Dick Eastman Joins Familybuilder Advisory Board

At last! I can now talk and write about this. I am delighted to accept a position on the Advisory Board of Familybuilder™, a software company that builds genealogy and family-oriented applications for online social networks. The company’s flagship product, Family Tree, is the first genealogy application to be introduced on Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, and Hi5.

I suspect that most genealogists have not yet heard of Familybuilder. In fact, I had not heard of the company a few months ago. However, when I discovered this online service, I was impressed. I believe that social networking sites will be the "next big thing" in online genealogy. I am delighted to have a small role in guiding that growth.

Online social networks such as Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, and Hi5 are large groups of individuals that are tied together by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as blood relatives, business acquaintances, church members, social club members, individuals with common interests, similar employment, or any of hundreds of other factors. In short, social networks are groups of people who share an interest or a relationship.

However, humans never have one single interest or relationship. As complex humans, most of us have multiple interests and relationships. If you think of a single interest as an "island," we have tens of thousands of islands. However, every person who has an interest in two or more different islands forms a bridge between those islands. A person can navigate from one island to another by asking a friend to make an introduction.

In the world of genealogy, I might be interested in the EASTMAN family genealogy. If someone on the Eastman Genealogy "island" is also descended from the SIMMONS family, he or she may know someone in the SIMMONS family who is also interested in the TOLLER family. I, too, have a second interest in the TOLLER family, and I can use my friend researching SIMMONS (and EASTMAN) to introduce me to the person who is researching TOLLER. After a bit of discussion, I can find out what that third person knows about TOLLER, and I also offer whatever knowledge I have. Even better, perhaps he or she has still more acquaintances who can help even further. These people might be acquainted in person or only online.

It all sounds complicated when written out, but it is exactly the kind of thing that humans have been doing for thousands of years. We interact in social networks at church, in school, at the office, at the barbershop, and in the grocery store. We connect people together so much and so often that most of us don't consciously think about it. The new Internet-based social networks are simply extensions of age-old human interactions; only the online networks now allow us to reach people more quickly and easily than ever before.

Even better, the online social networks bridge geographic challenges in a blink of an eye. The individual genealogist in a small town in Iowa can quickly contact a friend in New York City who will then introduce him or her to another acquaintance in Brisbane, Australia, and so on.

Social networks work on the FOAF principle: Friend Of A Friend. Such networks have existed since the beginning of time. In recent months, this age-old human activity has moved onto the World Wide Web and has exploded in popularity. Thanks to Familybuilder and several of its competitors, genealogy interests have been added to the online social networking phenomenon. I believe these new online resources for family historians are going to mushroom.

When I first awoke to the possibilities of online social networks for genealogy purposes, I looked at what the various online services were offering family historians. Most of them offer great services, but I was particularly impressed with Familybuilder. In my opinion, they "do it right."

Apparently a lot of other people agree: as of April 1, 2008, over 10,000,000 family member profiles have been built with Familybuilder across these social networks. Think about that number for a second: ten million member profiles are already built with Familybuilder, a service that only launched ten months ago!

It appears to me that most of the people using FamilyBuilder are newcomers to researching their family trees although there must be a few exceptions. This is exactly the audience that genealogy societies, companies, and individuals have long dreamed about reaching: ten million newcomers. Those of us who write books, newsletters, and magazine articles, hold seminars and conferences, sell software or otherwise serve the genealogy marketplace have a great opportunity to reach a huge, new audience.

Individual genealogists have perhaps an even better opportunity: a chance to contact online distant relatives that otherwise would have never been identified.

Unlike most of its genealogy social networking competitors, Familybuilder is built on top of existing social network services. The company doesn't have to go out and recruit newcomers to social networks. Those customers are already online today and are presently using Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, and Hi5 for multiple services, whatever service interests each customer. Familybuilder offers one more service to an already existing audience. In short, that audience is already within reach.

Social networks operate on the "word of mouth" principle. Or, to use a phrase that I have used in this newsletter for more than ten years, "word of mouse." If you use social networks to expand your circle of contacts and each of your contacts does the same, and each of THOSE contacts does the same, and so on and so forth, the capabilities exist to introduce more people to a fascinating study of their own family histories. If we assume that those first contacts are your relatives, and each of them contacts one or more of THEIR relatives, and each of those people contacts one or more of THEIR relatives... well, you get the idea. We soon have a huge number of people interested in family history, each pooling his or her knowledge of their ancestry and extended family with an ever-expanding number of relatives. The knowledge of the group can soon expand far beyond what any one individual could have done on his or her own.

