ROOTSWEB STAFF MEETS FOR THE FIRST TIME. Last week, RootsWeb's system
administrators and several other members of the staff, most of whom had
never met face-to-face, traveled at their own expense from Kentucky,
Massachusetts, Nebraska, Tennessee, and other places to meet at RootsWeb's
home in Pine Mountain Club, California.
While most of the discussions focused on specific technical issues like
improving our spam filters, staff members also reaffirmed their commitment
to our two primary goals. First, we intend to continue to provide the
world's best tools-like the RootsWeb Surname List, the GenConnect
Boards/Surname Helper, and the surname, locality, ethnic, and other mailing
lists-for helping genealogists connect with other genealogists researching
the same lines. Second, we intend to substantially increase our support for
projects like the USGenWeb Archives (and Census and Tombstone Projects) and
the British FreeBMD project. Our goal here is to provide genealogists with a
complete online research library within the next few years.
One issue considered at some length by the staff was how to induce more of
our users to become RootsWeb members. While there is no technical reason why
we can't build an absolutely first-rate online library within the next few
years, to have the resources to do so we need to persuade more like 25-50%
of our users (RootsWeb is currently supported by only 2-5% of our users)
that having a great online library collectively available to all of us is
worth their taking the time individually to join the Cooperative.
Being on staff generally means being on call for dealing with spam attacks
at 2 a.m., or nursing a sick server on a Sunday afternoon, rather than
attending the family dinner. Staff members have a considerable amount of
influence over the order in which new resources are brought online at
RootsWeb, since we can't add a new server or a major new database until
someone volunteers to maintain it and handle the middle-of-the-night crises.
Some staff members are paid, some are volunteer, and some are among
RootsWeb's largest financial contributors. With the exception of our
data-entry staff, no member of RootsWeb's staff is paid at (or even near to)
industry-standard wages; all staff members are volunteers to one degree or
another.
Check out the RootsWeb Surname List (RSL). This is a service that helps you
locate others researching your surname(s). Add your own surnames of interest
to the database, so others can find you too.
<
http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~help/help/start.html>