Wikis and Blogs

Robert Bradley explores how these two new web technologies can be used for genealogy.

Every family historian eventually reaches the infamous brickwall. Either we get stuck because we have run out of obvious things we can do, or the places we need to visit to continue our research are far away.

We succumb to the lure of the Internet. Here we find instantaneous, easy communication halfway around the world; research via web browser is even easier than driving down to the local library.

After the first euphoria passes, this freewheeling, informal, chaotic and sometimes creative sea of ideas seems to be very wide, but not so deep. We begin to wonder: “What is fact, speculation or wishful thinking?”

This is where collaboration on the Internet can help out. We can share and exchange information with fellow family historians. We can put our theories forward for peer review. Besides, finding distant cousins is a real joy.
Unfortunately, we’re often left with a piecemeal collection of notes and e-mails — and a promise to ourselves we’ll get organized some day.

Wikis and Blogs (web logs) are two new Internet-based tools that just might help us to get organized. A few adventurous souls are exploring how these can be applied to genealogy to supplement the more common use of e-mails and discussion groups offered on websites like RootsWeb.

Wikis are like websites with pages we can edit right in the browser. Probably the most well known Wiki is the Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Main_Page). This Wiki is a collaborative encyclopedia on the World Wide Web.
Genealogical Wikis are still in their infancy. But some adventurous folks are busy setting up Wikis on their families. And specialized genealogical groups also have Wikis. For example, there is a Wiki dedicated to family history in the Alsace region (http://alsachat.net/wiki/).

If Wikis are like dynamic websites, Blogs are more like syndicated columns, or diaries. For example, the Genealogy Blog (www.genealogyblog.com) has articles of general interest to genealogy posted daily and is structured a lot like a newsletter. For those interested in researching families in Germany, there is a German Blog (http://news.genealog.de/) with emphasis on family history in the Rhein/Hessen area.

In contrast to the more narrative Blog, the Wiki seems more capable of establishing relationships between disparate pieces of information to promote a holistic understanding of a family’s history. The organization of content in a Blog is flat; in a Wiki it is multi-dimensional.

If you want to try out blogging, you can get started for free at one of a number of the Blog service providers. There are also free and commercial Wiki service providers you can try. If you just want to play around with a Wiki without committing to a contract with a Wiki service provider, you can try out the Wikipad (www.jhorman.org/wikidPad/). This Wiki only runs on Windows PCs. If you have a Macintosh, you might try a Wiki-like editor like VoodooPad (you can download a trial version at http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad.html).

You don’t need to restrict using a Wiki to collaborative efforts. You might find it is a useful tool for helping you organize your own thoughts and research. And getting organized is what it’s all about, isn’t it?

This article originally appeared in the June 2004 issue of Family Chronicle.