From merope@Radix.Net Mon Jun 19 00:46:51 2000
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 00:46:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show--quick update
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Here's a quick update to get us back up to speed [and sorry about that
_very_ late DBS...my fault and not Listbot's this time <g>]:
Current motions:
Motion 00-16 [Standing Rule #1]: failed for "lack of interest." Not a
single Board member cast a vote of any kind on this motion.
Motion 00-17 [to declare the April 1 voting cutoff contrary to the
bylaws]: vote currently stands at 6 yes vote and 6 no votes. [Motion will
most likely fail as it will not be able to make the 2/3 majority]
Motion 00-18 [to affirm the April 1 cutoff date]: vote currently stands
at 5 yes votes and 7 no votes. [This motion will also most likely fail]
So, the Board will apparently NOT be declaring the April 1 voting cutoff
date to be in violation of the bylaws, but they will also not confirm it.
[Oy vey!]
Roger Swafford, Chairman of the Election Committee has declared Betsy
Mills to be the winner of the SW/SC State Coordinator Representative
position, as she was running unopposed.
Teri Pettit has informed the Board she is in the process of writing a
letter to USGenNet, Inc. regarding their page of courtesy links to the
USGenWeb project and will cc the Board on it.
TNGenWeb has voted to sponsor the Recall Amendment to the Bylaws.
ALGenWeb and WIGenWeb have voted to sponsor the Special Projects
Amendment.
Jim Powell, who is a candidate for National Coordinator, has put up a
campaign webpage here: http://user.gru.net/jpowelljr/Election.html. It's
very nice; go read it.
-Teresa
merope@radix.net
From merope@Radix.Net Mon Jun 19 12:47:53 2000
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 12:47:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
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Back in the saddle...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Monday 19 June 2000:
There is no Board-L traffic on this date thus far.
===
Election News: Several candidates have posted web pages:
David Morgan: http://www.nyx.net/~damorgan/campaign.html
Ellen Pack: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~binkley/ellen_pack.htm
Jim Powell: http://user.gru.net/jpowelljr/Election.html
A full list of candidates is available at this page:
http://www.usgenweb.com/elections/candidates.html [Well, not a full list.
The candidates for the Census Project and Tompbstone Project seats are
mysteriously missing.]
Amendment Update: MSGenWeb has voted to sponsor the Recall Amendment.
Votes to sponsor the States' Rights and Special Projects amendments
failed to pass. The current sponsors of the amendments are:
Recall: CO, OR, OH, NE, TN, MS [will be on the ballot]
States' Rights: TN, OR, NE
Special Projects: GA, AL, VA, WI
===
"The way to have power is to take it."
---William Marcy Tweed
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-------
Daily Board Show, (c) 2000 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Wed Jun 21 13:42:45 2000
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 13:42:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
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Told ya so!...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Monday 19 June 2000:
Shari Handley fowards to the Board the letter announcing that the MSGenWeb
will sponsor the Recall amendment.
Tuesday 20 June 2000:
Several members revote on motions 00-17 and 00-18. No votes are changed,
but for some reason they are resending them.
Wednesday 21 Juny 2000:
No traffic other than an additional vote reposting.
The count for each motion remains: Motion 00-17: 6 yes votes, 6 no votes.
Motion 00-18: 5 yes votes, 7 no votes.
===
Sold Up the River Corner: Well, the Big News today is that MyFamily.com
[which is owned by Ancestry.com] has purchased RootsWeb.com, Inc. This
does not come as a surprise to many of us since we've watched RW position
itself for a buyout/merger/IPO for almost exactly a year [my money was on
the IPO though <g>]. By taking tiny steps over a long period, RW
cushioned the blow for many of its customers, but judging from the
comments on the various mailing lists, its still painful for many of them.
[One of those tiny steps, btw, was the complete cessation of all the
negative references to Ancestry.com that Brian used to indulge in quite
regularly.]
