RootsTech: Some sessions to be online for free

As Tracing the Tribe gets ready for our trip to the new RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City, we learned that six popular sessions will be broadcast live and free on the Internet.

Global viewers can see them at RootsTech.org.

More than 2,000 attendees have registered for the new family history and technology conference which runs February 10-12.

Tracing the Tribe arrives Monday and hopes to get some research time in at the Family History Library, take an FHL tour on Tuesday, and that evening attend Daniel Horowitz's talk for the Utah Jewish Genealogical Society on researching Israel genealogical resources.

Special events for media/bloggers include a Wednesday trip to the FamilySearch microfilming facility, a dinner, a special breakfast program on Thursday and other events.

In addition to assisting Daniel Horowitz at the MyHeritage.com display, my own conference sessions include participation on the Thursday bloggers' panel - moderated by our good friend Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.com - and on genetic genealogy (with a Jewish twist) on Friday.

The six sessions to be broadcast include some keynote speakers and a sampling of programs (times are MST - Mountain Time):
Thursday, February 10

· 8:30-9am, A World of Information, Shane Robison, chief technology officer, Hewlett Packard

· 9-9:30am, Turning Roots, Branches, Trees into Nodes, Links, Graphs, Jay L. Verkler, chief executive officer, FamilySearch International

· 3-4pm, Digitally Preserving Your Family Heritage, Barry Ewell, founder of MyGenShare.com

Friday, February 11

· 8:30-9:30am, The Changing Face of Genealogy, by Curt Witcher, manager of the Historical Genealogy Department, Allen County Public Library

· 9:45-10:45am., Cloud Computing: What is it and how it has been used to create the next familysearch.org, by Brian Pugh, senior engineer, FamilySearch International

Saturday, February 12

· 8:30-9:30am Personal Archiving and Primary Documents, Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archives

· 1:45-2:45pm, Virtual Presentations Round Table and Collaborative Panel Discussion, Thomas MacEntee, professional genealogist and technology specialist

· 3-4pm, The Power of PDF: Tools for Every Genealogist , D. Josh Taylor, Director of Education and Programs at New England Historical Genealogical Society.

Broadcasting some sessions is an excellent idea, and it is fitting that this new genealogy and technology conference should make this possible.

Tracing the Tribe wishes more gen conferences would do the same, to give more people a "taste" of what they would be experiencing if they had personally attended.