Eight years later…


Last month marked the unofficial 8th anniversary of the World Archives Project.  This time eight years ago was hectic – working through the invited beta, getting ready for the public to see the keying tool, getting help articles ready, and convincing others that we were ready for this.  Offsetting the hectic pace was the excitement and emotion of being part of this new venture.

In 2008 we had 5757 contributors who joined the project.  These contributors played an integral role in the Project being what it is today as they provided feedback and were patient with the many, many tool updates.  Over the years your feedback has continued to be integral in making improvements.  If you didn’t participate until after 2011 here are some of the things you missed:

  • setting the image coordinates
  • multiple steps before keying
  • double keying/arbitration (yes, until we completed the USHMM – Odessa project arbitration was still available)
  • help articles in multiple places

On the reverse side some of the notable updates we made:

And what we have accomplished:

  • completion of ~340 projects
  • keying of millions of records
  • building a passionate community

Are there things we can do to improve? Yes.  Are there still more records to key? Yes.  Do we continue to grow the community? Yes.

It has been an amazing 8 years and I look forward to the years to come.  Thank you to all who have made the World Archives Project what it is today!!

 

 

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July 25th, 2016
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Bimba
Posted on:
July 25, 2016 at 4:31 pm

Congratulations!

Party Time!!

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Tara
Posted on:
July 25, 2016 at 4:56 pm

Wicked awesome! I’m so glad that I can participate in such an amazing project. Congratulations on the success of this project.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Peggy
Posted on:
July 25, 2016 at 9:54 pm

Congratulations – I love paying it forward!! I used input others contributed working on my family tree..

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Elisabeth
Posted on:
July 26, 2016 at 2:03 am

I started contributing January 2009 and have seen many of the changes mentioned. As I am also a researching my husbands family tree, who’s scottisch side of the family spans the world I am soo please to see records from many countries. Now I have specialised in contributing to the World Memory Project and find it at times moving, shocking, but also gratifying to help the survivors finding records of their loved ones.

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Stanton
Posted on:
July 26, 2016 at 9:59 am

I have enjoyed the ride the past few years I’ve been involved with AWAP. I wish I could have been in on the beginning.
I’m looking forward to more USA based projects.

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Mary Ann
Posted on:
July 26, 2016 at 4:52 pm

Happy anniversary (or is it birthday?)!
I wasn’t in on the beginning, but I’ve been through a lot of that – I did arbitration before any of the projects had single reviewers, and I remember stumbling through many of the growing pains for not only the entire WAP, but for each individual project as the process matured.
I seem to manage to end up working on some of the larger projects, keying or reviewing the same project for literally years! It gets fascinating and engrossing, being involved with records where you can follow the stories of so many people, rather than simply transferring names from images to the keying tool. 🙂
I’m glad to continue to key and review whenever I can, and intend to do so for many years to come.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
Bob
Posted on:
July 26, 2016 at 6:58 pm

I was a March 2009 start, so in the middle of the early stuff. But, on cue today I got my first hint in my main tree from the Chicago & Northwestern railroad records we worked on. Pretty distant relative – nephew of husband of 1st cousin of husband of 2nd cousin 2x removed. Oh well.
Been a great 7 years for me – loved it early and still do.