The sale was announced in a special edition of the Ancestry.com
newsletter. The full press release is at:
http://www.ancestry.com/home/celebrate/rootsrelease.htm. As the press
release points out, "Financial terms of the transaction were not
disclosed." However, "the acquisition of RootsWeb.com will provide
MyFamily.com with an increase in advertising real estate and an expanded
audience reach, and will provide increased transaction and commerce
opportunities. In addition, it will increase exposure to Ancestry.com's
free and premium subscription offerings." Root$web is already shilling
for Ancestry's memberships; an announcement posted shortly after the
Ancestry.com announcement offers a "free introductory membership" to all
RW mailing lists and board administrators. Ancestry assures us that it
"will continue to support volunteer, non-profit organizations such as The
USGenWeb Project (www.USGenWeb.org), Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
(ISTG.rootsweb.com), The Free Births, Marriages, and Deaths Project
(FreeBMD.rootsweb.com), and other groups that provide free genealogical
content."
For its part, RW is _assuring_ everyone that nothing will change. From
their announcement: "Nothing will change for you, no one is going to
charge you to use RootsWeb. You'll still find RootsWeb at
www.RootsWeb.com. Everything you're used to using will still be
here...RootsWeb will still support worthy genealogy projects and
societies, such as the USGenWeb Project (www.USGenWeb.org), the Immigrant
Ships Transcribers Guild (ISTG.rootsweb.com) and the FreeBMD Project
(FreeBMD.rootsweb.com), and other groups that provide free genealogical
resources. And don't worry, you won't be charged to access RootsWeb. No
one will put your data on CD without your permission. Other promises made
over the years will continue to be honored. You'll still deal with the
same RootsWeb volunteers and employees. In fact, most users won't notice
any changes, except exciting new tools, more content, and better
genealogical resources." Apparently, they will still continue to beg for
"donations" to RW, even though those "donations" will now go directly to a
wholly owned subsidiary of Ancestry.com. [there's a link to the
subscriptions page from RW's merger announcement page.] Root$web's
announcement is posted here: http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/merge.html
What does this mean for USGenWeb? Unfortunately, no one really knows.
Although both Ancestry and Root$web promise to continue to support us,
a reader points out that "once this sale goes through, it will be out of
the hands of Brian and Karen to ensure this. It will ultimately be
MyFamily's decision. There may be no change for a while, but in the long
term there is *no* guarantee. Previously we had the demonstrated
commitment of B&K to free genealogy, but now all we really have is the
demonstrated commitment of MyFamily to make money off of genealogy."
Perhaps nothing will change for us. But some interesting questions have
already begun to be asked. Such as: "what happens to the USGW domain
names?" [Only one USGW domain name --usgenweb.org-- is owned by Root$web.
The others are privately owned.] And "what about the Archives?" And
"will there be ads on my pages?" None of us know the answers to these
questions, since the terms of the buyout have not been revealed. It is
not at all unlikely, in my opinion, that eventually USGW and its members
that use RW's services will be required to post ads, link to Ancestry,
etc., although I doubt that any of the USGW data will become "pay per
view". Since the terms of the buyout are not public, we simply do not
know how the USGW may be effected now or in the future. We are certain
that our Esteemed National Coordinator is right on top of this though and
will let us know what he finds out from the respective heads of
MyFamily.com and Root$web.com.
===
"As far as Ancestry.com or MyFamily.com merging with Rootsweb.com
........what are the terms of the merger? Apparently, it is a bit early
to make a judgement....but not for certain members of the Project's
family......and like it or not, we are Family."
---Phyllis Rippee, USGW-CC-L, 21 June 2000
This has been Your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-------
Daily Board Show, (c) 2000 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Thu Jun 22 16:42:40 2000
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 16:42:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
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Like lambs to the slaughter...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Wednesday 21 June 2000:
Motions 00-17 and 00-18 both fail. Final vote counts as reported by Tim
Stowell are 00-17: 6 yes votes, 8 no votes; 00-18: 7 yes votes, 7 no votes
[Tim's counts are different from mine; he must have received two votes
privately]. Tim does not vote in the tie, noting "doing so one way or the
other, will not change the outcome." He states further "Since both the
motion to declare the 4/1 cutoff date illegal and the vote to affirm it
failed, therefore by default the 4/1 cutoff date will stand based solely
on the Board's inability to take a stand one way or the other."
