07.31.07
Posted in Daily Journal at 12:01 am by Administrator
Facts can’t be copyrighted.
I was surprised when a friend of mine who practices copyright law first passed this information on to me. Reflecting on this statement, it makes sense. How could anyone claim copyright to the name of the ship on which their immigrant ancestor sailed, or the date of death of their great great grandfather, or the amount that an ancestor paid in monthly rent?
Recent legal opinion has even decided that certain compilations of facts, such as telephone directories, are not subject to copyright.
But what about compiled genealogies? What can I include in a published genealogy without infringing on someone else’s rights? And what rights do I have to the compilations I produce?
Genealogists generally like to share their discoveries by compiling a family tree and providing it to family members or other people who are researching the same line. Many genealogists share their discoveries online, posting GEDCOM files to sites such as RootsWeb, Ancestry.com, or to one of the new Web 2.0 applications for collaborative efforts in Family History Research.
On more than a few occasions, I’ve read tales of how someone shared their pedigree with someone else, only to find their own work published on the Internet without permission, often without any citation of the source of the pedigree. Those whose hard work has been published without their consent have sometimes been furious about having their work published.
So, what recourse does someone have when they find their work published without their consent and without attribution? Do those who produce compiled genealogies own copyright to their compilations of names, dates, and locations?
The facts themselves are not copyrightable. That much is clear. Certain compilations such as phone books are not copyrightable. But what about compiled genealogies?
Since compiled genealogies involve discovering relationships, finding facts in unusual locations, and carefully assembling the information to reflect the structure and organizations of ancestral families, complied genealogies are probably considered creative works and, therefore, are probably protected by copyright. The owner of the copyright to a compiled genealogy would probably have available whatever recourse is available under the applicable copyright laws.
So, can I incorporate several generations of genealogical information compiled by someone else into my own family history and publish the work without permission of the original compiler? Frequently, compiled genealogies are published without information about the person who conducted the research or compiled the work. But, anonymous works are still protected under the copyright laws.
I don’t know the answers to these questions. I’m not a copyright attorney and my opinions are mine alone. As others including footnoteMaven have recently pointed out, even the opinion of someone licensed to practice law is only an opinion. Decisions on copyright issues are generally made by the courts.
To protect the integrity of my work, I can:
- Incorporate information from other compiled genealogies into my own only after obtaining copies of source material used to support that information.
- Where appropriate, cite the original compiled genealogy as a source. This source will be a derivative source, but a source, nonetheless.
- Where possible, obtain permission from the original compiler before incorporating the work into my own published genealogy.
What about sources? Many of the sources genealogists use in their work are publicly available sources such as vital records, census records, and immigration records. Some sources, though, are oral histories, letters, diaries, phone conversations, and e-mail communications. Each of these sources is protected by copyright in and of themselves. Generally, citing sources without reproducing the original work is considered acceptable.
Still, great aunt Marge may not want her private letters to me cited as a source in a published genealogy.
And what about information on living individuals? Genealogists agree that it is never acceptable to publish information on living individuals in a publicly available medium. How about publishing information on living individuals in a family history available only to those named in the work? What about publishing potentially sensitive information such as illegitimate births, same sex relationships, and causes of death?
To avoid disenfranchisement of my relatives and the sources of personal communications, I can:
- Request permission to include personal communications as sources in compiled genealogies.
- Never publish information about living individuals in a publicly published genealogy.
- Request permission to include information about living individuals in family histories destined for distribution to family members.
- Request permission to include potentially sensitive information from those who might be impacted by publishing that information.
These suggestions will be difficult to reduce to practice. Even if I get permission from the person most closely affected by potentially sensitive information, some other member of the family may be aghast that the information is included.
While my decisions may not always be perfect, I’ll evaluate the information I intend to publish and decide what to include and what information for which to request permission on a case-by-case basis. And I’ll certainly have to consider whether something I publish has the potential to harm someone else.
Even this approach is not without an ethical dilemma. By choosing not to report certain information I may risk compromising the integrity and accuracy of my work.
What to do? Well, I’ll do the best that I can.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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07.30.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland at 12:01 am by Administrator
After the formation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, the chief administrative division in Poland was the Wojwództwo, translated into English as Voivodeship, Administrative District, or Province.
