FamilySearch Developers Conference 2009
David March 10th, 2009
The second annual FamilySearch Developers Conference will be held at BYU on March 11, 2009 in conjuction with the BYU Family History Technology Workshop and Conference on Computerized Family History and Genealogy Conferences, March 12-14, 2009. Those interested in more information can go to familyhistoryconferences.byu.edu/familysearch or call 1-801-422-8925.
I attended the conference last year which proved to be quite interesting, particularly to see the first generation apps written to interface with the new FamilySearch APIs. I have since been able to use products from Ohana Software http://www.ohanasoftware.com/ (Family Insight) and PHPGedview http://phpgedview.net/ which have both been written to take advantage of this new data source. Both are still relatively immature in their functionality but promising in what will soon be available to genealogists.
This year, FamilySearch will discuss version 2 of the web service APIs which promise to expand on the basic functionality available in version 1 but which proved to be limiting to 3rd party apps which attempted to provide full functionality to their users.
Is it just me? Is the last entry/discussion about FamilySearch from nearly a year ago? Where do we go for serious discussions about FamilySearch and the need to resolve issues that are going in circles when interacting with the wonderful, well-meaning yet uninformed individuals who volunteer their time to respond to FamilySearch feedback — where there are real design issues that need to be dealt with?