Making Genealogy Fun - Sat, 24 Oct 2009

Hop over to The Fun Theory and watch the three videos there. It’s a very interesting concept that makes eminent sense.

This is actually an initiative of Volkswagen. They’ve been very innovative in their advertising on TV lately (great commercials!) and this initiative may be an attempt for them to raise their profile on the Internet and get the younger generation interested in their cars again.

None-the-less, the idea is that people will do things more willingly if you make it fun for them to do it.

Entering your genealogy data into a genealogy program is usually NOT a fun thing to do. It is more often something you are compelled to do only because you, as a genealogist, want that data recorded. And despite the drudgery, you continue on to do it.

Maybe it should be like a pinball game, with the bings and the bongs and a score continuously updating as you add more people and events and dates and sources into the deep dark cavern of your genealogy tool … or maybe not.

But if nothing else, genealogy software should attempt to make your data entry less onerous, less un-fun, and less of a thing that you feel you have to do in spite of the program’s attempts to make it very difficult.

I know I’ve got boxes of data waiting to be entered. I cringe at the thought of entering it all into a forms-based entry system. I couldn’t think of a less desireable thing to do with several hundred (if not thousand) hours of my time. That is very un-fun.

What I want is a program that could allow me to enter my data very efficiently, attach my sources easily, and see the data in context as I enter it to allow me to easily come up with those revelations that make this hobby so enjoyable.

Will that be fun? Maybe?

Behold