Board Secretary Ken Short posts the findings on a grievance submitted by a
NCGW CC against her CC: "The Board finds the grievance of Diane Kelly
against NCGenWeb SC Elizabeth Harris to be without foundation or merit,
and wishes to give a statement of support for Ms. Harris' conduct involving
the vote in question. Further, the Board finds reason to believe that Ms.
Kelly's grievance was filed with the intent to discredit and malign Ms.
Harris, as well as Mr. Carson Turner. We find no cause to doubt the
integrity of either Ms. Harris or Mr. Turner in this or any other matter.
The Board encourages the CCs of NCGenWeb to use our Bylaws and accepted
parliamentary procedure to bring unruly members to account so that the
wonderful work you do can continue without disruption." [I love it when
the Board goes that extra mile. Finding against a person in a grievance
is one thing; encouraging reprisals against the person who submitted it
is something else.]
===
Rampaging Capitalism Corner: The recent bombshell announcement that
MyFamily.com will be acquiring RootsWeb.com, Inc. is still causing ripples
out in the world of online genealogy. Some Listowners are
apparently trying to take up a collection to prevent the merger
from taking place [this is so touching], and discussion has been
clamped tightly on most RW lists. Root$web staffers are apparently
forbidden to discuss the acquisition, and have been referring all
questions to the RW helpdesk, where the staffers are now being called
"customer service representatives." According to one of these "customer
service reps", any changes in sponsorship arrangements have not been
finalized; they note that "The details of any possible changes in the
system of sponsorship and donations is not yet decided upon -- we should
know by the end of next week."
Also, although many familiar faces will remain at RW, "The leadership of
RootsWeb resources within Ancestry.com will be in the hands of General
Manager, Charles Merrin." For those of you who don't know of Charles,
he's recently been serving as RW's vice president of marketing; after the
merger, he'll stick around as General Manager. In a previous incarnation,
however, he worked for Learning Tree, in its Genealogy division [the part
that acquired Broderbund/FamilyTreemaker]. He's a specialist in e-commerce
to boot. According to a press release from last year, "At The Learning
Company, Merrin served in several key positions, including senior director
and business unit manager for the Genealogy Online Business Unit. During
Merrin's tenure, it grew to become the premier online genealogy
destination, generating solid profits from e-commerce. Merrin also
initiated and closed significant deals with top Internet players,
including Yahoo! and Excite, among others."
[http://www.releasenow.com/press/pr061699a.html, for the rest of the press
release] In a remarkably specifics-free message, Mr. Merrin has assured NC
candidate Joe Zsedney that USGW "can continue to count on free data and
banner free pages for the USGenWeb pages, and the same top-quality
genealogy resources at RootsWeb." [He doesn't, for example, address the
domain issue.]
Recently, an article regarding this acquisition was posted on the New York
Stock Exchange's web page under the information for AOL. Go to
http://www.nyse.com/marketinfo/marketinfo.html?sym=AOL; click on news, and
read the article posted there. AOL is a listed investor of MyFamily.com,
and this may have something to do with the recent disclosure that RW is
shortly going to be hosting AOL's genealogy forums [which are currently
available only to AOL members]. AOL is also currently maneuvering to
acquire Time-Warner; Root$web is apparently eating with the big dogs from
now on.
Many folks are still curious about those "undisclosed financial terms".
But no further information is forthcoming from any source on that
particular issue. Some people have noted that the money beg is gone from
this week's New Zoo Review, although the request for donations of
databases is still there. Databases generate page hits, and thus
advertising revenue, so will become ever more important to RW if it is to
make itself worth whatever it cost.
In other developments, some folks over at WorldGenWeb are fretting
because, as it turns out, Root$web owns their primary domain,
www.worldgenweb.org. too [a gentleman associated with FranceGenWeb owns
the other two primary domains]. So they are essentially in the same boat
as USGenWeb as far as the domain issue goes.
A USGW CC rep candidate has felt moved to post a position page on the
merger; you can read it at:
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~binkley/ellen_pack2.htm
In an interesting speculation, a reader has asked "what happens if RW
proves not be a profitably acquisition for Ancestry? Since they own RW
now, can't they sell it off to someone else?" That would indeed open an
interesting can of worms.
