Rootstech Innovator Showdown Semi-Finalists

The semi-finalists are...

Champollion 2.0
CSI Crowd Sourced Indexing

Cuzins

Double Match Triangulator
Emberall
JoyFLIPS
Kindex

OldNews USA

QromaTag

RootsFinder

See the official announcement and program details here: https://www.rootstech.org/innovator-showdown

Congratulations to the semi-finalists and thanks to all who entered apps in the competition.

I  spent an enjoyable couple of days last week evaluating the 42 entries for the Rootstech Innovator Showdown. I was honoured to receive an invitation be a judge on the selection panel for the semi-finals of this award.

Having met the other judges online I figure that I represented the older generation,  amateur genealogists, the southern hemisphere and women and Rockstar Genealogists (with Christine Woodcock from Canada).

The judges individually selected their top ten apps (and two reserves) from the list before we met to discuss our choices with David Pugmire from Familysearch in a teleconference earlier this week. There was a deal of consensus among the group but we also had lively debate on the merits of some programs. Once we settled on our list David and the Showdown organisers went away to give the good news to the semi-finalists. We came up with a worthy list of semi-finalists whose products will serve the diverse needs of family historians.

I look forward to attending the Innovator Showdown during the  Innovator Summit at Rootstech and hearing the developers pitch their products to the judges and audience. If you are going to be at Rootstech 2017 make sure you register for this event on Wednesday 8th February and be in attendance to support your fave software and developer. The five finalists chosen on this day will present their apps again during Rootstech on Friday 10th February where there are some handsome cash prizes on offer.

You can see what my genimate Christine had to say about our gig here: http://scottishgenealogytipsntricks.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/innovator-summit-semi-finalists.html

Great Teamwork

Thanks so much to my fellow panelists, Christine Woodcock, Kirsty Gray and Roger Moffat who joined me today at Rootstech to discuss Ëthical Dilemmas in an Online World. Although our audience was small exclusive it appeared to be a positive experience for those who joined us. One benefit of a small group is that one can actively involve audience members in the conversation.

A few attendees approached me afterwards to say that they had enjoyed the session, no-one went to sleep and no-one walked out. One person commented on Facebook "They had great hypothetical issues to discuss! Well done."

Thanks also to the many people from The British Commonwealth who came along to support our International Panel.

Following are some pictures of the event snapped by our official photographer, Sharn White. 

L-R Chriatine Woodcock, Roger Moffat, Kirsty Gray, Jill Ball

A Mansize Lectern

The Rootstech Photographer

Tricky Stuff

In just four weeks I will be taking to the stage at Rootstech with three of my genimates to discuss, in a panel session, some tricky topics in Dealing with Ethical Dilemmas in an Online World. 

Unfortunately one of our panelists, Pauleen, is no longer able to make the trip to Rootstech. I am delighted to announce that Canadian genealogist (and Scottish expert), Christine Woodcock, has agreed to join Kirsty Gray (England), Roger Moffat (proud Kiwi living in in the US) and me (flying the flag for Australia) to make up an international panel that represents five countries. Thank you so much Christine for agreeing to join us.

I do hope that some of our Genimates will join us in Room 151 of the Salt Palace (just across from the Exhibit Hall) at 4:40pm on Friday 2 February as we offer some suggestion for dealing with sticky situations.

Should you have some issues you would like us to discuss please contact one of the panelists and we will try to weave your dilemma into our chat.