's not ALL about dinner arrangements, there will be un-conferencing sessions again at Rootstech, and social media are ideal for spreading the word instantly when someone comes up with a really good idea.

With the fantastic speed of technological change in the last decade or two, it strikes me that genealogists are doing what they used to do, but the opposite way round. We used to go to meetings, in venues of lvarying quality, and then make contact by phone or letter with people at a distance who shared our interests. Then some adventurous societies took advantage of new technology to set up websites, newsgroups and the like. Now an online community of some kind is where many genealogists meet for the first time, making contact on the basis of shared interests rather than shared geography. But the virtual world on its own is not enough, and 'virtual' friends are eager to arrange 'tweet-ups' when they are all headed for a single location, be it Rootstech, WDYTYA Live or some other gathering. I have genuinely lost count of the number of people I already knew quite well online before I met them face to face. And I have some 'geni-mates' to coin Jill Ball's wonderful phrase, where I can't remember how we first met, online or in person. It's all getting to be quite seamless, and I think that's a good thing.