And last but not least, a perceptive USGW CC has pointed out at least one
more or less obvious implication of this acquisition: the resulting
control of the online genealogy arena by two for-profit companies and the
LDS. He says "Some have asked why would Ancestry buy the money pit,
RootsWeb. What do they have to gain?...Try this on for size. Forget your
penny-ante conspiracy theories....Can you say MONOPOLY???...Think about it
- who are the players? The LDS has restrictive agreements with their
sources, they can't publish on the web. Who's left? FTM and Ancestry. And,
have you noticed? Their offerings don't overlap. For example, one has
census images, the other census indicies. So you have to sub to
both....And then along comes RW, never before a threat...but, all of a
sudden, becoming a real force. Looks like the Ancestry folks won the toss
of the dice, doesn't it. Now, no more competition. Divide the market
between the two of 'em."
Correction Corner: We reported yesterday that MyFamily.com was a division
of Ancestry.com. We had it backwards; Ancestry is part of MyFamily. Many
thanks to those of you who set us straight!
===
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the
point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The
happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality."
---George Bernard Shaw
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-------
Daily Board Show, (c) 2000 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Sat Jun 24 11:29:52 2000
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 11:29:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.1000624082339.13066A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Still free...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Friday 23 June 2000:
There was no Board-L traffic on this date.
Saturday 24 June 2000:
No traffic today either, thus far.
===
Election News: Ginger Cisewski has posted her campaign page:
http://www.geocities.com/feather2s/election/candidate.html
Free For All Corner: Former NC John Rigdon has announced the following:
"From the earliest times, I have dreamed that the USGenWeb Project would
have its own site and its own servers. As matters have developed, no
organization has formed which can take ownership and responsibility for
maintaining the servers. Therefore I have proceeded with setting up
GIWWW.ORG of my own initiative. It is my intention to donate my
investment to The USGenWeb Project should it become legally established to
do so, and should the board decide to maintain the site. In the interim,
here is the deal:...If you would like to move your site to my servers, I
pledge that there will be NO advertising placed on your pages. You're
free to use the site for whatever genealogy or history related content you
like. I will be very up front with the costs of maintaining the site
with monthy financials published on line for everyone to know where we
stand. Donations will be accepted and will be tax deductible just as soon
as I can get the paperwork back from the IRS - maybe 90 to 120
days....Additionally I provide: 1. World Class Windows NT servers - not
the freeware Linux servers provided by many "free" sites. 2. Web page
counters, email forms, database hosting, front page support, free site
search engine which you can configure and maintain. 3. Whatever space and
bandwidth you need."
If you interested in this offer or in further details [such as domain
name hosting] please contact John at JohnR238@aol.com
Going, Going Gone Corner: Nate Zipfel, WGW Advisory Board Chair
and PAGenWeb SC, reports the he spoke personally with Charles Merrin, new
General Manager of Root$web. According to Nate, the usgenweb.org and
worldgenweb.org domains were transferred to MyFamily.com as part of the
sale of Root$web's assets to that company. [See below]
If one reads carefully [and voraciously], one can glean some more specific
information regarding the effects of the sale of Root$web to MyFamily.com.
The few people that are getting responses to their questions from the
helpdesks are generally posting them; why no one puts together a
comprehensive document regarding this is unknown to me.
Here's some quotes; see what you can make of them:
"Thank you for your e-mail. RootsWeb will stay as RootsWeb and
MyFamily.com (Ancestry.com) owns it and runs it. We have joined forces."
---Justin, MyFamily.com Customer support
"The merger with Rootsweb will not affect your myfamily.com website.
Themerger is with ancestry.com, a sister site. In order to view specifics
on the merger simply go to www.rootsweb.com. There is not any obligation
to join a membership with ancestry.com."
---Marissa, MyFamily.com Customer Support
"Ancestry has agreed to abide by our AUP and Privacy Policy. Karen and
Brian wanted to make sure all their promises and commitments would be
kept. So all the promises RootsWeb made to USGenWeb, WorldGenWeb, ISTG,
and all the others will be kept....There may be some changes with some RW
projects like the WorldConnect or SSDI. As the projects evolved, some
changes would have been necessary anyway. The merger in all likelihood
will speed up the enhancements and improvements. There are overlaps such
as the SSDI. Those will probably be combined as it wouldn't make sense to
pay for both."
