I don’t see it as something genealogists create for themselves. Genealogists have already researched their family tree. They know their roots.

A shared tree is something that genealogists can give to the rest of the world.

Almost everyone wants to know where they come from. Everyone has some interest in their family history. But very few have the high degree of motivation and discipline to do the research. Only a few people are real genealogists.

So, when you contribute your research to WikiTree, I don’t see it as a selfish act. I see it as something you do for others. With every contribution, with every step toward a worldwide family tree, it becomes easier for anyone and everyone to discover their roots.

There are definitely benefits to participating. Many genealogists — even some dedicated genealogists who have been researching for many years — have reported that WikiTree helped them discover new information and connect with cousins they never knew existed. There are a few examples here: http://www.wikitree.com/about/quotes.html and the press release from yesterday has a few more: http://www.geneapress.com/2011/08/wikitree-traffic-jumps-30.html

And although we don’t actively encourage it, WikiTree can be used in a completely selfish way. You could just add a few generations of modern family history and use it to share with your close family members. You can keep everything locked-up behind privacy protections. We have an “Unlisted” privacy level that means even the name isn’t public. And it’s easy to change the privacy level of every profile you’re managing on one form.

Even participating on this level helps the WikiTree mission, as long as you don’t mind if more distant cousins connect your modern family history with the worldwide tree. Your modern family history would still be locked-up for only those you allow to see it, but it would be seamlessly connected back to deeper, widely-shared ancestry.

Chris

As for Geni, they have made it impossible to remove a tree which someone uploaded himself. Why does Geni now think that the tree belongs to them? If someone uploads a tree, he should be able to delete that tree. Also, someone who uploaded a tree cannot edit those people in his tree which are beyond 3rd great grandparents. So, Geni takes the information that we have spend over 15 years gathering, and makes us pay to remove it before someone else with a Pro account comes along and takes all of our hard work with just a click of the mouse button? How can anyone consider this a good business practice? I don’t. I call it robbery.

People need to be able to give informed consent to any agreement they sign, not blindly accede to having conditions changed behind their backs. This and the “shrink-wrap license” were foisted upon us before we knew what was going on — companies pulled a fast one, and both these concepts should have been tested in court before they were allowed to become “precedent.”

So, fellow genealogists, continue having high standards and holding these companies accountable!

Noah: Geni is not unique with the ‘world tree’ concept. Not only is WikiTree doing it, but WeRelate is also doing it. Where you got the idea you were unique is beyond me.