Genea-Bodies

A great GeniMate from Rootstech, Joan Miller, wrote a thoughtful piece in her Luxegen blog today "Genea-Bodies: The New Somebodies".  She says "We Genea-Bodies have a voice.  A collective voice.  A passionate voice.  And we talk about our passion."   I encourage you to read Joan's post and the comments that follow. 

I usually just write a line or two in a blog comment but was so fired up by Joan's post that I nearly wrote an essay. Here is what I said:

"For this opinionated little Granny from downunder to have a voice is an honour and a responsibility. Social networking tools have made this possible. 

I took my role as an official Rootstech blogger and tweeter very seriously and hopefully my contributions assisted in getting the news out about this fantastic event. My blog statistics were certainly up during February.

Evaluation is an important part of any process; social networking tools facilitate evaluation that could not previously occur. The ability of Genea-Bodies to contribute to conversation on all facets of genealogy is empowering. I can voice my opinion, be noticed and take part in discourse with others….and some people listen and take notice of little me!

Ten years ago we had virtually no influence. If we bought a shonky product we just whinged to the provider, if advertisers made unrealistic claims we could not easily point out their errors or if we had a great idea we could write an article that might not be published. 

Now we can keep people on their toes. Genea-Bodies contributions about and evaluations of issues, services, products and resources via blogs, Twitter etc will lead to improvement in products and new knowledge in our field. 

“You’re nobody until somebody loves you” – social media provides the love to turn us all into "somebodies."