Brave New Platform:
Changing the World of Genealogy

Conference Purpose:
Learn from FamilySearch engineers and community developers about the new FamilySearch Web Services (API) and best practices for consuming them in a variety of popular software environments.

Who Should Attend:
Genealogy Software Developers. Get in contact with others who are using similar development technologies, confronting common technical challenges, or sharing clever solutions. Lots of time to visit and collaborate at a labs, lunch, dinner, and breaks.

Topics Of Interest:
FamilySearch Family Tree API has been released. Learn from the engineers and community developers that have created public libraries, tools, and products. Get the facts for the source on the soon-to-be released Record Search API. Hot issues are GEDCOM, PAF, Tree-Cleaning, Crosslinking, and Identity Management, and Synchronization.

Registration:
Register now by going to http://familyhistoryconferences.byu.edu/familysearch and receive early-bird discount of $20.00. Discount is valid until February 27, 2008.

Early-bird Registration: $60.00 Regular Registration: $80.00

Held in conjunction with BYU Family History Technology Workshop and Computerized Genealogy Conference, March 13-15.

Location:
BYU Conference Center
770 E University Parkway
Provo, Utah 84602-1522

Tuesday March 12, 2008 8:30 – 9:20	Keynote Ransom Love — Director of Strategic Relations, FamilySearch “Brave New Platform: Changing the World of Genealogy” (Click on icon for Adobe Connect, Powerpoint and PDF)
9:20 – 9:50	FamilySearch API Update “Record Search, Family Tree, Temple Process, Authorities, and More” (Click on icon for Adobe Connect, Powerpoint and PDF)
TRACKS	FS APIs	3rd Party Libraries	Client Development
10:00 – 10:50	Family Tree API Overview Duane Kuehne	Flex Renaun Erickson (Audio lost after 11 min of presentation)	GedSync (Java) John Finlay
11:00 – 11:50	Family Tree Read Ryan Heaton	.NET Software David Pugmire	PAF SDK / Sync (c++) Gaylon Findlay PAFUtil.zip (Audio on presentation is a bit rough in beginning, but is okay through the rest)
12:00 – 1:20	Awards Luncheon (included in registration fee)
1:30 – 2:20	Family Tree Write Ryan Heaton	PHP John Finlay	Rich Flex Client Dan Lawyer Jason Butterfield
2:30 – 3:20	Family Tree Sync Rob Lyon	Ruby Jimmy Zimmerman	Bungee Labs Matt Misbach, Brad Hintze Rapid AJAX App. Platform
3:30 – 4:20	Family Tree Combine/Separate Rob Lyon	Cocoa Obj-C Logan Allred	Basic Client (Java) Jimmy Zimmerman
4:30 – 5:20	Record Search Tim Crabb, Robert Lee	Python/Perl (speaker not available) http://www.zenez.com/B/oss/genal.html

Keynote 8:30 Ransom Love FamilySearch Director of Strategic

Brave New Platform: Changing the World of Genealogy

Keynote 9:20 Gordon Clarke FamilySearch Web Services Program Manager

FamilySearch API Update, including highlights of Family Tree, Records Seach, Authorities, Guest Access, Ordinance Reservations services.

FamilySearch 10:00 Duane Kuehne API Overview

(not yet available)

FamilySearch 11:00 Ryan Heaton Family Tree Read

(not yet available)

FamilySearch 1:30 Ryan Heaton Family Tree Write

(not yet available)

FamilySearch 2:30 Rob Lyon Family Tree Sync

It is one thing to read and write to the Family Tree, but is quite another to keep a local record manager in "sync" with the Family Tree information. This session is a quick overview of flows and ideas to keep a local repository up-to-date with the vast information in Family Tree.

FamilySearch 3:30 Rob Lyon Family Tree Combine/Separate

The Family Tree is a wonderful step forward in combining genealogy data information into a single database. Many great AI algorithms have been created to combine people from differing sources. However, these algorithms can only take us so far. we need to enlist enthusiasts to look at possible duplicates and combine them when appropriate. This is currently a tedious process, but they are many new possibilities in improvements with the API.

FamilySearch 4:30 Tim Crabb, Rober W. Lee Record Search

Record Search helps you identify your ancestors by letting you search millions of indexed records and by letting you browse images of records that have not yet been indexed; quickly users can begin to uncover information about their ancestors. Indexed records and images of artifacts aren't exclusive to Record Search's own innovative UI - its client/ server architecture leverages a rich API that provides interfaces to allow other applications to integrate this same functionality to search and retrieve records and image artifacts. This API will be made public shortly so come to learn the details of these APIs and see a demonstration of how they could be leveraged in your applications.

