Events

Google Hangouts on Air – Here I Come!


I have been wanting to learn how to use Google Hangouts on Air (HOA) for web presentations for awhile now. In my last post, I even shared a short test video so that I could get some initial practice on how it all works. Well, I’ve been quite busy testing the past few days and I feel I have a good handle on many elements for holding a successful broadcast. I’m excited to announce that I’ll be doing my first HOA on September 6th. 

I volunteer with my local chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society and my webinar will be for them.  The society has a one-of-a-kind newspaper history project to capture history and genealogy information from HBCU student newspapers. During the session, I’ll demonstrate the indexing process and provide details on how you can contribute towards this important effort. 

Consider yourself invited! September 6th, 2014 from 10-11am CST is when you can find us online for the broadcast.

Details are available on the society blog at http://www.aahgsnashville.org/hbcu-indexing-workshop/.

Managing RootsTech Knowledge

For my professional work I am a knowledge management information specialist.  That means I help people manage and organize information.   It is clear to me that I was meant to do this for I LOVE to work with and organize information.  With the explosion that occurred this past weekend with RootsTech I saw an opportunity to get busy applying Knowledge Management.   The best way to do this? With FamilySearch’s very own Research Wiki.

The ResearchWiki is a site that anyone can contribute to and gives us all a platform for sharing what we know about genealogy.  Initially designed to describe FamilySearch information, it has a much greater potential.  I inquired via Twitter if the wiki was being used to collect course information from the conference and learned that it really had not.  I was *challenged* (in a good way) by the Wiki team to create a page if I wanted to see one on there.

So create one I did! It is at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/RootsTech_2011.

RootsTech 2011 page on the FamilySearch Research Wiki

I was primarily interested in creating a page to help collate material related to all the conference courses.  Since I wasn’t there I can only hope that the presenters offer to share.  What a great resource it could be for archiving the experience.  So far, I’ve only seen one class that has a Wiki page for the class info – Tony Hansen’s of the Dallas Genealogy Society.

More information is needed for contribution when it comes to the classes. Did you present at RootsTech? Did you write a blog post about a specific class? If so, sign up and add to the page! If that’s too much for you, just send me an email and I’ll do it for you! :-)  Help me make this page the “go to” page for the history of what transpired.  Thanks to everyone for all the great information!

Educause Conference 2011

Yesterday I posted details on how to follow along to the Tools of Change in Publishing conference hosted by O’Reilly Media.  Books + technology is their focus.

Well, I realized last night that there is another conference I wish to keep my eye on – Educause.  This group is about Education + technology.

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.

In my professional work I try to keep up with what is going on with Educause as I do have a strong education component to what I do.  However, if you are a genealogist with education responsibilities, you may be interested in this event also.

Keynote speakers look interesting.  There’s even a BYU person represented, and a Google exec.

How to follow along?

  • Twitter hash tag is #eli2011.  Add it to your Twitter saved searches
  • Educause Facebook page – “Like” them and it will show up in your news feed
  • Online Meeting — they offer a formal online package, but it is rather expensive.  Almost $800 if you’re not a member! It does not seem like you can follow along online otherwise.
  • Second Life — ultimate coolness here! You can listen to the speakers online in Second Life via the University of Wisconsin at Milwaulkee’s SL site.  Though I have to work, I will try to venture in during my lunch break and see what’s going on.

As an interesting aside, check out their 7 Thing series. Each of these publications are available in ePub formats so can be added to ebook devices such as the Nook & iPad (sorry — Kindle does not do ePub).

Do you see a trend here with me???  :-)  In any case, if you are a genealogy educator, you may wish to check it out!

Tools of Change in Publishing Conference

Over the weekend, many of us were busy online tweeting & blogging about (as well as following along) to all the events at RootsTech.  I personally spent hours reading about all the great things going on.

On Tuesday, another conference starts that some of my geneabuddies & library friends may be interested in – the Tools of Change for Publishing Conference.

Sponsored by O’Reilly, the conference explores the latest and greatest in publishing.  Topics will span books in print, ebooks, cloud computing, online services such as GoodReads  & LibraryThing and more.  Books + Technology is the name of this game.

This is the 5th annual conference and will be held February 14th-16th in New York.  How can you at home follow along?

  • Live streams of the keynotes – 13 presentations!! the speeches run from 8:45am-6pm. Best of all, all of them will be made available via YouTube or podcast subscription for later viewing.  Since I work full-time, I’ll be making use of the YouTube accessibility.  I am particularly interested in a talk on eReading Survey results and another on creating apps.  Video from the 2010 conference is also available online.
  • TOC Twitter account – the official Twitter feed for the conference
  • The Twitter hashtag — is #toccon.  Of course I’ve already added this to my list of saved searches. You should too.
  • TOC Facebook Page – “Like” it to get updates in your news feed
  • TOC Social Page – consolidates the social activity around the ‘net.

This is a conference from the publishing industry so there will be that “bent”, but overall it will still be fun & informational to follow along with this conference.   As I draw inferences for both my professional position as well as my genealogy hobby I’ll share as appropriate.  Who else is with me?  :-)

What the Hashtag?! RootsTech Version

The upcoming RootsTech conference is beginning to get blogged & tweeted about quite a bit.  Official RootsTech bloggers have been announced and I’m looking forward to following along in the conversation.   However, what do I do when I have to work all day and can’t follow along the Twitter feed like I hope? I use WhattheHashTag?!.

The site is nice because it allows you to visualize the Twitter activity around the use of any hashtag.

You can follow along in several ways:

  • visit the page to see the tweets and those that tweet most often about it (UPDATE — the official hashtag was announced on 1/7/11 and is #rootstech11 — therefore, see http://wthashtag.com/Rootstech11 instead)
  • subscribe to the RSS feed (updated subscribe link here)
  • write your own tweet directly from the page
  • generate a day & time-stamped transcript of the twitter activity (example here)
  • the page is a wiki page, so anyone can edit and refine it

Tonight, I went to the site to see if one had been set-up for RootsTech and it had not.   Anyone can create a hashtag archive so after logging in, I created one.  Very easy to accomplish.  Here is some data from the past few days already: you can see the top contributors and which days have more tweets than others.

What makes this site unique is that it creates an archive.  Twitter itself does not allow you to search for hashtags older than a set time period, but with WhatTheHashTag?! you can go back and see the history.  For example, my professional organization – the Medical Library Association, had a conference in May.  The history of our #mla2010 hashtag is not available anymore on Twitter, but an archived transcript can be generated at WhatTheHashTag?!.

Some RootsTech Inspiration

Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, is a keynote speaker at the upcoming RootsTech 2011 conference.   I’m planning a couple of posts within the next 14 days or so around the Internet Archive, so this seemed especially appropriate to post about him.  As he, I too am a librarian, and I am absolutely in love with the Internet Archive.   I only wish I would have a chance to see him speak at RootsTech, but here is a speech he made for a TED talk back in 2008 explaining the establishment and processes behind the Internet Archive.  A must-watch for all those attending RootsTech.
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