After the third partition of Poland on 24 Oct 1795, Poland ceased to exist as a nation. The territory had been divided among Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Polish territory in the Russian Partition was divided into sixteen Gubernias. These divisions were changed repeatedly after the partitions.
The Napoleonic Wars led to the formation of the Duchy of Warsaw on 09 Jun 1807 from some of the territory formerly partitioned by Prussia and Russia. On 14 Oct 1809, part of the Austrian partition was also included in the Duchy. The Duchy was divided into Departments, rather than Gubernias.
In 1815, the Congress of Vienna redistributed the Polish lands and created the Congress Kingdom of Poland and, in 1816, the Congress Kingdom of Poland was divided into eight Voivodeships.
This terminology was short-lived, however. After the November Uprising, Russia tightened its grip on the Congress Kingdom of Poland and, on 07 Mar 1837, the administrative divisions were once again called Gubernias. In 1844, the number of Gubernias was reduced from eight to five.
In 1867, after the failed January Uprising, the structure of the Gubernias changed once again. Moreover, the Russian government no longer referred to the territory as the Congress Kingdom of Poland, but as the Vistulan Country or Vistulaland. The names of the Gubernias after 1867 were:
- Kalisz Gubernia
- Kielce Gubernia
- Lublin Gubernia
- Łomża Gubernia
- Piotrków Gubernia
- Płock Gubernia
- Radom Gubernia
- Siedlce Gubernia
- Suwałki Gubernia
- Warsaw Gubernia
These are the Gubernias seen on maps of the Congress Kingdom of Poland from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Finally, in 1912, Chełm Gubernia was formed from parts of the Siedlce and Lublin Gubernias. Chełm Gubernia was administered directly by the Russia Empire, while the other Gubernias were administered through the Vistulan Country.
And so, with all the changes that happened within the territory in this time period, it’s no wonder that anyone has questions about how to describe the location of a Polish village at any given point in history.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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07.29.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Maps, Gazetteers at 12:01 am by Administrator
When Eric first contacted me for help on how to find the records for his Polish ancestors, I showed the Słownik Geograficzny entry for the village of Szulmierz, the village in which his great grandfather was born.
The Słownik Geograficzny entry for Szulmierz did not mention the name of the parish for Szulmierz, but indicated that the reader should compare the entries for Sulmierz and Dunoch. The entry for Sulmierz stated that the parish was located in Niedzborz. The entry for Dunoch stated that the Dunoch was a forested area belonging to Kosiczyn, Szulmierz, Włosty and others, and that the parishes for this area were in Koziczynek and Lekowo.
So, which of these choices is the place where the records of the residents of Szulmierz are located?
Map of the Village of Szulmierz and Vicinity
SOURCE: 3rd Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary, Sheet 38-53, Mlawa. Online http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/200e/38-53.jpg; downloaded 25 Jun 2007.
The map of Szulmierz also shows the locations of the parishes of Koziczynek and Lekowo.
Niedzborz is not on this map and, in fact, is too far from Szulmierz to be a reasonable distance to travel on foot, by horse, or by wagon. I conclude now that Sulmierz and Szulmierz were two different villages, and that the parish for Szulmierz must be either Koziczynek or Lekowo.
Fortunately for Erik, the Family History Library has microfilmed the records of both of these parishes.
Seeing the location of Szulmierz on a map came as a bit of a surprise to me, because Szulmierz is very close to some of my own ancestral villages in Poland. If you look at the far right of the map above, you’ll find the village of Klonowo, and if you look at the lower right hand corner, you’ll find Pałuki, the location of Klonowo’s parish.
And, if that wasn’t enough of a blogging coincidence, take a look at the village between Szulmierz and Koziczynek. It’s a village named Lipa - a village named for the linden tree. Jasia of Creative Gene recently wrote about her surname Lipa and the significance of the linden tree in Poland.
Gazetteers can provide a lot of information about a locality. Maps can provide a visual aid to the geography. The two, together, can provide more genealogical clues than either one alone.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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07.28.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Maps at 12:01 am by Administrator
Historical maps of Poland are easier and easier to come by on the web.
Euratlas.com provides a series of maps of Europe through the past 2000 years, allowing the viewer to see how the map of Europe changed with time.
While these maps provide a good overview of Europe, most Polish genealogists will also want to see higher resolution maps.