3rdParty 10:00 Renaun Erickson Adobe Flex

The asfslib project is a set of classes in ActionScript 3.0 to help developers interact with the FamilySearch API services. This presentation will demonstrate how to use the asfslib in your Flex and AIR projects. As well as techniques to use Flex to create nice looking front ends for display data coming from the FamilySearch API. http://code.google.com/p/asfslib/

3rdParty 11:00 David Pugmire .NET Software

"FamilySearch Opens the Door to .NET Developers Worldwide"

The way is paved from FamilySearch to the world of .NET. Join David Pugmire of nGenesis for a tour of the .NET API for FamilySearch. In this session you will learn what you can do with FamilySearch using the .NET Framework, and discover everything you need to get started. Demos of the API in both VB and C# languages, as well as multiple platforms such as ASP.NET, Windows, and Mobile clients will be presented. www.FSAPI.NET 

3rd Party 1:30 John Finlay PHP

Presentation Summary (PhpGedView): PhpGedView allows people to setup their own personal collaborative genealogy web site. With PhpGedView, relatives edit and manage their family history through their own personal sites. PhpGedView integrates with new FamilySearch by allowing users to cross-link their data with the data in FamilySearch. The data is then synchronized between FamilySearch and PhpGedView. PhpGedView Web Site http://www.phpgedview.net

3rd Party 2:30 Jimmy Zimmerman Ruby

Ruby-fs-api is an OpenSource library that makes accessing the FamilySearch API extremely easy. Learn why Ruby is a great choice for accessing the FamilySearch API, and how to get started. Link: http://code.google.com/p/ruby-fs-api/

3rdParty 3:30 Logan Allred Cocoa Obj.-C

Learn how to use the open-source FSKit Cocoa framework to integrate the FamilySearch web service APIs into your Macintosh applications. There will be a brief overview of the architecture and core classes in FSKit, after which you will build a simple application to demonstrate authentication, searching, reading person data, caching, synchronization.

3rdParty 4:30 Boyd Gerber Perl/Python

My presentation will include: An introduction to perl and python libraries that makes working with the API easy. Instructions on obtaining code, account, etc. to begin using the library. Live Demo of a perl and python application that uses FamilySearch API. Roadmap & how to get involved. Each section will be for the seperate programming language.

Client 10:00 John Finlay GedLync

Presentation Summary (GedLync): GedLync is a new program developed by students at Neumont University which will allow users to synchronize a GEDCOM file on their local desktop with data in new FamilySearch. This tool simplifies the way users can upload and synchronize their GEDCOM data with new FamilySearch.http://www.neumont.edu

Client 11:00 Gaylon Findlay PAF SDK/ Sync (C++)

The basic layout of the PAF 5 database structure will be covered, along with the basics of using the PAF 5 SDK provided by the Church. From this base, we will discuss the recent changes engineered by Incline Software and Ohana Software to allow syncing with the new FamilySearch Family Tree.

Client 1:30 Dan Lawyer, Jason Butterfield Rich Flex Client

Full-featured and filthy-rich on the FamilySearch API. The FamilySearch Labs team is building a full-featured, rich (in features) web client on top of the FamilySearch API. Come hear tips, tricks, and best practices of integrating Flash apps with the FamilySearch API. An overview of the FamilySearch Family Tree project, its architecture and how it integrates with the FamilySearch API will be presented.

Client 2:30 Matt Misbach, Brad Hintze Rapid Ajax Application Platform

This lecture will cover a quick overview of the basics of the Bungee Connect platform. A tour of the Bungee Family Search library will be given followed by a demo of a Family Search searching application that was written using the library.

Client 3:30 Gordon Clarke Feature Opportunities

Gordon will cover the opportunities available in this new arena, including Tree Cleaning, Notifications, Private/Shared/Public Spaces, Collaboration, hosting and linking of Rich Media.

Client 4:30 Jimmy Zimmerman Basic Client

The basic client is available as a binary or source code. The binary can be used to test all the features of the Family Tree API and provides an ability to check the XML strings before committing the changes. Excellent tool for learning and understanding the API Schema in actual use.

Presenters List (Alphabetical)

Boyd Gerber gerberb@zenez.com

Boyd Gerber is the owner of ZENEZ. He has been in business since 1974-75. He leads a group of international specialist that provide Non Recurring Engineering(NRE). He does both Hardware and Software. He has done everything from circuit design to system design for Hardware and many programming languages and OpenSource Software(OSS).

Brad Hintze brad@bungeelabs.com

Brad leads the product marketing team and initiatives, including the delivery of product demonstrations and sample applications. He has written several example applications and code libraries for many different web services including Amazon FPS, Ebay, Flickr, Google Maps and Salesforce.com.

Dan Lawyer LawyerDC@ldschurch.org

Dan has been working as a Product Manager for FamilySearch since 2004. Dan has spent the last 15 years defining products, managing product lines, and helping bring software and services to market around the world. Clients and companies have included WordPerfect, Fibernet, Seranova, Novell, and FamilySearch.

David Pugmire david@NGenesis.com

David Pugmire is an avid genealogy technologist who has built some of the earliest internet based tools for personal family history. He has worked at Microsoft most of his career on the company’s leading products. Currently, David continues his independent work on web based family history tools and FamilySearch utilities. He also is still employed at Microsoft working on the latest web technologies and development tools.

Duane Kuehne KuehneDS@ldschurch.org

Duane is a member of the Public API team for FamilySearch. Prior to joining the FamilySearch team, he spent 15 years, working on server side of collaboration products from Novell and WordPerfect Corporation. He has a B.S. in computer science from Brigham Young University.

