Saturday, September 01, 2007

Ancestry Apologizes; WVR Shows the Way (Maybe)

Ancestry.com has now permanently pulled its "Internet Biographical Collection." This statement was released yesterday. Additionally, Ancestry has apologized to Janice Brown for what they call
"the inadvertant [sic] use of your blog."

I've previously said that Ancestry needs to take a consultative approach with the genealogical community when it wants use the efforts of this community. The statement yesterday seems to suggest that they may do so in the future.

Coincidentally [or not!] I received an e-mail from World Vital Records ("we want to be No. 2!") announcing the formation of their "Customer Input Panel." How and whether this works to benefit the community remains to be seen and I think I'll participate for now to find out.

3 comments:

Janice said...

Craig,

I hope that when Ancestry.com does create their own panel they will include one of our bloggers friends in the mix (and not necessarily one who spoke in their defense in this case) Genealogy bloggers have their fingers on the pulse of what is going on in both the amateur and professional genealogical research world.

Janice

Tim Agazio said...

Craig, I was thinking the same thing when I received that same email from WVR. Both WVR and Footnote engage their customers AND the blogging community all the time like this. Frankly, I was shocked when I read that Ancestry may consult bloggers and customers in the future. They have never done this...24/7 doesn't even acknowledge when people comment on their blog. I hope this means we are going to have a more open Ancestry.com in the future.

Tim Agazio

Schelly Talalay Dardashti said...

Craig, not only did WVR send out the survey, they also had a prominent box on their home page asking for international genealogists and others to become involved. The home page has been redesigned (it's probably available cached!), and now the following is on the International page:

In the future you can expect to see these pages start to include experts in genealogy, family history, and specialists in historical documents for every country in the world. These international sections will also include podcasts, blogs, discussion boards and user generated content. Training and information will be available in a variety of languages. A newsletter will also be generated from each country. We invite you to send an email to content@worldvitalrecords.com if you are interested in helping us from these communities.