Two of the best, high-resolution historical maps of Poland available on the web are the Illustrated Geographic Atlas from 1907 (on the website of the Polish Genealogical Society of America) and the Miltary Maps of the Austrian Empire from about 1900-1910. The Military Maps of the Austrian Empire cover much of central and eastern Europe, not just Poland.
The Polish village of Pyrzowice is included on both maps but, in the Illustrated Geographic Atlas, the name of the village is spelled Pyżowice. In Polish, the letters “rz” and “ż” are pronounced identically, so the spelling difference is not unexpected.
Map of the Village of Pyrzowice and Vicinity
SOURCE: 3rd Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary, Sheet 37-50, Oswiecim. Online http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/200e/37-50.jpg; downloaded 27 Jul 2007.
Click on the map above to see a larger and more deailed image.
Not only is Pyrzowice shown on the Military Map of the Austrian Empire, but the parish of Sączów is also shown. Sączów is the place where the records for the village of Pyrzowice were maintained. Unfortunately, the Family History Library Catalog does not yet appear to have records from Sączów on microfilm.
I remember that, at a conference of the United Polish Genealogical Societies, a representative of the Family History Library showed the locations in Poland where the Library was planning to film records, and western Poland was on their schedule. With luck, Sączów may be one of the parishes to be filmed in the near future.
Tomorrow: How using gazetteers and maps together can help answer genealogical questions.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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07.27.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland, Gazetteers at 12:01 am by Administrator
Yesterday, I wrote about the location of the Polish village of Pyrzowice at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. An unambiguous way to identify the location at that time would be:
Pyrzowice, Ożarowice Gmina, Będzin Powiat, Piotrków Gubernia, Congress Kingdom of Poland
Of course, the village didn’t move around; it wasn’t located in physically different places at different times. However, because the borders of Poland changed, and the administrative districts in which Pyrzowice changed, it is important to modify the descriptors of the location to reflect the political boundaries at different times in history.
But how does one find these descriptors? The answer is to consult maps and gazetteers of the appropriate time period.
A valuable gazetteer of Poland for the late 19th century and early 20th century is the Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (The Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and Other Slavonic Countries).
The village of Pyrzowice appears in volume IX on page 328 of that monumental work:
Słownik Geograficzny Entry for Pyrzowice
Source: Chlebowski, Bronisław, Władysław Walewski, and Filip Sulimierski, eds., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries) - Warsaw 1888, Volume IX, page 328.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Słownik Geograficzny entry for Pyrzowice. Translated from the Polish, the entry states:
Pyrzowice, a village and grange [large manorial farmstead], Powiat [District] będziński, Ożarowice gmina [municipality], Sączów parish; the village has 26 homes, 256 residents, 23 settlements, and 331 mórgs [about 1.388 mórgs per acre] in the manor; the grange has 4 homes, 1006 mórgs (in this 500 mórgs of cultivated land). The territory of the manor house belongs to the holdings of the Reverend Hugo Hohenlohe. In 1827, there were 22 homes and 105 residents. According to Długosz, in the 15th century the village of Pyrzowice was in the Sączów parish, the property of Stanisław Rudzki, the Count of Pilaw. It had 22 fields from which tithes of 6 grosze [pennies] was paid to the Bishop of Kraków; out of this, measures of barley and oats were given to the parish priest in Sżczów (Długosz, Liber Beneficiorum, volume II, page 202). In a second place, this historian provides different details, namely that Pyrzowice was the property of Jan Feliks Tarnowski, it had 12 fields from which tithes of 6 grosze from the fields was given to the Bishop of Kraków. The value of the tithes amounted to 1 grzywnas [historical silver coins worth several denarii] (Liber Beneficiorum, volume III, page 73).
Bronisław Chlebowski
The words and descriptions in square brackets are my own annotations.
Jan Długosz was a historian who included historical information about Polish villages in his multivolume work entitled Liber beneficiorum ecclesiae Cracoviensis (Book of the Benefices of the Bishopric of Krakow). This work is referenced in many places in the Słownik Geograficzny.
The name Bronisław Chlebowski at the end of the article is the name of the author of the article on Pyrzowice.
