Project: WikiTree Enhancements/Talk archive

This is an archive of the talk page for the Categorization Project. We are no longer using the talk pages, and are using G2G instead. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on G2G.

This archive was created on 24 April 2013.

Rootsdev and Open Source Developers

Last week, some open-source-minded developers on FamilySearch's "devnet" e-mail list discussed getting a group together. This was the product: rootsdev. They've had some really interesting discussions already.

Although WikiTree isn't likely to ever be completely open source and our data can't be public domain, if we're going to keep growing and reach our potential while keeping costs at a bare minimum, so that we can always be free, we need a more open and inclusive development process. This "WikiTree Enhancements" project here, and staying coordinated with what others are doing, like those on rootsdev, are attempts at this.

Whitten-1 08:21, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Ideas from James Davis

James Davis started a great conversation with me in G2G. He has ideas for projects he might want to help on. Below is initial list of possibilities. The bullet items are his, the indented comments are mine. James, if you want to reply to my notes indent with two colons and sign with the four tildes. But you probably knew that. Anyone else have input? Whitten-1 15:46, 26 September 2012 (EDT)

* WikiTree mobile app

What would it to do? One idea would be to make it easy to simply take pictures and upload them to profiles.

* a more advanced tree browser (think Web 2.0: AJAX, JavaScript display libraries, etc.)

Like Dallan's tree explorer on WeRelate? I think that's open source. If so, adapting it might be a good, high-benefit, relatively low-cost item to start with.

* ways to make it easier to pull data in from online resources (i.e. FamilySearch)

Yes, this is a big thing for me. I've wanted to work on a FindMatches-like tool based on APIs that enables a WikiTreer to find matching profiles on other websites and easily create deep links from the WikiTree profiles to the profiles or information on the other sites. The user would just be doing a few clicks; no HTML or mark-up. Maybe they'd have the opportunity to add notes or at least the anchor text. Essentially, the user would just be going through a list of possible matches on other sites and evaluating whether they're the same person as the person profiled on WikiTree.
Plus, Gordon Clarke and the group really want to encourage two-way interaction with the New FamilySearch Tree (their "WikiTree").
One pitfall: I'm not 100% sure the FamilySearch URLs are permanent yet. We'd need to confirm that they're committed to making sure their links won't break.

* ability to generate maps showing family migration (using i.e. Google Maps)

Not sure what this would entail.

* standardized place names

This has been on the wishlist forever. We standardize dates but not places. Dallan has done some work in this area. It would take lots of careful thought and planning, but probably worth whatever we put into it.

* standardized citation format

Source templates would be great. A major improvement for quality. There is that set of citation standards that some people have been talking about. Are you familiar with it? I'd need to dig up a link.

* ability to display larger descendant lists

The reason we don't include more generations in the current descendant lists is to save resources. I wrote a page with some excuses at Cutting costs. We moved to AWS servers (Amazon cloud) a few months back and have more processing power and bandwidth at our disposal than we used to. We might be able to add a few more generations. Or this could be an idea that we explore via an API or GEDCOM exports like the stuff that Daniel and Roland do.

* ability to display larger family trees

Partly this is the same resource-usage issue. But here it's also about the display of such a large tree. I think this merges into the "more advanced tree browser" topic above, right?

* more easily sharable trees, ancestor lists, etc.

Sounds good to me. If not a Facebook app or social network integration (see item below), what did you have in mind? I suppose there are lots of UI and flow improvements that could be made.

* better social media integration (a Facebook App?)

Facebook/Open ID login would be great. What else?


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