From: ghoffman@ucsd.edu (Gary Hoffman)
Newsgroups: soc.roots
Subject: Re: LDS Database Access?
Date: 3 Sep 92 21:06:49 GMT
Organization: IR/PS at UC San Diego
NNTP-Posting-Host: irpslab10.ucsd.edu


  I have looked into this problem and can summarize my findings. There is
presently no on-line access to the LDS computerized archives. "Snapshots" of
certain files are distributed in CD-ROM form. There are many inside and outside
Ancestral File operations (who operate the database) who would like to offer
on-line access. True, there are technical problems to overcome relating to the
large number of potential users and the large amount of data that would flow in
response to a general request. But larger obstacles exists to early
implementation.
  Larger obstacles to on-line access are fear of hackers and fear of liability.
These fears reside in the LDS policy makers, not necessarily in the
programmers.
  The fear of hackers has been fed by recent news that certain young sons of
Brigham Young U. professors hacked their way into the university's computer
system and changed data there. They were caught and prosecuted, at least in the
newspapers in Utah.
  The fear of liability is fed by attorneys concerned with the Privacy Act
implications of information on living persons contained in the files,
especially Ancestral File. ( BTW, the dead have no privacy rights.) You may
notice that names of living persons do not display when you download data from
the Ancestral File. An on-line system would have to provide the same privacy
protection as a CD-ROM distributed database.
  Ancestral File is a user file, its contents contributed by individual
researchers. It is hoped that it can someday become a universal pedigree of the
human family. As it stands today, it contains many errors. The latest version
of the Family Search software allows users to generate "edits" or corrections
that are sent back to Ancestral File Operations to update the next release. Any
correction must be accompanied by some credible documentation to justify
changing the database (even if the original data had no documentation at all).
To preclude "data fights," Ancestral File has announced they will change a
given entry only 7 times, the seventh change will be the last.
  The LDS are distributing FamilySearch CD-ROMs to libraries and other
institutions through a third party, GeneSys Corp, a subsidiary of Dynix, a
library systems developer. The price is steep, but some customers are already
signing on.
  Plans are being laid to sell FamilySearch CD-ROMs to individuals. Ancestral
File Operations is assembling a 200-person beta test team. It is anticipated
that the minimum bundle might be FamilySearch engine plus Ancestral File CDs
with IGI available ala carte. No prices have been suggested at this time. A
user would not be permitted to put the CD-ROMs on line, as, for example, on a
BBS. Also, old versions of the CD-ROMs are to be destroyed as soon as they are
superseded so that Ancestral File Operations does not have to support
yesterday's data.
  In a recent breakthrough, several staffers at Ancestral File Operations are
now posting answers in the FidoNet echo "GENDATA" which is a discussion about
their software, Personal Ancestral File, and about FamilySearch. As yet, no one
who works for LDS Genealogy Department answers queries on any on-line
discussion medium. Perhaps getting the Family History Library in Salt Lake onto
a newsgroup such as this would help many researchers who can't travel there
regularly. (The closest we come is K. Heybron Adams, a reference librarian at
Brigham Young U. who is a regular poster here and a fount of great wisdom and
insight.)
  If you believe in the advent of the "great universal database" accessible on
line from anywhere in the universe, stick around. The pieces are assembling.
Critcal mass is still some time away, but approaching fast.
  Cheers,
  Gary Hoffman        (This isn't the end of the world,
  ghoffman@ucsd.edu    but we can see it from here.)
 
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU