I, too, have concerns about the use of "NCGenWeb" by anyone other
than this project. I would imagine Sharon is pursuing this. She
certainly pursued it (successfully, I might add) as regarded
ncgenweb.com and .net.
Nevertheless, I would not wish the NCGenWeb Project to appear
anything less than supportive of local or state genealogical and
historical societies. Certainly we're not adversaries.
Indeed, I think it would be a very good idea if we had a special
section on our state "consolidated links" page for links to web sites
of genealogical and historical societies. After all, we already
provide a link to the NC Genealogical Society web site. I also think
most NCGenWeb counties provide at least some information about such
local societies in their counties, and links to those which have web
sites. Indeed, I believe some NCGenWeb cc's have even created a web
page for that county's society, and I know many of us try to inform
researchers what publications and/or services local societies may
have available.
I think this is a service to all researchers.
While there may be some instances of "private, for-profit"
genealogical societies being started by individual entrepreneurs, I
think for the most part local genealogical and historical societies
are local, nonprofit organizations of excellent reputation and
standing. Often they have been the only people to actively pursue
preservation and publication of historical information about their
geographic area. Their publications generally are priced to reflect
little more than cost of printing. I think we have to keep in mind,
this ability to avoid the costs of "paper" publishing by posting
materials online is relatively new....and there are many folks who
still do not have ready access to the internet, or who simply prefer
"printed" publications. (I'm partial to ink and paper, myself <g>).
While I'm not in favor of genealogical/historical societies serving
as the coordinators/hosts of NCGenWeb county sites, that does *NOT*
mean I feel our relationship should be adversarial. Indeed, I feel
NCGenWeb and local genealogical/historical societies can be quite
complementary in providing help to researchers.
It may be inevitable that we'll encounter instances in which
societies may not look kindly upon our project's placing certain
materials online which they already have published in print and hope
to be able to sell. The same may be said of private individuals who
have published transcriptions of censuses and other public documents
which they offer for sale. This is the unfortunate circumstance of
the advent of a new publishing medium - the internet. It is not the
"fault" of NCGenWeb or the societies or individual
writer/researchers. It is simply the evolution of communication.
Change can come slowly in some circles, and it seems appropriate that
we recognize many societies and individuals have been publishing long
before the availability of this new medium of the world wide web. I
think it behooves us to understand the concern of those with printed
materials they hope to sell. I do not believe this is reason for us
to shrink from placing the same public records online, but I do feel
it is reason for us to also make known to researchers when such
publications exist. I'm quite certain any number of visitors to our
sites may *still* like to purchase printed transcriptions and other
publications. We can help researchers be aware of such publications
and how to purchase them. Likewise, many visitors to our sites may
well wish to become paying members, or to make donations, to local
genealogical and historical societies.
I've long felt it would be a good idea for local historical and
genealogical societies to come together online to support one
another, and I do not view this as any sort of "competition" to the
NC or USGenWeb Project, or any other project. Our project is
nonprofit in nature with the goal of providing free help to
researchers.
I don't think it's appropriate to view our project as "competitive"
with local genealogical/historical societies or with other projects
or websites online.
Nevertheless, I do not feel it is appropriate for such an endeavor to
be undertaken using the name "NCGenWeb," nor am I particularly
supportive of such an endeavor by an individual in a for-profit
environment. I'd far rather see our nonprofit NCGenWeb Project
providing such a list of links to societies as part of our effort to
provide researchers access to the valuable services of local
genealogical/historical societies.
Frankly, I think if NCGenWeb did this, we'd find most people would
use our links and wouldn't find any need to visit Horace's page. ;-)
-Sandy