Ok, we have now officially moved to the new version of the Wiki–the one based on the MediaWiki software. It is all new software, a new URL, but the same content from the old version of the Wiki.  The link from the labs home page takes you to the new address. Remember though that we are still in a beta test. Beta test means that there will be times that the system is not available. You will see changes to the interface at times. Please understand though that we are taking extraordinary measures to make sure that any data you contribute is protected and will not be changed by anything we do in the beta testing. Feel free to contribute, edit, make changes and most of all contact us via feedback to give us ideas and suggestions.
One final point that I want to reiterate. This is your site, if there is something that you can change on it or to it, then go ahead and do it. You don’t need to ask permission. If we decide that we don’t like what you have done we will back it out. If you disagree with us then let us know. We are dedicated to the belief that “We are smarter than me.” The larger the community the more likely we are to have good information.

Thanks to you we have had great success on the Research Wiki. Many people have joined our community. In an effort to keep you up to date, we thought we’d post some of our wiki plans to the blog.

Today (Dec 3, 2007) we posted on our site our plans for the next steps. The FamilySearch Research Wiki is intended to become a general resource available to everyone who comes to FamilySearch.org. In order to scale to that size we need to switch to a different underlying system for the wiki. We are making the switch this week. We will leave the current site and its content live, but no one will be able to edit it or add content. At the same time, we will bring the new software up in a test mode, inviting an increasingly larger group of people until we are sure it will serve everyone. At that point we will close down the current Research Wiki site and switch to the new one which will be open to everyone. Keep watching the FamilySearch Labs blog to keep up to date on our progress.

For many years we have been faced with the problem of how to get the expert knowledge about best methods and techniques to research family history from those who have it to those who need it.  The process for publication into handouts and forms has been laborious, and as with everything in family history, as time goes on our knowledge of sources and new archives increases.  The problem then becomes one of how to not only get today’s knowledge and expertise readily available, but also how do we keep this information fresh and up to date?

Additionally, there may be those who are not experts but by very fact that they live in an area of interest they have the ability to contribute to the knowledgebase.  An example of this is those who live near a cemetery and are able to index or photograph headstones for those who do not live nearby.  Similarly, those who have knowledge of one particular repository or archive can have valuable knowledge that they can contribute.

For those familiar with Wikipedia, the online community formed encyclopedia, you will recognize similarities in the models of obtaining information and sharing it, as well as keeping it up to date.  Wiki technology appears to be the exact answer to this problem of sharing and keeping data fresh.

Granted, there are unique challenges to a family history research guidance wiki.  That is why we are testing different technologies and methodologies before releasing the final product.  We intend to keep all content from the test, but continually adjust the program to make sure we have it right.  The more people we have participating in the test, the more complete the content will be.  The stronger the community and the more active it is the faster we can move this from test idea to powerful solution.  So please feel free to experiment, but also please give us the best of your knowledge and expertise.