[Foundation-l] Rodovid.org, family tree wiki, wishes to become a wiki project

[Benjamin Webb]

Yes, I agree, a well aimed donation system would bring in quite a tidy sum
for a project like this.

As for copyrights, when it comes it Genealogical data, most of it can't be
copyrighted, as it is mostly facts. I have added certain familysearch
GEDCOMs to my tree on Rodovid, do you think I am allowed to do this, as it
is facts.

Of course, having a free license does make it much easier, there isn't an
issue of trying to draw the line between fact and copyrightable material.

By the way, what do you think of the meta
page<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Rodovid.org>
?

Benjamin Webb

On 26/03/06, Robert Scott Horning <robert_horning at netzero.net> wrote:
>
> Ray Saintonge wrote:
>
> >Robert Scott Horning wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Or more to the point, I think that starting a geneology project is
> >>actually going to be a significant source of revenue for the Wikimedia
> >>Foundation rather than being a drag on the resources.
> >>
> >>
> >Probabably so, and by charging very modest fees at that.  The question
> >to ask then, given the massive number of genealogical websites out
> >there, what can we do that will make our site more desirable than all
> >the others.
> >
> >Ec
> >
> >
> The thing that the spin-offs from Wikimedia users (Rodovid.org and
> Wikitree.org) have in common is that the content is free to be
> redistributed and is not encumbered with sometimes very draconian
> copyright protections.  And a strong spirit of cooperation among users
> to help each other out.  The current drive to push for citation
> standards with Wikipedia is also going to have a strong spill-over
> effect for a project like this, where it would be possible to
> demonstrate the quality of the information.  Indeed this has been a
> major complaint of some other massive on-line geneology projects like
> familysearch.org, where the quality of the data is seriously lacking in
> many situations.  Another big advantage is the ability for people who
> have the correct information to be able to easily update the information
> and not require manuvering through bureaucratic red tape and obtaining a
> CS degree in order to be able to submit any changes.
>
> I'd also like to give an example of the typical licensing terms for most
> of these websites:
>
> http://familysearch.org/Eng/policy/FSI_terms.asp
>
> Note especially the clause:
>
> "All material found at this site is owned or licensed by us. You may
> view, download, and print material from this site only for your
> personal, noncommercial use or, if you are a professional genealogist,
> for use by a current client."
>
> Compare that to the GFDL, and you will see that most data has been
> signifcantly restricted for re-use in most cases, even if you were the
> person who submitted the information in the first place.  GFDL (or
> Creative Commons type licensing) is one area where sites like what is
> being proposed here is going to blow all of the other geneology sites
> out of the water.
>
> All of these are aspects that are derived from Wikimedia users'
> experience with developing other on-line content.  The current internal
> push for this sort of development is where users like myself have been
> so used to how things are done with Wiki software that we wonder why
> this isn't be done for geneological research, where these ideas of free
> access to information and the ability to freely edit the information
> havn't yet caught on.
>
> --
> Robert Scott Horning
>
>
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