Rootstech 2012 is over! Did you get to go? We didn’t! I am told that there were over 4000 people in attendance – an increase from the 3000 last year. Would any of you who attended please share what you learned in the comments field.
Even those who didn’t attend were able to participate. There were an unprecendented 14 sesssions broadcast live. For many of the live sessions the handouts were available online.
If you missed the main events you can:
- Go to Rootstech.org. Individual videos are going to be added. There is already a link download of the entire syllabus (go to Downloads) which is 82 MB! Or you can select the syllabus for individual sessions.
- Go to Dick Eastman’s Online Newsletter. http://blog.eogn.com/ He had summaries of each day of Rootstech. By the way do you realize that Dick will be speaking at the joint AGS/AFHS Conference in Red Deer on April 13 and 14? (Go to http://rdgensoc.ab.ca/registration.html for more information)
- The Ancestry Insider also reported on Rootstech http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com/
There is another way to catch up on Rootstech! There is a free app for iphones/ipods/ipads and a version for Android devices! The app has a very original name – Rootstech. Although the app was designed to use during Rootstech it gives you more access to news, and summaries of the keynote addresses – I haven’t explored all the links yet!
Rootstech was used as the opportunity to release the beta version of an app to do indexing! This is available for both ipod/ipad/iphone (IOS) and Android mobile devices! It is a beta so I don’t know if I would rush out and share with everyone right now, but I was very impressed with the features and stability of the app.
Some of you might wonder just how good it is to do indexing on a mobile device. I installed it and tried it on my ipad. I was very impressed. After you sign in check the settings – just so you know what they are . . . All I got on the screen was the image of someone’s first name and last name. I typed this in and clicked submit. I missed seeing the name in context of the rest of the page and being able to see other words on the page to help with handwriting recognition. Then I looked at the top of the screen and saw 2 icons – one of which looked like a page. I clicked on it and got the whole page with the ease of zooming in and out any time I wanted to. Then I just toggled between name and seeing whole document. Maybe this was in the instructions? Maybe I am just a slow learner? i never did get to the end of a batch. The names kept coming and coming and coming. I had to stop so I could write this article so I just Signed out! When I felt guilty and signed back in the names just seemed to continue from where I left off. I have a lot more to learn about mobile indexing! The App has a lot more features than you first realize – and seemed excellent.
The following information on the app was provided in the app by FamilySearch:
“This mobile app is expected to complement the FamilySearch indexing program, which has been operating since 2006. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers from around the world have contributed their time to index genealogical records using the FamilySearch indexing desktop software. Today there are more than 2.5 billion freely searchable names in the familysearch.org database, thanks largely to their efforts. Your mobile contribution to this effort, however large or small, is greatly appreciated. To ensure quality and accuracy, the system compares your work with answers from other volunteers until a “consensus” is reached.
While you use the same account information as you would when using the desktop indexing program, it is not necessary to have the desktop program in order to use this app. This beta app is in its early stages of development and is not yet fully integrated into the indexing system. So, if you also index using standard FamilySearch indexing, your contributions and points from using this app will not be displayed in your history in the desktop program. We plan to include this integration in future versions.
In this version of the app, you may see image snippets from collections that have already been indexed or from new collections. Reusing previously indexed snippets will help us determine the quality of results from this app and make future improvements to the system.
If you have questions or suggestions, or if you experience problems with the app, please e-mail us at indexing@familysearch.org.”
Try it – share your experiences!
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Follow up to Rootstech 2012
Posted in Editorial comment, Family History General, Indexing, ipad/iphone/ipod touch apps, News, Technology and FH on February 5, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Rootstech 2012 is over! Did you get to go? We didn’t! I am told that there were over 4000 people in attendance – an increase from the 3000 last year. Would any of you who attended please share what you learned in the comments field.
Even those who didn’t attend were able to participate. There were an unprecendented 14 sesssions broadcast live. For many of the live sessions the handouts were available online.
If you missed the main events you can:
There is another way to catch up on Rootstech! There is a free app for iphones/ipods/ipads and a version for Android devices! The app has a very original name – Rootstech. Although the app was designed to use during Rootstech it gives you more access to news, and summaries of the keynote addresses – I haven’t explored all the links yet!
Rootstech was used as the opportunity to release the beta version of an app to do indexing! This is available for both ipod/ipad/iphone (IOS) and Android mobile devices! It is a beta so I don’t know if I would rush out and share with everyone right now, but I was very impressed with the features and stability of the app.
Some of you might wonder just how good it is to do indexing on a mobile device. I installed it and tried it on my ipad. I was very impressed. After you sign in check the settings – just so you know what they are . . . All I got on the screen was the image of someone’s first name and last name. I typed this in and clicked submit. I missed seeing the name in context of the rest of the page and being able to see other words on the page to help with handwriting recognition. Then I looked at the top of the screen and saw 2 icons – one of which looked like a page. I clicked on it and got the whole page with the ease of zooming in and out any time I wanted to. Then I just toggled between name and seeing whole document. Maybe this was in the instructions? Maybe I am just a slow learner? i never did get to the end of a batch. The names kept coming and coming and coming. I had to stop so I could write this article so I just Signed out! When I felt guilty and signed back in the names just seemed to continue from where I left off. I have a lot more to learn about mobile indexing! The App has a lot more features than you first realize – and seemed excellent.
The following information on the app was provided in the app by FamilySearch:
“This mobile app is expected to complement the FamilySearch indexing program, which has been operating since 2006. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers from around the world have contributed their time to index genealogical records using the FamilySearch indexing desktop software. Today there are more than 2.5 billion freely searchable names in the familysearch.org database, thanks largely to their efforts. Your mobile contribution to this effort, however large or small, is greatly appreciated. To ensure quality and accuracy, the system compares your work with answers from other volunteers until a “consensus” is reached.
While you use the same account information as you would when using the desktop indexing program, it is not necessary to have the desktop program in order to use this app. This beta app is in its early stages of development and is not yet fully integrated into the indexing system. So, if you also index using standard FamilySearch indexing, your contributions and points from using this app will not be displayed in your history in the desktop program. We plan to include this integration in future versions.
In this version of the app, you may see image snippets from collections that have already been indexed or from new collections. Reusing previously indexed snippets will help us determine the quality of results from this app and make future improvements to the system.
If you have questions or suggestions, or if you experience problems with the app, please e-mail us at indexing@familysearch.org.”
Try it – share your experiences!
Share this: Print article
Like this:
Read Full Post »