Friday, February 13, 2009

2009 FamilySearch Developers Conference and Software Awards

9 February 2009

Platform expands with Family Tree v2 and other new Web services

Salt Lake City, Utah—FamilySearch announced today its second annual conference for software and Web application developers and its inaugural FamilySearch Software Awards. The 2009 FamilySearch Developers Conference will be held on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, in conjunction with the Brigham Young University Computerized Family History and Genealogy Conference in Provo, Utah. Attendees can register online at familyhistoryconferences.byu.edu/familysearch.

The 2009 FamilySearch Developers Conference provides a unique forum and opportunity for developers of genealogy-related desktop and Web applications to meet with other professionals who use similar development technologies to confront common technical challenges and share effective solutions. Conference attendees will learn about new and updated FamilySearch web services from FamilySearch engineers and best practices from current community developers.

FamilySearch engineers and community developers will discuss version 2 of the FamilySearch Family Tree Web service, Standards Authorities, Record Search, Timeline, and Catalog Web services.

Phillip J. Windley, Ph.D., Kynetx CTO and former Utah CIO, will be the keynote speaker. Dr. Windley said, "FamilySearch is taking the lead with an open platform, third-party services, and this annual conference for software developers interested in the growing family history and genealogical market." Dr. Windley will present his best ideas on how the genealogy industry can better embrace new emerging technologies. "Solutions to match the astonishing growing desire of families to find and share information about themselves and their ancestors can only be created and delivered by a network of providers committed to open data and open technologies," added Dr. Windley.

FamilySearch's annual Software Awards has been launched to encourage and recognize software development that benefits the family history and genealogy industry. "We are excited to announce the launch of the 2009 FamilySearch Software Awards. The purpose is to publicly and formally celebrate the software achievements of those developers and companies that are making important contributions to the family history and genealogy industry," said Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch Web services product manager.

The Best Features awards this year will be decided by a panel of judges. The awards will be for the best Web Features, Desktop Features, Productivity Features, Use of Media, and the Best Tree-Cleaning or Syncing Interfaces. The Develop Choice Awards are decided by the vote of members of DevNet.FamilySearch.org, an online community of developers, and will be for the best API Library, Most Useful to Developers, and Potential Future Impacts.

The FamilySearch Software Awards winners will be announced and presented at the conference lunch banquet.

Conference sessions will be divided into three tracks: FamilySearch API, Third Party Libraries, and Emerging Models and Technology. FamilySearch Web Services provides developers access at the programmer's level so developers can ensure that the data and functionality of their products and applications will interface transparently and effectively with FamilySearch and other industry applications as they are introduced or evolve.

Professional software and Web application developers interested in attending can register online at familyhistoryconferences.byu.edu/familysearch or call 1-801-422-8925.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

FamilySearch handing out awards is like the pope praising its own priests.

Andrea S. said...

I agree with "Anonymous", but at least it is interesting to find out what FamilySearch thinks about various products.

Ohana Software now has an article up about the awards they won at the conference:

http://www.ohanasoftware.com/?sec=about&page=Awards