Innovator Showdown Winners

I was thrilled when three of my favourite entries received awards in the Innovator Showdown Finals at Rootstech.

Here is the Announcement from Familysearch:

Salt Lake City, UT,

February

11,

2017

OldNews USA Wins Top Honors at RootsTech 2017 Innovator Showdown

Old news, it seems, is actually “new” news. Very innovative news in fact. Today at RootsTech, the world’s largest family history technology conference, OldNews USA took top honors in the 2017 Innovator Showdown, walking away with $95,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. OldNews is an android app designed to help users quickly discover their family in historical US newspapers. The app uses the Library of Congress “Chronicling America” collection of more than 11 million newspaper pages from 1789 to 1922 to deliver its results.

In front of a crowd of close to 14,000 live and online viewers, the six RootsTech Innovator Showdown finalists battled for $199,000 in cash and prizes and bragging rights in the rapidly-growing, multi-billion dollar family history industry. An experienced amateur genealogist, Bill Nelson of Auburn, Massachusetts, designed the program as a solution to tedious, difficult online newspaper searches. The OldNews USA app was designed to simplify and streamline the search process.

Using keywords, users can look for newspaper accounts of a person or topic with the option to look at articles of historical events. In a person search, you type names and dates into your mobile device and choose a location on Google Maps which produces a list of newspapers in the targeted geographic area for a time period. It brings up images of the actual newspapers with the name or event you are seeking highlighted so you can quickly locate it on the page. Images can be enlarged for easier access to detail.

Nelson is a software developer by trade. “I was new to android and needed something to practice on. I had felt the pain points of newspaper research and thought ‘this would be a good project,’” he said. Initially he developed the app for his own use, then realizing it could help other researchers, he expanded it into a mobile app.

OldNews is compatible with Android devices, but Nelson is working to create an app for IOS devices and computers. With his winnings, he can now get business and technological assistance to accelerate development. While OldNews USA is designed to search US newspapers, he hopes to adapted the app for other countries.

The 5 finalists were whittled down from more than 40 applicants from around the world. Each took three minutes to convince the panel of five judges and live audience that their product was deserving of a chunk of the $190,000 in cash and prizes.

The major sponsors of the Innovator Showdown this year included Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kickstarter Seed Fund, Sorenson Legacy Foundation, and others.

After each presentation, there was a four-minute question and answer period between each contestant and the judges. The judges then selected the top three winners, and the viewing audience selected the People’s Choice Award winner.

With $190,000 in cash and in-kind prizes and services from sponsors at stake—an increase of nearly $100,000 from the original projection—the pressure, tension, and energy of the event was tremendous.

2017 RootsTech Showdown Winners

• First Place Judges’ Choice ($90,000 cash, AWS credits, and an investment from Kickstart Seed Fund), Bill Nelson of OldNews USA.
• Second Place Judges’ Choice ($44,000 cash and AWS credits), The Qroma tag mobile app for embedding stories into pictures, tagging them by voice commands, and making the data accessible on various platforms.
• Third Place Judges’ Choice Award ($26,000 cash and AWS credits), Louis Kessler, Double Match Triangulator, an app to help sort DNA matches into groups of relatives.
• People’s Choice ($25,000 cash and AWS credits), Kindex, an app designed to help users create searchable, shareable archives of family letters and other documents using tags to help users easily locate information.

Emberall was the other finalist. It provides a method to capture and store pictures and videos creating an accessible archive.

The judges for the final round included Alan Doan, CEO of Missouri Star Quilt Company, John Richards, Founder and CEO of Startup Ignition, Kenyatta Berry, host of The Genealogy Road Show, Thomas MacEntee, founder of High-Definition Genealogy, and Dalton J. Wright, partner in Kickstart Seed Fund.

The Innovator Showdown, now in its third year, was designed to foster innovation in the family history industry.

Innovator Showdown Semi-Finals

I attended for the first time in my Rootstech History the semi-finals of the Innovator Showdown. It was a most exciting and invigorating event in which ten new and innovative software applications were vying for a place in the finals on Friday 10 February where they will have the opportunity to win part of a $190,000 prize pool.

Those competing were:

Champollion 2.0 , CSI: Crowd Sourced Indexing
Cuzins, Double Match Triangulator
Emberall, JoyFLIPS
Kindex, OldNews USA
QromaTag and RootsFinder.

As I had been on the judging panel that selected the 10 semi-finalists from the 40 entries I was most interested in the judging process which included two minute pitches by the developer of each product. After we had seen the presentations the judges retired to deliberate and we had to wait until this evening to discover which programs had made it into the finals. I was disappointed to see from the questions some of the judges put to the developers that some judges had not played with the products prior to the showdown. 

I was safor three of my favourites Champollion 2.0, CSI: Crowd Sourced Indexing  and Cuzins that did not win a place in the finals as I feel the first two were unique and innovative and the third was a fun app that would appeal to all ages.  

I was delighted to see Double Match Triangulator (DMT) and Qroma Tag gain a place in the finals. I have used DMT and would definitely use Qroma tag if it was available for Android.

The five finalists are : Double Match Triangulator, Emberall, Kindex, OldNews USA and QromaTag.

The Showdown finalists after the announcement this evening

I look forward to the Innovator Showdown Finals on Friday.

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

Rootstech Innovator Showdown - The Submissions

What sort of app would you like to see developed to solve a genealogy issue you have?

Among the 41 submissions for The 2017 Rootstech Innovator Showdown I can see a few apps or programs that would make my life easier while I wonder about the usefulness of some of the other entries. I enjoyed looking at the programs and wonder which ones will win the generous prizes on offer.

There are programs/apps for several operating systems.  Some are for Windows, some for mobile devices, some are web-based and there's even a Chrome extension. It's interesting to note that seven of the entries were also submitted to the 2016 showdown. Some submissions have been made by individuals while some come from teams with expertise that covers technology and genealogy.

Submissions come from a range of countries including Australia, Canada, England, France, India, Ireland, Morocco, Tunisia and the United States. Some apps integrate with Familysearch and one is an addon to the ShotBox. Quite a number are based around preserving stories while some are unique. There is something for just about every genie.

Of course price is always an issue with cash-strapped genies. Unfortunately it is hard to ascertain the costs associated with many of these programs/apps.

I'd love to know which programs/apps on the list are your favourites. Please take a look and let me know.

I believe that Rootstech Registrations will open today, 15th Spetember. (US time).  As a Rootstech Ambassador I have a Free Conference Registration to give away. In the next few weeks I will be announcing a competition for this prize so watch this space.

In the meantime perhaps you might be interested in thie following:

Submissions for the 2016 Innovator Showdown are now being accepted! FamilySearch International is looking for the next big innovative idea that will impact not only an industry worth billions, but also generations of families—past, present, and future! The 2016 Innovator Showdown will be held in conjunction with RootsTech, happening February 3–6, 2016, at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Innovator Showdown will be a global innovation competition for developers and entrepreneurs seeking an opportunity to impact the growing family history industry while competing for $100,000 in cash and other prizes. Innovators in any industry that have solutions directly or indirectly related to family history are invited to enter the showdown. Click the button below for showdown details and to enter. Submission portal closes December 1, 2015. ENTER THE SHOWDOWN