Some say that the process of genealogy research is one of "share and share alike." Finding ancestors is hard to do alone and becomes easier when we find a relative with information they are willing to share. But exactly how to share remains a subject of disagreement among researchers both old and new to genealogy.

I have written previously about the technical aspects of sharing genealogy files. Refer to that article to see my advice about transferring genealogy files from one genealogy program to another (such as PAF to Family Tree Maker), from one computer platform to another (such as Mac to Windows), and from the Internet to your home computer.

Sharing on this scale is generally a one-time transfer of data. But computing trends have moved the sharing of genealogy data into a new phase which I call research collaboration. Of course, with new trends come new technical and even new social and ethical challenges.

Types of Collaboration

Collaboration means several people working on a project at the same time, each needing to make changes to the shared data, and each needing to know who made what changes and when they made them.

There are several types of collaboration:

• Simultaneous, where all participants can access the project's computer files at the same time.

• Round robin, where the document is passed from one collaborator to another until it returns to the first.

• Hub-and-spoke, where a strong project leader mediates all changes then distributes new versions back to all collaborators.

• Random-access collaboration, where each person makes changes and sends the updated document back to everyone else.

• Divide-and-conquer, where collaborators each oversee a part of the project and coordinate all changes to their part.

The major problem with any project involving collaboration is version control. Which version of the project reflects everyone's best effort to date? Each of the collaboration methods described above have can work to varying degrees, so if you are considering collaboration be sure to choose carefully. If you choose the round robin approach and your files fall into the hands of someone not committed to keeping the project moving, it dies. Or, if you choose the hub-and-spoke method but the leader isn't strong enough, the project deteriorates and no one knows which file is most up-to-date.

Genealogy Collaboration Follows These Trends

Genealogy research projects are generally not like projects at work. That is, a work task usually involves several people working together towards the same goal. In genealogy, we usually work separately towards our own individual goals which somewhat overlap other people's goals. It's in the area of overlap that we need to collaborate with others.

Close family members often work toward the same genealogy goal and want to share all their data with each other, but today's genealogy programs make that difficult. Typically, you want to send only the changes you make to your cousins to update their genealogy database. This might only work if you are running the same genealogy program or use the same kind of computer. But it is awkward to import data you received from someone else and then run the match-merge function every time your cousin sends you an update.

Some of the newer versions of popular genealogy programs allow you to designate a master copy of a genealogy database and each cousin sends their changes to the holder of the master copy who then updates everyone's "daughter" copies. As these programs become more sophisticated, I see them developing into a version of the workgroup software used by businesses. That is, they will keep track not only of the genealogy data itself, but also of who contributed that data and when and make inputs from various contributors easy to import.

The Internet: Problem or Solution?

The Internet may become the ultimate platform for large-scale collaboration projects. As it is now, each genealogist seems to be publishing their most recent understanding about their ancestors. The various web sites and message boards seem to reflect the near-chaos of a random access collaboration project. People are sharing fragments of their research but no one seems to have the "big picture."

Many researchers have told me that they have good solid ancestral data but are just not willing to share it, even with close relatives. Two reasons are commonly given: the first is usually that the researcher has expended significant effort to come by their genealogical data and doesn't feel inclined to give it to someone for the price of an e-mail message. Another reason researchers are loathe to share over the Internet is that once they send out the data, they lose control of where it appears. Many genealogists have contacted me in an irate state to tell me about information they have shared in confidence eventually being published either online or on a compiled CD-ROM.

Guidelines for Data Sharing

Here are some guidelines for participating in a genealogy collaboration project. Perhaps before you begin a project you'll want to circulate these among the participants.

1. Give full credit to the source. Don't claim others' research as your own.

2. Honor the conditions upon which others have shared their data with you. If they say, "This is for you, not for publication," either stick by that or don't accept the data.

3. Don't swallow anyone's genealogy theories without checking their sources. Data without documentation is just speculation.

4. When you download a genealogy GEDCOM file from the Internet, don't import it into your main genealogy database. Rather, make a new file and import it there to check it out. There are also several GEDCOM viewers available that allow you to read a GEDCOM file without importing it. That's a good tool to have.

5. If you undertake to lead a group genealogy research project, apply all your leadership skills to keep the project on track and all collaborators working efficiently. But this is hard work and you shouldn't start it if you can't see it to the end.

6. Be prepared to share your data with those who have shared with you. Don't just be a taker, but also a giver.

7. If you publish data on the Internet, find a way to keep it up to date. Some projects, like GenShare and WorldConnect, allow contributors to withdraw or update their published data.

We will soon be seeing easier ways to share data between computers and computer programs, both at home and via the Internet. The best times for genealogy researchers is just ahead, but they will be hard times unless we learn to share properly.