It should be www.newfamilysearch.org to see the Home Page. Marge:)

On Jan 8, 2008, at 11:37 PM, mormonboy74 wrote:

>
> Im not supposed to be doing this but since I have made so many
> wonderful people here on ranchos, I couldnt keep this to myself. The
> new website isn't officially launched but is now functioning as Beta 2
> or 3 is now starting. It's quite LONG! The new website can only be
> accessed my church members for now but to see if we can play around
> with it before it goes public.
>
> Here's the website if anyone wants to see at least the Home Page:
> www.new.familysearch.org
>
> In the future we will all have to register. The project is at a goal
> by 2012 all the microfilm will be scanned and the official webpage
> will go Live. BUT if you like you can sign up to help with the new
> microfilm, the email address is at the bottom. Im going to register
> soon. This is different from the first registration if anyof you
> participated in the first website at FamilySearch Labs.
>
> Heres an update:
>
> New FamilySearch
> The LDS Church is currently developing a web application for church
> membership (and, eventually, everyone) to be able to interact with a
> very large, unified database full of connected genealogical
> information. When fully released, it will replace the current
> FamilySearch.org.
> Most of the development work on the new system takes place in offices
> in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on Temple Square, Salt Lake
> City, Utah.
> Some prominent features of the new website are:
> Support for multiple assertions on facts, allowing people to "agree to
> disagree".
> Very comprehensive source citations, including links to source images.
> This promised linking service may not be available in earlier
> versions. Documents scanned from the Church's 2.4 million rolls of
> microfilmed vital records, from around the world, will eventually be
> linked to individuals in the system. These films are currently being
> scanned and indexed, for more details see the Church's
> FamilySearchIndexing web site.
> Several features will be specific to the membership of the LDS Church,
> facilitating temple ordinance work.
> This new system will be a one world pedigree of linked families. Users
> will not be able to change others entries but may post their
> disagreements next to other's versions. Users will be able to edit
> their own prior entries.
> The Beta2 test version has a mapping utility which maps locations
> where an individual has resided. By clicking on the link a pop up
> displays the events that took place at that location, i.e.: birth,
> marriage, death, etc.
> The new system will be released in phases starting with smaller temple
> districts for members of the Church only. After temple districts in
> all areas of the world are online, it will be opened to everyone.
> Digitization and indexing projects
> The Family History Library (FHL) is in the process of digitizing its
> entire microfilm collection. ScanStone, which was developed by the LDS
> Church, is a system (both hardware and software) to rapidly create
> digital images of genealogical records contained on microfilm. When
> fully implemented, the FHL will be able to convert 370,000 rolls of
> microfilm per year into digital images. It is estimated that the
> digitizing project will be completed about 2012.
> An online index to the digitized records is also being created using
> FamilySearch Indexing software developed by the LDS Church. The church
> hopes to recruit tens of thousands of volunteers to complete the
> indexing project. Volunteers can participate by going to the Church's
> FamilySearchIndexing web site. The databases containing the digital
> images and indexes will be added to the FamilySearch website as they
> become available.
> By now most of the genealogical community has heard about the new
> FamilySearch™ system the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
> is developing, but fewer have heard of the Help Center. The Help
> Center is a web–based program designed to provide a self-service
> support environment for the new FamilySearch.
>
> Among the exciting additions of the Help Center are the Research
> Advice Forums. These online communities will provide users a chance to
> ask their research questions and allow other users with research
> experience to share their knowledge. The forums will be available in
> eight languages, and will eventually cover every country of the world.
>
> Research Advice Forums
>
> FamilySearch Support (part of the Family and Church History
> Department) has been given the task to provide family history research
> support worldwide. Since volunteers in family history centers and
> genealogical societies collectively possess so much research
> knowledge, FamilySearch Support has created an online environment
> where these people can share their knowledge with those looking for
> help with their family history.
>
> The Research Advice Forums are different than any other genealogical
> forum online. How many times have you asked a question in an online
> forum and never received an answer? Research Advice Forums will be
> different. FamilySearch Support will actively manage its forums and
> notify the forum moderator of any questions that have gone unanswered
> for a given amount of time. The forum moderator will then ask a
> research specialist to answer the user’s question.
>
> The forums also have a dynamic search feature. Every time a question
> is asked and answered it is automatically added to the Help Center’s
> knowledge base of answers. The knowledge base contains forum posts,
> websites, authored articles, and Family History Library publications.
> As questions are asked and answered, websites added, and new articles
> written, the Help Center’s knowledge base will continue to grow.
>
> Testing the New System
>
> The new FamilySearch beta 2 test is coming soon. For beta 2,
> FamilySearch Support is looking for individuals with research
> experience to help test the forums. We will be asking beta testers to
> do a series of tasks in the forums designed to test the system’s
> features to make sure they are ready for public use. Testers will be
> asked to spend about 1-2 hours per week or more if they choose. Anyone
> participating in the Research Advice Forums testing will also have
> full access to the new FamilySearch. If you are interested in helping
> us test our forums and being a part of the new FamilySearch email us
> at:
> fch-researchsupport@ldschurch.org (please include “Renee Zamora blog”
> the subject line of your email).
>
> ~Daniel Mendez del Camino~