---D., RW Help Desk
"MyFamily.com will maintain support for all RootsWeb projects such as
USGenWeb. Furthermore, RootsWeb will continue to offer free Internet
servers, bandwidth, and technical support to worthy genealogy projects and
societies including USGenWeb. RootsWeb's AUP is still there to protect
our users' rights to their original content. RootsWeb will not start
charging for services that are now freely provided. In addition, RootsWeb
has always been successful as a free offering and everything that is
currently free will remain that way...You asked how all this benefits
MyFamily.com and what their motivation is. Keeping RootsWeb's currently
free services free serves to be beneficial for MyFamily.com as well as the
users of RootsWeb's services. By adding the RootsWeb user base, page
views, and extensive content, it makes all of their offerings even more
attractive to advertisers and increases online and offline transaction
opportunities for all of the MyFamily.com sites."
---Joan Young, RW employee, pagenweb@egroups.com
"We are very excited about joining forces with RootsWeb. But we are
equally committed to ensuring your experience as a RootsWeb member remains
unchanged. As you know, the RootsWeb acceptable use policy (AUP) states
that we will not sell user-generated content on the web or though other
means without explicit permission of the user. Further, all content
contributed by RootsWeb members is their content. We intent to honor that
policy. In addition, while we hope you take this opportunity to see what
Ancestry.com has to offer you, we will not require any RootsWeb member to
join Ancestry.com in order to continue enjoying the RootsWeb site. We
expect that you and all other RootsWeb members will see no change in the
experience to which you are accustomed."
---David B. McGinn, Vice President & General Manager, Customer Service
& Telesales, MyFamily.com, Inc.
[Note that his comments do not explicitly state that RW list/board admins
will not be required to pay fees to MyFamily.com to continue hosting their
lists and board.]
"I have spoken personally with Mr Charles Merrin the new General Manager
of Rootsweb. Technically speaking the domains that were registered to
Rootsweb were an asset in the sale. However - he recognizes that the
domains belong to the project. I believe that if the USGenWeb Project
leadership would approach him, they would get the same answer."
---Nate Zipfel, CC-L [Nate is Chair of the WGW Advisory Board and the
PAGW SC]
"They have been using the two interchangably so I don't know. What is the
difference? Maybe I can answer from that."
---D., RW Help Desk, when asked why RW is saying they "merged" with
MyFamily.com, and MyFamily is saying they "acquired" RW.
"We stopped processing all contributions until we know what is going to
happen."
---D., RW Help Desk, when asked whether list/board admins would need to
continue paying for their lists/boards and whom they should pay
"We have stopped processing all contributions until this is worked out.
Probably by the end of next week we will know more. Sorry for the
inconvenience."
---D., RW Help Desk [same question]
===
Today's quote is from a reader:
"It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to
shut our eyes against a painful truth."
---Patrick Henry
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-------
Daily Board Show, (c) 2000 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Sun Jun 25 22:53:11 2000
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 22:53:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>
Subject: News Flash---News from Charles Merrin, of RootsWeb
Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.1000625224916.14299D-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Here is a letter I received today from Mr. Charles Merrin, regarding the
recent acquisition of Root$web by MyFamily.com, Inc. The questions I
asked are appended after his reply. [M. Leonard is MyFamily.com's PR guy;
he must have forwarded my message to Mr. Merrin.
-Teresa
merope@radix.net
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 11:11:48 -0700
From: Charles Merrin <cmerrin@flashcom.net>
To: merope@radix.net
Cc: mleonard@myfamilyinc.com, tstowell@chattanooga.net
Subject: FW: Recent acquisition of RootsWeb.com, Inc.
Teresa:
My name is Charles Merrin, and I am the Vice President of Marketing for
RootsWeb. After the merger, I will remain as the General Manager of the
RootsWeb group.
Thank you for your questions. Here are some answers.
Regarding the USGenWeb.org domain, we have offered to do whatever the
USGenWeb Board wants with it. I have been working with Tim Stowell to
determine the appropriate strategy. Regarding the .com and .net domains,
they are both in the hands of individuals and thus are not "owned" by
RootsWeb.
