USGENWEB-ALL-L Archives
Archiver > USGENWEB-ALL > 1999-06 > 0928997993
From: Sandy <>
Subject: Re: [USGENWEB-ALL-L] Improving Our Ability to Serve the Public
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 01:59:53 -0500
Okay folks....
I've got a couple of comments I want to put in here..and a BIG QUESTION....
so please read....
"Dr. Brian Leverich" wrote:
>
> One of the things about life is you either keep improving or you
> become a corpse standing on your feet.
>
> That's true for RootsWeb, and it's equally true for USGenWeb. Since
> USGenWeb was founded, many other organizations have sprung up that
> partially or wholly attempt to clone USGenWeb's content: ALHN,
> GenExchange, Broderbund's GenForum, Ancestry, Randall Haight's
> genweb.net, ...
I want to point out that USGW is *not* a commercial enterprise. Never
has been, is not, and has never intended to be.
I have a problem with what Brian is asserting here...
because I do NOT think ALHN has attempted to "clone" us...but to the
extent anyone else does, I think it's impt to note that, like our
project, ALHN is (so far as I know) a NON commerical, cooperative effort
of independent researchers who are pulling together without ANY concern
or regard to "commercial business expenses and profits."
I do NOT feel USGW has been "competing" with ALHN, in fact I have mutual
links with ALHN...and ALHN has some very good shared resources with
parts of USGW, as well as having some very fine resources of its own!
I dont think our project has ever even WANTED to compete with GenForum
or Ancestry or these other commerical ones (I'm not sure I knowwhat
Randall Haigh'ts is)...but the point is, RootsWeb is a private,
forprofit company...has been operating as a sole proprietorship, appears
to be trying to incorporate, but is not registered to operate as a
nonprofit in California (where it's based)...or as a nonprofit elsewhere
to the best of my knowledge.
So I think it's understandable that RW may very WELL, from a business
perspective, wish to compete with these other entities, but it should
NOT use USGW as a means to do so!
I have NO desire for this project to become the "competitive leverage"
for ANY commercial business enterprise!
I do not feel we can, in good conscience, allow people to "donate" files
OR volunteer time to our project, if our project is going to become
RootsWeb's project...cause RW is a commercial enterpise.
>
> If USGenWeb is going to stay the premier geographically-oriented
> genealogy project, one of the things it's going to need to do is
> continuously improve the range and quality of services it provides
> to the genealogical community.
>
Now...I have a HUGE problem with this...and I would greatly appreciate
knowing how Brian came to feel it was his place to make the judgment on
what "range and quality of services" OUR USGW project will provide?
Did our board, or any of its members know about, or discuss with Brian,
or ANYone at RootsWeb, the plans for these cluster pages? And if so, how
is it that our state coordinators and county coordinators weren't told
anything about this?
I just think it would be helpful for all of us to know if USGW had
anything to do with this, or whether Brian just took it upon himself to
decide with whom our project "competes" and what it "needs" ?
Sandy
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