[Foundation-l] Rodovid.org, family tree wiki, wishes to become a wiki project

Mon Mar 27 14:03:19 UTC 2006

Ray Saintonge wrote:

>Robert Scott Horning wrote:
>  
>
>>All of these are aspects that are derived from Wikimedia users' 
>>experience with developing other on-line content.  The current internal 
>>push for this sort of development is where users like myself have been 
>>so used to how things are done with Wiki software that we wonder why 
>>this isn't be done for geneological research, where these ideas of free 
>>access to information and the ability to freely edit the information 
>>havn't yet caught on.
>>
>>    
>>
>Being able to freely edit is an important feature, but that opens up a 
>wide range of other problems like our policies on original research.
>
>Ec
>
>  
>
I think in this situation the term "original research" is not really 
applicable.  By definition all geneological research is all secondary 
research in terms of relying on other original source material to prove 
if a particular fact is true or not.  The closest that anybody is going 
to get to a traditional definition of original research with a project 
of this nature is going to be those who seek oral histories for groups 
of people who traditionally did not keep written records.  I have a 
brother-in-law with Ga ancestry (one of the tribal groups in Ghana) 
where this is the only source of that sort of knowledge.  This is an 
area of human knowledge, BTW, that is as fragile as linguistic 
preservation efforts, and a key part of the transmission of human culture.

I think this can be kept in check considerably with this sort of 
proposal for a geneoligical project, where research projects that have 
absolutely nothing to do with geneology would be prohibited.  Another 
point to make is perhaps the prohibition of fictional geneologies, such 
as the geneology of the Baggins Family from the works of J.R.R. Tolkein. 
 Even the use of ancient ancestral records such as those from classical 
religious texts like the Bible might be at least a point of discussion 
among participants.  I think this is going to be the grey area that 
would have to be in check, not the prohibition on original research to 
keep publication of crackpot ideas off of Wikipedia.  That is the main 
purpose of the no original research policy anyway... to politely tell 
people with these wild theories that Wikipedia is not a forum for 
primary publication of these concepts.  A UFO researcher adding 
genological information about the ancestral history of "the greys" would 
be justifiably laughed off any serious geneological forum.

-- 
Robert Scott Horning