Now you see why I get enthused about the concept of using social networks for genealogy. Several such services exist, and I like them all. However, I am particularly impressed with Familybuilder, especially its huge number of personal profiles built in a short period of time with only word of mouse... uh, word of mouth publicity.

I am delighted to be on the Board of Advisors of Familybuilder.

By the way, I am also delighted to serve on the same board as Scott Heiferman, CEO and co-founder of Meetup. Scott also co-founded Fotolog, the #1 social network website in six South American and European countries. Fotolog was recently acquired by Hi Media, a Paris-based interactive media company. Scott also founded i-traffic (a top online ad agency in the 90s) after working at Sony.

Here is today's official announcement, as written by Familybuilder:

Familybuilder Welcomes Renowned Genealogist Dick Eastman To Its Advisory Board

-- Leading voice on technology and genealogy joins the Familybuilder family --

New York, NY -- April 28, 2008 -- New York City-based Familybuilder™, the fastest growing genealogy application on the Internet, today announces that esteemed genealogist Dick Eastman has joined its advisory board. Dick Eastman is the author of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (http://blog.eogn.com), a daily electronic publication with more than 50,000 readers. Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter is a pivotal source of information and support for the genealogy community. Dick Eastman joins high profile technologist Scott Heiferman, the CEO of Meetup, on the Familybuilder Advisory Board.

Familybuilder is fast becoming the Internet's favorite social tool for people interested in genealogy and family history. Unlike stand-alone online genealogy services like Ancestry.com and Geni.com, Familybuilder is positioned to leverage the social graphs of multiple online social networks at once to help people find and communicate with relatives, build family trees, preserve family history, track family activity and more.

Dick Eastman kept his first genealogy database on 80-column punch cards. He's been a leading evangelist preaching the benefits of technology to both national and international genealogical organizations. His foray into the world leveraging connected networks to further his pursuits in family research and genealogy dates back to starting the Genealogy Forum -- one of the Internet's first online forums for genealogy -- on CompuServe in the early 1980s. Eastman also wrote "Your Roots: Total Genealogy Planning On Your Computer" published by Ziff-Davis Press and is former editor of Genealogical Computing magazine. Eastman served as a consultant and guest on the Ancestors television series on PBS.

"Familybuilder is doing some amazing things for genealogy," said Dick Eastman.  "There are millions of people who use Familybuilder's Family Tree application to help them build their family trees and research their family history online and this is giving the science of genealogy a serious boost. Connecting with family members on social networks is a far cry from researching family roots from the local library with a pad and pencil. Familybuilder represents the future of genealogy and I'm very happy to come on board as an advisor.”

"We're excited to welcome Dick Eastman to our advisory board," said Ilya Nikolayev, CEO of Familybuilder "Dick's prowess in the world of genealogy is second to none, especially in the intersection of genealogy and technology. We're honored to have Dick on our team to help Familybuilder chart ahead and prove to the world how genealogy on social networks is the new frontier for both professional and arm-chair genealogists everywhere."

Familybuilder™ is a NYC software company that builds genealogy and family-oriented applications for online social networks. The company's flagship product, Family Tree, is the first genealogy application to be introduced on Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace. Family Tree can be found on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/familytree, on Bebo at http://apps.bebo.com/familytree and on MySpace at http://myspace.familybuilder.com or via the company's website at http://www.familybuilder.com. New York-based Familybuilder launched in June 2007 and is privately held.

Comments

[Carlos]

I'm still not sold on Familybuilder as a genealogy tool unless one is merely interested in building a family tree out laterally (i.e. second cousins, etc) without any real research to back things up. It just seems like a great way for Familybuilder to collect a bunch of names and email addresses and thereby expand their market position.

Look at the demographics of this website here (EOGN).... Older (65+) white women living on fixed incomes. Are these women going to start posting personal information about themselves on Facebook or Myspace? Judging by previous comments, at least half of them won't even create online family trees on traditional sites like Ancestry, Rootsweb, Gencircles, etc unless they can be kept private.

