Scotland Online to Have New Competition?

Scotland Online is an Internet company that offers a number of different services. Of interest to genealogists, Scotland Online runs the Scotlandspeople.gov.uk web site. That site provides access to vital records and other information under license from the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), the National Archives of Scotland, and the official heraldic authority, the Court of the Lord Lyon.

Scotland Online is a division of Brightsolid, which earlier this year purchased a competitor: Findmypast.com. Both websites make money by charging people to search census and other data so that customers can compile their family tree. Charges on Findmypast.com range from £6.95 for 60 search credits to £89.95 for a 12-month subscription.

Now the sites may face a new competitor: the Scottish government

Currently, Brightsolid is the only company that makes money from GROS data. However, a Scottish government spokesman said the data the company uses from GROS was about to be advertised to others for only a nominal administrative sum. He said, "We will advertise access to the material in the coming months."

You can read more at the Sunday Herald web site at http://www.sundayherald.com/business/businessnews/display.var.2381258.0.licence_sale_may_mean_money_doesnt_grow_on_family_trees.php.

Comments

[Harry]

I really like the Sunday Herald article saying the Ancestry UK chief said they dropped out of bidding for the 1911UK census job because it only tells Ancestry customers what they already know....

[Peter Christian]

Dick,

The original article is slightly muddled and I think there's a misunderstanding here. The Scottish Government is currently the monopoly supplier of Scottish census and civil registration data via ScotlandsPeople. It has in the past refused to license any other data service to digitise this material.

Of course anyone can create an index, but until now one of the terms under which GROS supplied copies of the microfilms necessary to create an index was that these were not allowed to be digitised - hence Ancestry, for example, has created indexes but been unable legally to create digital images to go with them.

What is new that it the *Scottish government* is giving up *its* monopoly by saying anyone can have a licence at a nominal cost. It's not going to be giving away the data as such (AFAIK, and in any case we want new and better rival indexes), but will allow other companies to create digital images and indexes from the microfilms. The government is not itself going to compete with Brightsolid, it's simply removing the exclusivity of Brightsolid's licence, so that others can compete, should they wish to.

Of course, there is an argument that they should have done this years ago, but better late than never.

I've tried to get clarification from GROS and some pointer to an official statement, but the relevant person is out of the office today.

peter