The name of the country in which the village of Pyrzowice was located at various times in history include:
-
1025-1569 - Kingdom of Poland (Królestwo Polskiego)
-
1569-1795 - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów)
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1795-1807 - Kingdom of Prussia
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1807-1815 - Duchy of Warsaw
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1815-1864 - Congress Kingdom of Poland
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1864-1918 - Congress Kingdom of Poland; also called Vistulaland (Privislinskii krai)
-
1918-1945 - Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska), although this name was not officially established until 1921; also called the Second Republic of Poland
-
1945-1989 - People’s Republic of Poland (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa)
-
1989-Present - Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska); also called the Third Republic of Poland
Tomorrow: Maps of Poland from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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07.26.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Poland at 12:01 am by Administrator
Erik, who previously wrote to me asking how to find ancestral records in Poland, has another question about Polish research. He asks about the proper way to enter the names of Polish villages in a family history to reflect the political landscape at the time one’s ancestors lived there.
This is a great question and a particularly difficult one to deal with for Poland, since the borders of Poland changed many times throughout history and the political subdivisions changed as well.
To record the location of a Polish village, one must not only where your ancestors lived, but when they lived there. Eric’s ancestors were from the villages of Pyrzowice and Szulmierz, and the discussion below is specific to those villages.
- From 1569-1795, Pyrzowice and Szulmierz were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a state that covered a large portion of central and eastern Europe.
- Beginning in 1772, the Commonwealth was partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria. As best as I can tell on the maps I’ve looked at so far, Pyrzowice and Szulmierz both remained in Poland until the third partition in 1795. At that time, both of these villages were incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia where they remained from 1795-1807.
- The Napoleonic Wars resulted in another change in the boundaries, and between 1807-1815 both Pyrzowice and Szulmierz belonged to the Duchy of Warsaw, under French authority.
- After Napoleon’s defeat, Pyrzowice and Szulmierz were part of a state that was established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and existed under control of Russia. The name Congress Kingdom of Poland is used to describe this region between 1815 and 1918, although the names Congress Poland and Kingdom of Poland are also used. The name Vistulaland is also sometimes used to refer to the Congress Kingdom of Poland between 1864-1918.
- Poland regained its independence and became known as the Republic of Poland between 1918-1945, but was also referred to as the Second Republic of Poland.
- In June 1945 at the Yalta Conference, Poland’s borders were completely changed and the new country was known as the People’s Republic of Poland. This name was used until the overturn of the Communist government in 1989.
- Since 1989, Poland has been officially known as the Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska), although it is also referred to as the Third Republic of Poland.
Erik’s great grandparents were born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a common time period for many Polish immigrants to America. Both of Erik’s great grandparents were born in the Congress Kingdom of Poland or Vistulaland.
In a previous article, I reported that, at the time Erik’s great grandparents were born, the village of Szulmierz was in the Regimin Gmina, Ciechanów Powiat, Płock Gubernia, Congress Kingdom of Poland. Gmina may be defined as a municipality, Powiat may be defined as a district, and gubernia may be defined as a province. I would enter the name of this village in my genealogy software as:
Szulmierz, Regimin Gmina, Ciechanów Powiat, Płock Gubernia, Congress Kingdom of Poland
This should be enough detail to allow someone else to find the village. Because several Polish villages in different parts of the country may have the same name, it’s important to list the Gmina, the Powiat, and the Gubernia, if known.
Sometimes, one will see the name of the powiat written as powiat chiechanowski. This is the adjectival form of the powiat name. Ciechanów Powiat uses the noun form of the powiat name. Likewise, one may see the name of the gubernia written as gubernia płockiej, which is also an adjectival form. Either is acceptable, but the noun form of the name might be more palatable to those whose native language is English.
At the time Erik’s great grandparents were born, the village of Pyrzowice was in the Ożarowice Gmina, Będzin Powiat, and Piotrków Gubernia of the Congress Kingdom of Poland. I would write the name in my genealogy software as:
Pyrzowice, Ożarowice Gmina, Będzin Powiat, Piotrków Gubernia, Congress Kingdom of Poland
The adjectival form of the powiat name is powiat będziński, and the adjectival form of the gumbernia name id gubernia piotrkowskiej.
Many genealogy programs won’t allow the entry of the Polish diacritical marks, and so you may have to just leave the diacritical marks off.
Tomorrow: The Słownik Geograficzny entry for Pyrzowice.
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07.25.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Blogs at 12:01 am by Administrator
The last two presentations on Sunday at WordCamp 2007 were low-key presentations by the developers at WordPress.