So now many of these older genealogists who are obsessed with their own privacy are going to find their grandkids have posted information about everyone they know in the family, living or dead, on Facebook and Myspace. Let's say I am a no-good person...all I have to do is create a fake ID on Facebook or Myspace, convince some naive twentysomething that I'm their third cousin twice removed and have them give me as much info as they can on their parents, grandparents etc.

This whole thing seems a tad out of control for me.

[Chuck M.]

I agree with Carlos on the possibility of loss of privacy. I'm a little spooked at the whole social networking thing but I do, do a lot of my family research in the net and have for years.

[Shirley F.]

Couldn't agree more with Chuck and Carlos. I much prefer my networking to be done in person -- not with someone hiding behind a computer screen. And as for posting my research or creating a collaborative family tree - no thank you! Too many still willing to pass along incorrect information. If I receive information from someone else, I want to control rather it is included in my family tree after I check it out.

[theKiwi]

-> Look at the demographics of this website here (EOGN).... Older (65+) white women living on fixed incomes.

This seems like a very generalised sweeping statement, and is likely not founded on any facts or research at all. What is the Source of this information?

I'm definitely NOT a 65+ white woman on a fixed income, and have no fear at all of putting my genealogy online - have been doing it for 12 or so years since Brad Mohr released SparrowHawk for Macintosh back in 1996.

I'm not much one for MySpace etc, but have started a tree there and sent invites to my 2 nieces who I know have MySpace accounts to see what they think of it.

Roger <------ NOT over 65 and NOT female!!!

[Dino (All Dino, All The Time)]

esteemed?

[the Frog]

Most likely a good position for a egocentric electronic gadget geek with a genealogical bent but not a great recommendation for another web site which hopes to tap into the present interest of family research. The web is a useful tool to help one learn, acquire and share information yet the use of more discrete methods for data transfer is much preferred by myself over any of the “open” data sites. Although not recommending a return to the old three ring binder with hand writen forms, I personally believe the proliferation of sites available offering family heritage “help” have diluted the once enjoyable process of gathering ones tree and sprung forth a new generation who believes all their answers can be found by the click of a mouse. Just a thought from one male researcher in a small town in Iowa whose thirty-five years of data you will not find on any site.

[hdpth-DNA]

boy how naive some can be in this information age :)

I wonder how many others, like Carlos, Chuck and Shirley DON'T know that their assumed personal "private" info is ALREADY on the internet ... i.e. if you have registered to vote, got a drivers license / ID card, credit card, land-line phone ... bought and/or refinanced your home recently etc etc :)

You are already in some database online somewhere :) and it most likely won't be the agency that you divulged that info with, that has uploaded it, either ... I haven't seen any account numbers yet, other than SSDI social security numbers for deceased individuals ... but it's highly likely that your assumed "private" info isn't as private as one might think :)

another who is not 65+ ... and surely not female either :)

Kenny -

[jenniferw]

Well, I AM female and over 65 and I strongly disagree with Carlos. Perhaps he is showing a little male ignorance? I fit the demographics and I USE two social networking sites to stay in touch with family.

Another stereotype bites the dust.

[Oxa]

All the brouhaha by genealogical hucksters about social networking as the latest-greatest thing is just a lot of hot air. Genealogists have been networking via the Internet since its inception. The new methods of doing that are just eye candy, and have no value added over mailing lists and message forums. I suspect sites such as Familybuilder™ are likely to entice few serious genealogists.

[Dae Powell]

Stereotypes are GENERALLY true, Jennifer. That's WHY stereotypes exist. Stereotypes, like labels -- you know, "egocentric electronic gadget geeks" -- have a basis in truth and observation. Yes, they are topped-off with prejudice, which comes with most human endeavors, but so much anger only reflects on the speaker (writer).

Look, Mr. Eastman is providing a service here. OUR option is to read or not read it. That he even allows feedback is a nice plus. I'm not advocating censorship but I do suggest we all calm down.

I'm just saying . . .

Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com

[LDrewitz]

Let me be the first to say congrats to Dick... Shame on all of you for overlooking that courtesy. Just because it's not your cup of tea, doesn't mean that this isn't something for Dick to announce or be proud of.

