Important Announcement for Genealogist Enthusiasts on Facebook

The following was written by FamilyBuilder:

Recently, activities from individuals seeking to explore and expand their family genealogy on Facebook have been met with negative reactions from Facebook corporate and have had their Facebook accounts suspended.

The latest incident involved Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz who was accused of breaching Facebook's Terms of Service by apparently emailing his family members found on Facebook, and directing them to a third-party web site outside Facebook.com.   You can read about this incident on Rodrigo's blog:  http://rodrigo.typepad.com/english/2008/04/facebook-has-di.html.  There is also a growing reaction to this incident on Twitter from Robert Scoble, also once suspended by Facebook, among others.

Familybuilder, the maker of the popular Family Tree application on Facebook recommends that individuals who wish to engage in Genealogy research and messaging on Facebook to install the free and easy-to-use "Family Tree" Application.   Using the Family Tree Application on Facebook will reduce the risk of breaking Facebook's Terms of Service when trying to extend your social graph with family members.    In addition, using the Family Tree Gedcom Import tool, you can leverage the work you have done elsewhere and import your tree and make it collaborative via the Family Tree group tree and family feed functionality.

Familybuilder is fast becoming the Internet's favorite social tool for people interested in genealogy and family history and 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.   Familybuilder's Family Tree, is the first genealogy application to be introduced on Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace.  There are currently over 11 million Family Tree profiles on Facebook.

For more information please visit http://www.familybuilder.com.

Comments

[Sharon Elliott]

This is the strangest press release I've seen in a while: "Use our product or get kicked off Facebook." I enjoy Facebook, despite its kludges, to communicate with my extended family but I would not use a product that used intimidation as a marketing tool.

[Infinite Ancestors]

One more reason to hate Facebook! They have made so many public relations blunders, most relating to breaching users' expectations of privacy.

A social network is potentially an interesting way to connect family members, but I really hope that people aren't violating the long-standing genealogists' convention of not putting data on living people on these networks (without explicit permission, of course).

[Drew]

Sharon,

I think you misinterpreted the story. They didn't say "Use our Product or Get Kicked Off Facebook" Rather, they responded to a story that alot of people in the genealogy and social networking worlds are talking about where Facebook kicked someone off for mass mailing their family to use a genealogy website outside of Facebook. All Familybuilder is saying is that they have a genealogy product that runs inside Facebook which effectively deals with this conflict. I have used their product and I must tell you it is quite good. I also find them to be quite responsive to issues/questions I have had along the way.

-Drew

[Dino (All Dino, All The Time)]

Nice ad, Dick. I guess that we'll be seeing much more about FamilyBuilder now that you're on the advisory board ... much like we do with Footnote.

[Donald E. Gradeless]

This should have be clearly marked as an advertisement for FamilyBuilder. With "Dick Eastman Joins Familybuilder Advisory Board" there should be a disclaimer for proper journalism. Clearly a biased Commercial Plug. Commercial vs Professional Journalism.

[LDrewitz]

Wow.. What is WRONG with you people? Was there a full moon last night or something. I mainly stay in the background and don't comment on issues, I just enjoy getting all the FREE information that Dick has been gracious enough to share with all of us. You would think that this would entitle him to a little promotion about himself, without having to endure snide comments from nincompoops who like to grumble. You're biting the hand that feeds you free information folks, remember that.

[Kat]

I don't have a Facebook account, I'm not interested in a Facebook account, and why would I want to join yet another web site for genealogy, free or not? There are so many out there, one could easily spend all the time just posting to and searching these sites and not getting any research accomplished. Since I could not access any detail about the familybuilder program, I am curious, does it work with gedcoms?

[Riley]

I agree-there is so much information provided in these newsletters that it's not going to hurt us to have a little promotion along with it.

I don't use Facebook, and probably won't use it, but if Familybuilder offers a program that won't violate their Terms of Service, more power to them!

[Rodrigo A. SEPULVEDA SCHULZ]

Hi there ;) As a serious amateur genealogist (21,000 people in my DB), I do not want to manage my data in 2 different places. And considering the ZERO control I have on accessibility to my data on FB, I would NEVER store it there.
Hence, you should probably work with the guys at geneanet.org and try to figure out how to integrate your service with theirs. Some thoughts of how to do so here:
http://rodrigo.typepad.com/english/2008/04/using-facebook.html

Best, R.

ps: never been part of a commercial ad before, I believe... :)

[Maggie]

Isn't facebook the one that insists that you provide them with your (very important) date of birth, just to sign in? I know they say you can refuse having others wish you happy birthday; but I would never trust any info people put out there -- other than unknowing young folks, who would want to post the truth about any personal info? I would lie if I absolutely "had" to join for some "currently unknown" reason. To me the whole concept is a waste of time. There are far better and more reliable ways to convey family information than opening yourself up to having someone else "redo" your research.

[Infinite Ancestors]

@ Maggie, I agree Facebook is largely evil, though I do have a small private presence there. But, I absolutely did not provide them with my real date of birth. Also gave them a unique email address that can't be tied to anything else. But I definitely agree with...

@Kat, I agree that the genealogy market is too fragmented already. We don't need more services, we need less. Sure, Google makes it possible to search across SOME sites, but others don't get indexed. I was very sad the day that Rootsweb was bought by Ancestry. On one hand, Ancestry is a great one-stop shop for a ton of info, IF you want to pay. But, it may be too late for a free social-media-oriented genealogy service, particularly given the demographics for this hobby.

[Joy Chichester]

Well, I joined a bunch of Facebook groups tonight. Can't sleep after a fantastic T-Day dinner with friends. In the Scottish Genealogy group I mentioned that my research may be viewed in GenForum. Is that an ad for a conflicting agency? Hmm. Also, my daughter has posted her living family tree, and I just tainted her staunchly Christian image by posting to a non-Christian group. Now all my friends can know my birthday, which I unthinkingly posted upon joining Facebook, as well as knowing my religious beliefs. Maybe I'll have to cancel the whole Facebook relationship, if anyone objects to my thoughts or to my searching for like-minded groups.