State of the Word
Matt Mullenweg, lead developer and cofounder of WordPress (and the man behind WordCamp), spoke about the State of the Word.
Matt first answered questions that everyone wants to ask about WordPress.
- There are 16 people at Automattic, the company behind WordPress
- There are 100 full-time people working on WordPress worldwide
- Automattic makes money on WordPress paid sites and commercial use of WordPress and the Akismet spam-catcher
In the last year, the WordPress community developed bbPress, MU 1.0, autosave, tabbed editing, import & export, Ajax, extensions to XML-PRC, custom headers, and widgets.
There have been 10 releases of WordPress in the last year and 2,849,349 downloads of the WordPress platform. On WordPress.com, there have been 1,041,846 new blogs, 20,212,994 new posts, 1,648,046,157 page views, and billions of spam targeting blogs.
Matt said that Automattic has done very well at what they’re good at and haven’t done well at what they’re not good at. Matt described his vision of WordPress as a small, light platform. WordPress doesn’t have to do everything.
Matt also envisions modifications to make it easier for users to customize their designs and allow users to extract content in WordPress to other applications. Other planned improvements include plug-in update notification, tags, an improved “draft” and “pending” systems, and internationalization by translation into other languages.
Automattic has planned to announce a major release every four months, meaning that version 2.3 should be released in September and 2.4 in January.
Image handling is one of the weakest parts of WordPress and is a priority for development. Audio and video handling are also important areas for improvement. These functions are currently in plug-ins but may be moved to the core.
Developer Duke-out
Matt Mullenweg emceed the Developer Duke-out, asking questions of a panel of four WordPress developers: Mark Jaquith, Donncha O’Caoimh, Michael Adams, and Andy Skelton. Questions were also invited from the audience.
Q: What plug-ins do you use?
A: Ajax, comments subscription, Hello Dolly, Akismet, stats
Q: What’s your favorite beer?
A: Becks, Leffe, Chocolate Stout, Magic Hat #9
Q: What is most important to get done
A: Automatic update for plug-ins and core, better media, photos
Q: Should WordPress and WordPress MU be combined?
A: They almost are, it would add more bulk, MU has a lot that most people don’t need
Q: What theme do you use?
A: Sandbox
Q: How timely should security issues be fixed?
A: Three releases a year, sometimes they are released instantly, several fixes may be related and bundled, it depends on the severity
Q: What would you use if WordPress were not available?
A: TextPattern, nothing (drink the Kool-Aid)
Q: How do you deal with a theme that doesn’t work with a plug-in?
A: Go to IRC or WordPress forums to explain the problem
Q: Should WordPress be marketed as a Content Management System?
A: No, no, maybe, maybe
Q: What is your favorite thing to work on in WordPress?
A: low-lying fruit, PayPal instant notification, bbPress, BackPress, writing new code to fix problems that people don’t really know about yet
Q: How do you backup?
A: Gmail account, scripter, depends on host, do MySQL dump every night
Q: What do you do when you’re not programming?
A: Computer games, motorcycling, read, photograph, take car of baby, photograph, walk
Q: What would you change about photo resizing and Flickr tie-in?
A: Behind the scenes resizing - there’s a plug-in, easier way to find images
Q: Parsing XML: XMLParse or regular expressions?
A: Depends, reg ex, no idea, reg ex
Q: Boxers or briefs?
A: boxer briefs, boxers, boxer briefs, boxers
Q: Should we continue IIS?
A: Not that difficult, but MU doesn’t support it
Q: When was the last time you posted to a support forum?
A: A month ago, last week, June
Q: What’s the ghettoist thing you’ve done with WordPress?
A: Blogs of the day, theme, theme, deleted blogs that weren’t backed up, blog order form for Taco Tuesday
Q: How do you get a developer to work on a great idea you have for a new plug-in?
A: Ask, sometimes if it’s cool or easy, they’ll want to work on it, beer
Q: Mac or Windows?
A: Mac with parallels but also like a PC, Mac or Linux + nano text editor, Linux Mac vim, Mac textmate
Q: If we were to write WordPress in a different language?
A: Python, BF, XSLT
Q: Should the default BlogRoll stay or go?
A: It should go, one the face it could just include WordPress resources, don’t care
Q: How about a credits page in the Admin?
