family search indexing marketing

Issues related to FamilySearch Indexing
cannona-p40
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family search indexing marketing

#1

Post by cannona-p40 »

I am a little disappointed with the current management of the Family Search Indexing project. I think that there is a lot more they could be doing to encourage greater productivity from their membership.

For one thing, they are a little closed. I think just some simple auto-updated statistics on the site would go a long way towards getting people fired up about the work. People like to think that they are part of something big, and from all I've heard, the amount of work that is getting done qualifies as pretty big. The more work people do, the bigger the numbers will climb, leading to greater excitement and levels of work...

To go along with the statistics, I also think rankings might be popular. You could see, for example, that last month you were the 3rd most active volunteer in your stake (or area for nonmembers), 247th in your state/country, and 8,914th in the world.

Another item that I feel has been over looked is the publication of a monthly newsletter. This should be easily found on the web site, but all members should also be asked if they would like to subscribe via email. Why? Simply because people get busy and forget about records extraction. It might not be that they don't want to or can't do it, its just that they don't think about it. The monthly newsletter would not only act as a gentle reminder, but it could also keep people updated on the new projects that have been added/completed, give tips for extracting, and just help people to feel included.

Right now, the extraction program is too much of a blackbox. A lot goes in, but seemingly very little comes out.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I think the Distributed Proofing Project from Project Gutenberg could teach us a lot. http://www.pgdp.net . The first thing you see on their site is the number of books completed last month, and since the site began.

Aaron
JamesAnderson
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#2

Post by JamesAnderson »

That would be great if they were to put a running count of how many names were indexed in the indexing program, because we cannot always assume that the number of batches done equals x number of names.

For example, some death record batches had 24 total entries. 1900 Census batches have 50 lines of data. 1850 Census batches have 42 lines of data.

I'd like to see a stats page that is easily marked with a graphical, rather than textual, link on the homepage. Like you, I want to see similar stats, maybe not a ranking because if you are not doing a lot due to circumstances, it would look overly pessimistic.

Here are my ideas, I've numbered them for quick reference by anyone later in the thread.

1. Total entries completed (usually equals one name plus data, such as a census record line, etc).
2. Total batches completed*
3. Total users on system, how many logged in the day before, etc.
4. A few other interesting stats that might be fun for indexers to read about. Like most names in a day, week, etc., most names indexed by one person overall and by day, week, etc., without identifying the individual.

* The total batches completed line right now inadvertently appears that it might include partially completed batches that for whatever reason weren't entirely completed and had to be given to others to complete. I saw this myself already when I got too busy recently, the system still shows I 'completed' the number of names attributed to the batch, in this case a 1900 Census batch that had 50 entries.

Stake extraction directors already have access to stats for their stake members and others they act as group administrator for who live nearby on the indexing administration portal webpage. There needs to be a sort function on the page that shows the stats for each indexer so they can sort by field, I do this sometimes in the broadcast industry to get certain stats on radio ratings on an industry website, so it's not that hard to do.
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thedqs
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#3

Post by thedqs »

Something else would be the ability to search the names already extracted, just so that those doing family history would be able to see the benefit of the project directly in their lives.
- David
JamesAnderson
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#4

Post by JamesAnderson »

From what I've heard, the NFS development teams are only now getting to that part of it, figuring out how to integrate that data into the NFS project.

The test site is running with only limited data to see how this all works at present, eventually the goal is not only to show the indexed records as soon as projects are completed, but films that have been scanned but not sent to be indexed yet.

familysearchindexing.org is now showing completed projects, as of today there are about 46 completed items on that list.
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thedqs
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#5

Post by thedqs »

Only the completed projects or also the work in progress? (As a project I would think the "Ohio 1890 Census" would be a project and "Book 1 Page 12 Side A Ohio 1890 Census" would be an in progress search)
- David
JamesAnderson
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#6

Post by JamesAnderson »

Right now they only have the projects listed by state. To find out what states are being worked on all you have to do is look at the 'Current Projects' link, look at the 'Completed projects' link to see what states have been fully completed for a particular census, and there is also a link for projects being prepared for indexing.

You have an idea though, but it might take a little programming to get the system to show what pages on what project are being done right now.
MarianJohnson
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#7

Post by MarianJohnson »

if you want to see what has been done in the indexing project and is available to view, check out http://www.familysearchlabs.org/. You have to register, but it shows you how much of the record set is now online, and in many cases, is already connected to images.
;)
cannona-p40
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#8

Post by cannona-p40 »

I agree with all the ideas so far, I just have one comment:
JamesAnderson wrote:That would be great if they were to put a running count of how many names were indexed in the indexing program, because we cannot always assume that the number of batches done equals x number of names.
I think its important to make as much information as possible available without requiring that a person install the application. Part of the reason for the stats would be to help set the hook when people browse to the site.
brianc-p40
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More feedback = more participation

#9

Post by brianc-p40 »

I've started indexing, and I agree with all the comments, here. Successfully group projects have more feedback for the group and their goals. Sub-groups and teams also build. Think about getting a Priest Quorum to compete against the Laurels, etc. You wouldn't have to tie this to a specific ward. Your ward and Stake stats could be compiled in parallel to "teams".

Indexing is flying, now, but if we want to go supersonic we need to engage more than the members of the church.
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thedqs
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#10

Post by thedqs »

Though a downside with competition is to get accuracy, when people are competing for numbers the quality might go down. If you could keep track of quality AND quantity then competition is great.
- David
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