Og is just blushing with pride. Thanks to Diane Haddad of Family Tree Magazine for including us in her 10 Biggest Genealogy Stories of 2007
Online videos are everywhere Thank Roots Television for this one. It actually launched in 2006, but expanded its coverage this year by sending crews to genealogy conferences and on cruises, and adding RootsTube (a genealogical version of YouTube where you can upload videos). Founder Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak says the site's roughly 400 shows (divided into 1,100 smaller chunks) are "pushing half a million video views."
And Og is positively glowing to be included in Dick Eastman's 2007 in Review.
Television on the Internet One major new genealogy service appeared on the Internet during 2007: RootsTelevision. This new "video-on-demand" service allows you to watch interviews, conference keynote speeches, "how to" instruction, and much more, all without leaving your computer. The video appears on your computer’s screen while accompanying audio plays on your computer’s speakers.Late in the year, RootsTelevision even recorded a number of episodes from a genealogy cruise ship, giving viewers some great insight into what happens on board. We even saw what may have been the first "genealogy wave." No, that's not a tidal wave overwhelming the ship. I had the pleasure of being involved in a few of those videos and must say that I am enthused with the concept of genealogy videos on the Internet.
I believe that video is going to become more and more popular on the Internet in the next few years. One of the most popular Internet sites of today is YouTube.com, a gigantic repository of all sorts of videos. Banking on the potential of this kind of service, Google acquired YouTube late in 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock. In 2007, RootsTelevision.com became a rather specialized video repository for genealogists. Perhaps RootsTelevision will be acquired for a billion dollars, too. (OK, so I am just kidding about the money. Seriously, this is a fascinating service that just might become an acquisition target for a well-financed organization that wishes to expand into genealogy for few million dollars or so.)
Make sure you check out both of these blogs to see what other genealogy news piqued our interest in 2007.
Og from Roots Television