A: yes, yes, yes, yes
And so ended WordCamp 2007. For more information (almost to the point of information overload) with photos, information on the speakers and attendees (I was attendee 308, I think, and as of today information on only the first 300 were posted), and synopses of the sessions, visit The WordCamp Report by Patrick Havens.
Copyright © 2007 Stephen J. Danko
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07.24.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Blogs at 12:01 am by Administrator
On Sunday afternoon, after a barbeque lunch and musical entertainment from Andy Skelton, the WordCamp 2007 sessions continued.
The Past, Present, and Future of Web Publishing
The first session of the afternoon was Past, Present, and Future of Web Publishing by Dave Winer.
Blogging, Podcasting, and Unconferencing are all similar forms of communication on the web. Developers of the platforms for these applications should design the platform from the standpoint of the user. When the developers lose track of the user, the product gets off track.
Dave Winer is often credited with publishing the first blog. He said, however, that the first blog was actually the first website at CERN.
In Dave’s position as contributing editor at Wired in February 1996, Dave was involved in a project to fight censorship on the web. In an effort called 24 Hours of Democracy, users were encouraged to publish as many articles on democracy as they could. The mail list used for this effort flamed out.
On a mail list everyone has the final say on an issue. On a mail list, people argue that others can’t say something. On a blog, this doesn’t happen because noone posting a comment can tell the author of the blog what he or she cannot say. Mail lists may start out productive, but many suddenly become non-productive.
Consideration should be made to making blog archives future-safe. Why shouldn’t today’s blogs still be available in a hundred years? Technology and platforms change and present a challenge to making what is written in blogs today available in the future. Archive.org may be a possible solution, but Archive.org has not been around very long. A solution to this problem may be to partner Archive.org with an organization like Harvard and allow people to archive their work there in exchange for an endowment.
Data portability is an issue. Can the entire contents of a blog be transferred to another platform as platforms change with time? In WordPress 2.1 portability was included by not tested between platforms.
Social networking platforms such as Twitter, FaceBook, Pownce, and MySpace generated some discussion. While Dave didn’t understand the appeal of FaceBook, it appeared that the way most people found out about the WordCamp party on Saturday night was through FaceBook.
Usability Analysis of WordPress
Liz Danzico from Happy Cog discussed the Usability Analysis of WordPress commissioned by WordPress.
It’s important to get noticed (by Google, for example), but people don’t notice good design. Bad design forces people to change the design.
Liz quoted Mark Jaquith from 21 Feb 200&:
“That’s when I know WordPress is doing its job: when people aren’t aware they’re using it because they’re too busy using it.”
Happy Cog created user personas and watched people use the WordPress Admin. As a consequence, a revision of the Admin is coming in WordPress 2.4. The revision will be based on the paths that people actually use. Users tend not to care what the designers intended. The decisions on the changes to the admin will be based not on what the users say, but on what they actually do, as observed by Happy Cog.
On the WordPress Dashboard, the latest activity is all people really care about, so the dashboard will be redesigned to reflect that observation.
People don’t like surprises. Showing people something they’ve never seen before or showing something in a new way is great for blog content, but it’s not good for the Admin section of a blog platform. An attempt is being made to standardize the headers on each page of the Admin to ensure consistency among the pages.
The Admins of many blogging platforms are positioned as objects (nouns), but on WordPress the Admin is positioned as actions (verbs). Analysis of experiments with users to see if nouns or verbs were preferred by WordPress users showed that verbs are the answer.
Drafts of posts are not drafts most of the time. In the new Admin, posts will be identified as Published, Scheduled, or Unpublished.
Other possible changes discussed were:
- a visual display of what a widget will look like on the blog,
- separation of primary navigation from utilities,
- the ability to reply to comments from within the comment panel rather than from the post,
- Admin themes or skins,
- better photo management, including a more visual uploading process and the ability to specify different sizes,
- a redesign of video and audio,
- tags
- relocation of Plug-Ins
Liz summarized her discussion:
- Be voyeurs,
- Don’t surprise people,
- Anticipate what people need,
- Don’t be brief at the cost of clarity
- Show, don’t tell
- Never stop at a dead end.
Tomorrow: The Finale of WordCamp 2007.