Gaylon Findlay gfindlay@ancquest.com

Gaylon Findlay is the President of Incline Software, LC. For 14 years, he has been creating genealogy software. When Incline Software gave a copy of Ancestral Quest to the LDS Church, from which the Windows versions of PAF were derived, Gaylon became the primary author of PAF, versions 4 and 5.

Gordon Clarke clarkegj@ldschurch.org

Gordon J. Clarke joined the Family and Church History Member Needs team over 2 years ago. He is coordinating Developer Services and Affiliate Marketing in addition to his product management responsibility for the FamilySearch Web Services. Previously, Gordon was the founder and president of ici MEDIA. Over the last 25 years, Gordon has organized and lead numerous companies and projects, creating and delivering internet, desktop computer, audio/video, and enterprise solutions for many different industries.

Jason Butterfield ButterfieldJV@ldschurch.org

Jason Butterfield is the Lead Engineer on the Rich Web Client team for FamilySearch.org. He was one of the original engineers on the FamilySearch Labs project and was heavily involved in the development of both the Pedigree Viewer and Life Browser."

Jimmy Zimmerman jimmy.zimmerman@gmail.com

Jimmy holds a Master of Information Systems Management degree from BYU. He has been building family history related web software in Ruby for the past year. He currently works for USFamilyTree, building a U.S. Descendants research tool. He maintains a technology related blog at jimmyzimmerman.com.

John Finlay john.finlay@neumont.edu

John Finlay graduated from BYU with a degree in Computer Engineering. He is currently a full-time faculty instructor at Neumont University teaching computer science courses. In 2002, John founded the PhpGedView open source genealogy project which quickly grew to be the largest open source genealogy application on SourceForge.net. John is married to Melissa Corn and they reside in South Jordan, UT with their 5 children.

Logan Allred logan@mac.com

Logan Allred is the lead developer for 2 open-source genealogy projects: MAF, a record manager for the Macintosh, and FSKit, a Cocoa framework for communicating with the new FamilySearch web APIs. His passion for family history was ignited while in High School helping his father research their ancestors, and continues today. He has been writing software professionally for 10 years, primarily with Java, WebObjects, and now Flex. He has nearly completed his degree in Computer Science from BYU, and lives in American Fork, Utah with his wife Rebecca and 4 children.

Matt Misbach matt@bungeelabs.com

Matt has been involved in the genealogy community for over 10 years. He owns and maintains a website that specializes in charting genealogical information. He is the inventor of several genealogy charts, and has published two family histories. He currently works full-time at Bungee Labs as a Software Engineer. Matt is responsible for starting the Bungee Family Search library.

Ransom Love LoveRH@ldschurch.org

Ransom was the Founder and CEO of Caldera International, Inc., 1998-2002 (Now SCO Group) Lindon, Utah. Managed all aspects of the company including vision, strategy, marketing, sales, human relations, finance and all operations. Developed and executed original marketing and sales plan that included strategic round of funding, Initial Public Offering and two major acquisitions. Grew the company to one of the largest, global Linux companies in the industry with 13 offices servicing over 82 major markets. At FamilySearch, as the Director of Strategic Relationships, Ransom is responsible for helping to define department strategy and for creating an online and physical genealogical community with commercial and non-profit organizations, and increase participation, volunteerism, and promotion of Family History around the world. Manage department’s legal work group and negotiations with 3rd parties.

Renaun Erickson renaun@renaun.com

Renaun Erickson is a Flex/Flash Developer for Adobe Systems Incorporated. Currently working on Adobe Pacifica project, Renaun has developed web applications using many technologies for the past 7 years. Renaun is active in the community speaking at conferences (MAX, 360Flex, and ZendCon), blogging http://renaun.com/blog/, and co-authoer of , Professional Flex 2, by Wrox.

Rob Lyon

Rob earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Brigham Young University. He has worked as a software engineer for 14 years on projects ranging from linguistics to databases and web services to user interfaces. He is currently the technical lead on the Public API of the Family search project. Rob has commented, "It is a challenging and enjoyable project. I have a great team and have enjoyed working and learning from the future consumers of the API. We are going to do accomplish some amazing work."

Robert W Lee LeeRW@ldschurch.org

Robert Lee graduated from BYU with a BS in Computer Science in 1993. He worked at Dynix for several years as a lead programmer on several products - including the widely used Horizon Information Portal. He joined the RecordSearch team in 2006, working primarily on the API.

Ryan Heaton HeatonRA@ldschurch.org

Ryan Heaton is a senior software developer for the new FamilySearch, specializing in Web service design and development. His primary responsibility for FamilySearch is the implementation of the public Web service API and its underlying framework.

Tim Crabb CrabbTC@ldschurch.org

Tim Crabb is a Product Manager for the Family and Church History Department responsible for Record Search. Before coming to the Family and Church History department Crabb worked in the high-tech industry for the past 17 years and enjoys leveraging that experience on this exciting project of helping people find their ancestors.