Our just previous blog article highlighted A.C. “Tony” Proctor’s article, “Building a BetterGEDCOM: Building a Better World.”
Thanks to the magazine publishers, Wharncliffe Publishing Limited, FHISO is able to provide a downloadable, digital version of Tony’s article.
Click on the thumbnail to the left to download, “Building a BetterGEDCOM: Building a Better World.”
Visit the Your Family History website (where you can subscribe or obtain more copies of the edition), www.your-familyhistory.com.
The magazine is also published in the US under the title Tracing Family History.
I am delighted to see that I’m not alone any more. XY Family Tree was created in complete ignorance of GEDCOM. It was created to help my sister, whose research was stored and displayed in Excel. My background is in database applications so it made sense to create an application that used normalised data. This became XY Family Tree – completely unaware of GEDCOM and using natural connections to establish a tree with links to pictures, documents and other media that can group people and events.
So the possibility that there could be a practical and widely accepted standard is very exciting. My immediate concern though, is that it will attempt to define data too rigidly and fall into the same holes that have trapped others in the past.
Agreed, there is a need for a better standard than GEDCOM. The biggest problem though, is not with the collection and storage of data but with the human inclination to make mistakes and ignore them.
I totally agree with you Brian. We have to be careful how we define any replacement, and we should have our focus on long-term applicability and worldwide generality.
Also, the more people involved then the stronger a new standard will be. If a replacement is proposed by one individual, or one company/organisation, then there is a severe risk of it being deficient for everyone else’s purposes.
Tony