Copyright © 2007 Stephen J. Danko
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07.23.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Blogs at 12:01 am by Administrator
Last year, for the first time, the folks at WordPress decided to host the first WordCamp, a one day, all day seminar on WordPress. I attended last year and learned a lot, especially because I had only been blogging on WordPress for three months at the time.
I signed up for WordCamp again this year, but this years’ event was a two day event, and despite my best efforts I was only able to attend on Sunday.
Since I’m not a Tech Geek, some of the presentations were a bit over my head. Nonetheless, I had a great time and learned a lot. What follows is a summary of what I learned from the first three presentations at WordCamp 2007 on Sunday.
HyperDB and High Performance WordPress
The morning began with a presentation by Barry Abrahamson and Matt Mullenweg on HyperDB and High Performance WordPress.
The presentation described ways to serve as many users as possible with a reasonable amount of resources. Without going into details, the basic configuration of WordPress can serve 8 requests per second and 691,200 page views per day. This default configuration is good enough for most WordPress installations.
Using different caches, the performance can be improved as much as 25-fold.
WordPress.com hosts over 1.2 million blogs and serves over 10 million pageviews per day.
Blogs on the New York Times
Jeremy Zilar discussed his responsibilities managing blogs at the New York Times. The New York Times hosts over 100 blogs, although there are currently 30-40 active blogs, and primarily uses one blog template. All blogs run off of a single install of WordPress, and together enjoy 13 million pageviews per month.
Jeremy showed the City Room blog at the New York Times and mentioned that in print media, writers essentially have a one-way communication with the reader. Blogs allow the writer to engage the readers and most readers have something to say. Blogs generate controversy and drama and many readers will comment in extreme situations and when they feel safe.
Designing Massively Multiplayer Social Systems
Rashmi Sinha presented a talk on Designing Massively Multiplayer Social Systems and discussed a project she is working on called SlideShare. She mentioned that second generation social networks allow individuals to link to each other based on common interests.
Services such as LinkedIn allow people to connect with each other by sending invitations to link together, providing a somewhat artificial environment. Object-based social networks provide a different way to connect.
With these object-based networks, people share objects and view the objects others share. Content that someone finds interesting (such as a video on YouTube) is passed on to others. Rashmi referred to this as viral sharing, since the sharing of these objects spreads throughout the network.
Other social networks include tag-based social sharing such as del.icio.us and social news creation by rating news stories such as digg.
SlideShare offers users to share presentations. People share lesson plans, cartoons, paintings, humor, activism, mother’s day cards, and talk slides, among others.
Rashmi mentioned that the positions of early bloggers who became popular are hard to dislodge. When someone’s blog is popular, its popularity helps it become even more popular. The rich get richer.
When starting out, a blog’s popularity is more important than quality. People who are well-known tend to get mobs following them when they start a blog.
One observation Rashmi shared was that on social networks such as SlideShare where the actions of users can be tracked, the host can determine which objects are most popular by tag, comment, views, embed, download, and email. Of course, when a given object is listed at the top of one of these categories, such as the most viewed, others tend to also view that content. Thus, the most viewed are viewed even more.
Tomorrow: More from WordCamp 2007.
Copyright © 2007 Stephen J. Danko
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07.22.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Italy at 12:01 am by Administrator
A week ago, Apple posted an article on Nardozzi Genealogy. Apple describes how she found most of the US records for her husband’s Nardozzi ancestors, but she writes:
“I know that the family came from Rionero in Vulture, Province of Potenza, Basilicata Region, Italy. I don’t speak or read Italian and really have no idea where to go from here…”
My Experience Researching Italian Ancestry
Back in April, when I last visited the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City, one of my goals was to research the Italian ancestry of a woman named Rose who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Rose knew little of her family history, although she knew the dates and locations of the births of both her parents, and she knew the names of her grandparents. Rose’s parents were both born in Augusta, Siracusa, Sicily, immigrated separately to America, and were married here in the Bay Area.
The Family History Library Catalog
Before I left for Salt Lake City, I searched the Family History Library Catalog to see if the FHL had microfilmed copies of records from Augusta. The FHL Catalog showed that the library had copies of the Registri dello stato civile (Civil Registrations), 1820-1929 and the Riveli di beni e anime, Augusta (Siracusa), 1682-1815.