After the merger, we will continue to honor all agreements between RootsWeb
and the USGenWeb organization. Neither RootsWeb nor MyFamily will charge
for access to the USGenWeb data, nor will we use it in any way other than
its current use without the express permission of the contributor. Further,
as I have said publicly, we will continue to offer free, unlimited,
banner-free and link-free server space for all USGenWeb pages. Also, we
will continue to provide unlimited server space for the Archives. And as
always, in the unfortunate event that anyone decides to leave RootsWeb, we
will do our best to ensure a smooth transition.
Regarding more formal agreements between MyFamily, RootsWeb, and / or the
USGenWeb organization, we will do whatever seems most appropriate for each
situation. At this point, we don't envision the need for any changes.
Teresa, I suspect you won't notice any changes from the perspective of a
USGenWeb project manager, user, or coordinator. The RootsWeb team is
staying intact, and you will continue to work with the same people as you
have in the past.
Thank you for your questions and concerns.
CSM
Charles S. Merrin
Vice President, Marketing
RootsWeb.com
-----Original Message-----
From: merope
To: mleonard@myfamilyinc.com
Sent: 6/22/00 6:02 PM
Subject: Recent acquisition of RootsWeb.com, Inc.
Dear Mr. Leonard,
I am a member of the USGenWeb Project, and have read with interest of the
recent acquisition of RootsWeb.com, Inc, by MyFamily.com, Inc.
As I am sure you know, the national pages the USGenWeb Project is hosted by
RootsWeb, as is our Archives Project, most of our state pages, and some two
thirds of our county pages. Many of us have been with RootsWeb for years,
and as you can imagine, the prospect of RootsWeb changing ownership has us a
little anxious.
I have read both your press release on this topic and RootsWeb's
announcement, and I have several questions regarding how this merger will
affect the USGenWeb Project. I am hoping that you can answer them and that
you will allow me to forward your answers to my fellow project members. If
you cannot answer them, would you be so kind as to forward them to a person
who can, or provide me with contact information?
The first thing we would like to know is the status of our primary domain,
www.usgenweb.org, which is registered to "RootsWeb Genealogical Data
Cooperative"; this was RootsWeb's name before it incorporated in June 1999.
Will this domain become the property of MyFamily.com? Will either of the
other two USGenWeb domains (www.usgenweb.com, www.usgenweb.net) become the
property of MyFamily.com?
The USGenWeb Project has a long-standing but very informal agreement with
RootsWeb regarding the provision of free webspace, mailing lists, GenConnect
boards, search engines, and other services to all members of USGenWeb.
These services, unlike most other services on RootsWeb, are provided to us
without banner advertisements or required links [with the exception of the
search engines, which display banner ads]. Will the USGenWeb Project be
able to continue with this arrangement essentially unchanged? Of particular
concern to many of us is the potential for advertisement; USGenWeb has
always prided itself on its noncommercial nature and any sort of solicition
for funds has been a source of concern previously.
Our Archives Project also has a long standing but informal agreement with
RootsWeb for free storage of all files. This arrangement was a private
agreement between Dr. Brian Leverich and Ms. Linda Lewis, who heads the
Archives. It provides for free storage of and free access to the archived
transcriptions. Of particular concern to many of us is a clause in their
agreement that says the Archives will be hosted by RootsWeb and by no other
server. Will MyFamily.com recognize that agreement and continue to provide
unlimited free space for our Archives? as well as free access? Should the
USGenWeb find the relationship with MyFamily.com to be unsuitable, will the
Archives be allowed to move to another server?
Also, in regards to these agreements, will MyFamily.com be pursuing more
formal arrangements with the various hosted projects on RootsWeb, or will
RootsWeb basically be left to run itself as it always has? In other words,
will our interface as USGenWeb Project members be with MyFamily.com
personnel or with RootsWeb personnel?
Thank you very much for your time in answering these questions. I don't
mean to imply in any way that USGenWeb's relationship with MyFamily.com will
be negative, but I'm sure you can understand our surprise at this
announcement and our need to have these issues addressed formally so that we
can plan for our future. Also, I am not writing to you in any official
capacity, just as a project member. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
* Teresa Lindquist
Anderson, Shawnee, and Johnson counties, KSGenWeb/USGenWeb
merope@radix.net