And no, I'm not over 65 and on a fixed income - but I am a lady :)

[Carlos]

For anyone interested in the demographics of this site, on the right side of this page, in the grey area towards the bottom, just above the Amazon Picks ad, there is a link called 'Statistics About This Site'. Interesting reading!

Here's the link:

http://www.quantcast.com/eogn.com

[Richard Heaton]

I'm keeping an open mind. I'm not sure that I can see a benefit in Familybuilder at the moment, over and above the work I already do to establish connections with researchers through my website. But I'm happy for this view to change. Family history isn't so "weird" an interest as it was when I was growing up (WDYTYA will have helped), and as I was once a young family historian myself, if I turned the clock back and was now 13 or 14 again, I might well have joined one of these online social networking groups. Looking at websites for my ancestors and not feeling a need to email the site owner for further details.

The pace of change in family history has been massive in the last few years - and there is no reason to believe this won't continue. There will be winners and losers - and while I won't rush in today (Lost Cousins looks a better bet) I might in twelve months.
Many thanks for bringing it (and your interest in it) to our attention

Best Regards
Richard Heaton

[Dino (All Dino, All The Time)]

Carlos,

That is an interesting demographics site, but I wonder where Quantcast comes up with sex, age, income, education, number of kids at home, etc. I don't recall giving that info out.

And as for Dick being an "egocentric electronic gadget geek with a genealogical bent," most of that description could fit me as well. As for Dick being egocentric, I don't know about that. He is an effective self-promoter and that's good since that drives traffic to his site, convinces people to pay extra for his premuim service, pull down referral dollars for clicks to amazon, etc., etc.

I've got no problem with any of that. Dick is in business to support himself and he appears to be doing a good job of it. If being egocentric helps, more power to him.

Also, let's remind ourselves that Dick has never made any claims to be a professional journalist. His real job is Info Tech related. This is just a sideline. Although most news outlets let readers know when they are covering a story or company that they have a relationship with to make sure that there is no conflict of interest and to appear impartial, Dick is under no obligation to do so. Most of us who have reads Dick's offerings can see the ads for what they are.

[Ellen Healy]

It is nice that we have this forum to express our opinions, but I feel the opinions should reflect the subject, and not be used for petty, personal remarks. Criticism of the writers have nothing to do with the subject. And I, too, am grateful for all the interesting information that is put out through this blog. Grow Up.

EllenH

[Stephen J. Danko]

Congratulations, Dick! It's good to read that Familybuilder has recruited a genealogist for its advisory board.

[Sufferingsunfish]

Oxa wrote: "All the brouhaha by genealogical hucksters about social networking as the latest-greatest thing is just a lot of hot air."

Agreed. I have no problem with Dick promoting whatever he wishes, however.

[Amelia]

Congratulations to Dick! I am intrigued by the concept of the social networking sites.
Also I had never looked at the statistics before and found it very interesting. Thank you for pointing it out. I also wonder how they compile that information.

[theKiwi]

->I also wonder how they compile that information.

I checked my Safari browser and have 16 cookies set by the Quantcast site, some set by visits to eogn, some by visits to our local library's web site, and some presumably set by them.

Now I know that occasionally I will fill out an online survey of all the things that Quantcast is reporting on (household income, gender, number of kids, race/colour, etc etc), so I guess if those surveys are in some way controlled by or reporting to Quantcast they can match me up by the cookie set by them when I took the survey to my later visits to sites that they are gathering data on.

I did see a note somewhere on their site when looking around that indicated that numbers aren't absolute since many users delete the cookies routinely, and so each time Quantcast resets the cookie it counts as another visitor, rather than people like me who just leave the cookies be, so am only ever at most 2 people to Quantcast (1 cookie on each of my computers).

Roger

[Bob Allison]

I joined up via Facebook. Good to see you are on board. Hopefully you can turn it into something useful.

[George G. Morgan]

Congratulations, Dick! It's terrific to have someone with such a global insight AND technological background on the board. Software and website developers truly need practical input and guidance from real users. You're a real asset to Familybuilder.

[Cheryl Palmer]

Congratulations Dick! The web and social networking are growing and changing as fast as the speed of light, well almost....thank you for sharing with us the article announcing your addition. You will be a wonderful asset for the company and I personally wish you luck and enjoyment in your new venture.