- Registri dello stato civile = Registrations of the Civil State (Civil Registrations)
- Riveli di beni e anime = Revelations of Goods and Souls (Census Records)
The Civil Registrations included nati, pubblicazioni, matrimoni, morti, allegati, diversi, memorandum, and cittadinanze.
- nati = births
- pubblicazioni = publications (of banns of marriage)
- matrimoni = marriages
- morti = deaths
- allegati = attachments (documents to support the marriage, see below)
- diversi = diverse
- memorandum = memorandum
- cittadinanze = citizenship
So, this looked very promising! The Civil Registrations alone range from 1820 to 1929, and the census records encompass the years 1682-1815! I’ve rarely been so lucky in my own research to find microfilmed records that covered such a long period of time for a single location.
Well, I started by looking for the most recent records and worked my way back in time. The civil registrations are in Italian (church records would be in Latin) and, since I’ve studied Latin but not Italian, I fully expected that I would have difficulty reading the records and that I might be able to find records for only one or two generations.
Finding The Records on Microfilm
I found the birth records for both of Rosa’s parents fairly quickly. Among other information, the birth records provided the dates and locations of birth and baptism, the names of the parents, and the age and profession of the father.
I then looked for the marriage records of Rosa’s grandparents. Among other information, the marriage records provided the date and place of the marriage, the names and ages of the bride and groom, and the names and ages of the parents of the bride and groom.
In addition to the marriage records, I found the allegati - attachments - which were a set of documents to support the marriage. The allegati included copies of the birth records for the bride and groom and death records for deceased parents of the bride and groom. The death records for the parents of the bride and groom named the grandparents of the bride and groom, and so the allegati provided information on three generations!
Well, I looked back in time for earlier generations and found civil registration records for Rose’s parents, her grandparents, her great-grandparents, and even six of her great-great grandparents going back as far as 1803. The records themselves only went back to 1820, but those records provided the names and ages of parents, allowing me to go back one generation more than the records themselves.
Quite a successful day, and I barely made a dent in the available records!
Apple’s Research
Apple has a good start on finding records for her husband’s Italian ancestors. She knows that her husband’s grandfather’s name was Gennaro Nardozza and that Gennaro was from Rionero in Vulture, Province of Potenza, Basilicata Region, Italy. He arrived at Ellis Island on 17 Mar 1904 at age 24, meaning that he was born in about 1880. Apple has additional documents and, if she’s lucky, some of those documents show the names of Gennaro’s parents.
The Family History Library has microfilmed records from Rionero in Vulture (Potenza). Ufficio dello stato civile, Registri dello stato civile (Office of the civil state, Registers of the civil state), 1809-1860. The records include nati, pubblicazioni, matrimoni, morti, allegati.
Assuming Gennaro was born in 1880, Apple won’t find Gennaro’s birth records in the FHL records because the records for this location were microfilmed only up through 1860. For the same reason, it’s also unlikely that she’ll find the marriage records for Gennaro’s parents. However, Gennaro’s parents may have been born in 1860 or before, and so, if Apple knows the names of Gennaro’s parents, she may be able to find records of their births in the microfilmed records at the FHL. Apple can order of these microfilms through her local Family History Center and view them there.
But, even if Apple doesn’t know the names of Gennaro’s parents, she could write to Italy for Gennaro’s birth and baptismal records, using the Italian Letter Writing Guide available on the FamilySearch website. Those records should show the names of Gennaro’s parents and she can move backwards in time from there.
Best of luck with your Italian research, Apple!
Research Assistance and References
The FamilySearch site provides assistance for researching Italian records. Look under the “Search” tab for “Research Helps” and “Research Guidances” and then look for “Italy”. The FHL also provides an incredibly helpful, full-color publication entitled Finding Records of Your Ancestors, Part A. ITALY 1809 to 1910. I couldn’t find this publication online, but it can be ordered from the FHL.
Here are some other references to get you started in Italian Family History Research:
Cole, Trafford R. 1995. Italian genealogical records: how to use Italian civil, ecclesiastical & other records in family history research. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry.
Colletta, John Philip. 2003. Finding Italian roots: the complete guide for Americans. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub. Co.
Nelson, Lynn. 1997. A genealogist’s guide to discovering your Italian ancestors: how to find and record your unique heritage. Cincinnati, Ohio: Betterway Books.
Copyright © 2007 Stephen J. Danko
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