Gnuology

Gnuology is described as "a wiki for genealogy." It imports a GEDCOM file and then allows many people to view and edit the data through their favorite web browser. The edits can be saved and then become instantly viewable to everyone else.

Gnuology is not a program that runs on your desktop or laptop PC; it is designed to be installed on a web server. It works on Windows Server and on many flavors of UNIX and Linux. Users then can access the data on the Internet, assuming the administrators have granted user names and passwords.

The software is being developed by developed by Mike Gashler and Dr. Doran Wilde. They have released it as open source software. That is, the program is free and you can even modify its operation if you are a programmer. (Gnuology is written in C++.)

The Gnuology project presently is in alpha development stage, not beta test. In other words, not all the code has been written yet and you certainly can expect to find bugs, perhaps major bugs. I also found the documentation to be virtually non-existent.

This project isn't ready for "prime time" yet but it certainly looks interesting. I'll skip it for now and would recommend you do the same, unless you are an experienced C++ programmer who would like to contribute some programming efforts to the project. However, if this project continues to development, Gnuology could become a very useful and interesting program.

If you would like to try Gunology on your web server, take a look at http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuology.

Comments

[Wizardluffy]

Rootsweb's WorldConnect Project is editable by adding post'ems. Though these corrections are deletable by the original submitter, the best way to do it is to submit your own correct database. So Gnuology seems a bit redundant.

[Dae Powell]

Alpha stage? Yet the last update was over a year ago. It looks like an abandoned project to me. I like the Web 2.0 concept behind it, but until it works it is only a concept. Perhaps if enough of us visit and encourage them?

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

[Oliver]

That's right, they've still got a long way to go... :-) If you'd like your family tree to be editable for your family, you should go to http://www.itsourtree.com . The site looks perfect, although they say it's still beta. Lots of web2.0-related features.

Best,

Oli

[Terri Smith-Weller]

I don't think it would be redundant to WorldConnect. After being an enthusiastic user of WorldConnect, I recently pulled my files off because when I went to update my data the new agreement from Ancestry says that they own anything I put up. From what I read here, Gnuology wouldn't have that drawback.

[Linda]

To Terri Smith-Weller:

You are incorrect. Ancestry says no such thing. Quoted from their copyright page:

"Content which has been contributed to public areas of the The Generations Network sites listed above by users remains the property of the submitter or the original creator and we are a licensed distributor of such content."

PLEASE do not make such statements - all it causes is a huge outcry from others who do not even bother to check as I did, what the facts are.

OUR databases remain OURS.

[Steve Faherty]

Regarding the comments of Terri Smith-Weller and Linda: It seems to me that being the "licensed distributor of such content", could be construed by another as being owned if it is indeed contributed. Respectfully, Steve

[Steve]

Dick -

Maybe a good article for a future version of your newsletter would be to get an official comment from an exec at The Generations Network about the disposition of the files submitted to the WorldConnect project.

There is frequently a lot of very passionate posts on here about what rights they have to submitted data vs. what rights are retained by the submitters.

It would be great to hear thier official position on this since WorldConnect is such a great sharing resource.

[Ian]

The project looks similar to PGV (Phpgedview) which is far more mature, and present data via the web in manner that supports a community. Changes that are made are tracked, and can be approved etc...

More info at Http://phpgedview.net.