ThinkGenealogy » Paul Allen

FamilyLink.com Seeks Chief Genealogy Officer

Mark Tucker — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:22:51 +0000

Do you have what it takes to be the highest ranking genealogist in a growing genealogy services company? Get your resume ready as FamilyLink.com may be the right fit for you.

Today company CEO, Paul Allen, tweeted (posted on Twitter) that he is beginning the definition phase of a new Chief Genealogy Officer (CGO) position. One of the main responsibilities of this new position will be to “help manage GenSeek–[a] directory of all the world’s genealogy sources.”

Yesterday Mr. Allen confirmed the speculation that GenSeek is the realization of the partnership between FamilyLink.com and FamilySearch to update the Family History Library catalog with Web 2.0 features. These features include community contributed catalog entries and digitized sources. The release is planned for the next 2 months or so and I would expect to see a job posting before then.

The fact that FamilyLink.com is creating this position must mean that it expects GenSeek to be a big part of its service offering and a key element to the company’s success.

Only one company that I know has a similar C-level genealogy position. It is Ancestry.com which in January 2007 appointed Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak as its Chief Family Historian.

Predictions anyone?

Elizabeth Shown Mills?
Loretto Dennis Szucs?
Kory Meyerink?
Geoff Rasmussen?

What is this GenSeek of which you Speak?

Mark Tucker — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:07:18 +0000

GenSeek?

What do you mean you have never heard of it before? You must not be on Twitter.

What is Twitter you ask?

The quick explanation of Twitter is that it is like blogging, but you only have 140 characters to get your message across. Some call it micro blogging. What do you twitter about? You answer the question: “What are you doing?” Some take it literally and some just share what they are thinking about at the time. It is a great way to connect with others you may never meet in person. It is also a great way to get the inside scoop on things that are happening in the genealogy world.

Twitter Detective

When I joined twitter on 19 December 2008, one of the first people that I “followed” was Paul Allen, the CEO of FamilyLink.com. What that means is that any “tweet” that Paul posts, I would see as well. I was able to follow Paul on his recent trip to Auckland, New Zealand. And that is where I first heard about GenSeek.

There are only a few tweets that mention GenSeek, so all we have right now is a name and its goal to be the “world’s gateway to family history content.”

Here is a snapshot of my TweetDeck pane that shows a Twitter search for “genseek” with the most recent tweets on top:

Transcript of Twitter search for “genseek”:

Dave_Whittle: @paulballen Hi, Paul. So what will set GenSeek apart from the crowd?
Mon 19 Jan 15:34

paulballen: @marktucker GenSeek.com will be coming out in the next 2 months or so. Until then, we could email you a powerpoint, but that’s about it.
Mon 19 Jan 15:31

TamuraJones: @paulballen FamilyLink has the genseek.com domain. Australians probably think of Jenny’s genseek.net first. Will that return on genseek.com?
Mon 19 Jan 02:49

marktucker: @paulballen – Where can I find out more information about GenSeek?
Sun 18 Jan 19:53

paulballen: Nearly all the genealogists we meet are enthusiastic about GenSeek and want to help us make it the world’s gateway to family history content
Sun 18 Jan 18:51

paulballen: 7:30 am in Auckland. Getting ready for day 4 of genealogy conference. Will show GenSeek, WorldHistory.com and WorldVitalRecords.com today.
Sun 18 Jan 11:29

GenSeek Speculation

I wonder if this has anything to do with an announcement that was made in May 2008 about a partnership between FamilySearch and FamilyLink.com to produce what Paul called, the Family History Library Catalog 2.0. What could be a better “gateway” than a library catalog? Here is a quote from the May 2008 post:

“The new catalog …may become the single best starting point for family history searches”

This blog post and the corresponding FamilySearch announcement promise big things for FHLC 2.0 and I haven’t heard much about it since then. So maybe this is it.

Even if GenSeek doesn’t turn out to be FHLC 2.0, something exciting is happening at FamilyLink.com and within weeks we should know what it is.

And about that Twitter thing? If you do decide to join the Twittering masses, you are welcome to follow me if you like.

FamilyLink.com Gives Employees 10% of Work Time to Do Their Family History

Mark Tucker — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:05:24 +0000

Today I came across a post by FamilyLink.com CEO, Paul Allen, that announced a new employee program where 10% of their work time (4 hours for a 40 hour work week) can be spent doing their own family history. The idea was patterned from Google’s policy that allows employees to spend 20% of their time on personal projects. This idea is very exciting to me and is one that I have been thinking about a lot over the last year specifically in the context of genealogy software. Maybe I should have blogged about it sooner.

The Genealogy Software Community is in great need of innovation and it is great to see an innovative company like FamilyLink.com spend some time “in the trenches” doing family history. Maybe they will come to understand and embrace the Genealogical Proof Standard and Source Citations and find ways to implement them in software in ways that won’t scare those who are starting out in family history.

Paul references a talk given by Marissa Mayer at Stanford a few years ago on the topic of Google’s culture of innovation.
She included the following 9 points:

Ideas come from everywhere
Share everything you can.
You’re brilliant. We’re hiring.
A license to pursue dreams.
Innovation not instant perfection.
Data is a-political.
Creativity loves constraint.
Users not money.
Don’t kill projects. Morph them.

I met Paul last week during the BYU Computerized Genealogy and Family History Conference and was impressed by his sincerity and desire to grow the family history economy. This latest announcement is continued proof that he is out to make a positive change in the world of genealogy and family history.

Thanks Myrtle

Mark Tucker — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:33:59 +0000

Thank you Myrtle for your kind words in a recent post where you said:

“I think this fellow Mark is a thinking man’s genealogist. Ol’ Myrt here wants to spend time talking with him personally about innovation and communication in the world of genealogy. Get him together in a room with Paul Allen, Dick Eastman, Beau Sharbrough; then throw in a few CGs & AGs and – wow! What we could dream up!”

I would really enjoy talking with you as well. I love your meeting idea and would be honored by such an invitation.

Mark

People from the genealogy community that I would like to meet in person

Mark Tucker — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:36:06 +0000

There are a number of people from the genealogy community that I would like to meet in person. So much can be learned from listening to the ideas and experiences of others. As a genealogy community, we can imagine and then implement the software, services, and methodology that will continue to advance the field of genealogy/family history.

One of the people that I would really enjoy meeting is Paul Allen. He is an internet entrepreneur, co-founder of Ancestry.com, and is currently CEO of WorldVitalRecords.com with its genealogy social networking site, FamilyLink.com.

I would also love to meet Elizabeth Shown Mills. She has made great contributions to the genealogy community especially in the areas of source citation, evidence, and analysis.

These are just two of the people I would like to meet. I am keeping a list of People to Meet and when I meet them I will put the date and location.

I appreciate the interviews that the Genealogy Guys do so that I can get to know more people in the genealogy community. Drew and George are also on my list.