What is Family History Information Standards Organisation, Inc. (FHISO)?

Below is an Email about FHISO. The group does a far better job of what the Organisation is all about. 

As a long time user of the Family Tree Maker program and on a number of occasions attempted to share my research. Each time there were issues. Results of some of those exchanges were documented on 

http://bettergedcom.blogspot.com

The outcome of that frustration and BetterGEDCOM Wiki was created with lots of discussion on how to move forward. One of the most important issues was the need for an INTERNATIONAL Standard. Out of that FHISO was created. The spelling of this organization was intentional (s vs z) to reflect the international need for this standard.

Below is an email from FHISO. The new ICON on the Right will include a link to their website.

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Thank you for your support of Family History Information Standards Organisation, Inc. (FHISO) and the Founding Member program.

FHISO's work platform isn't open yet. Don't be disappointed though, we are close to announcing plans for that opening. Know that when the platform opens, there will be leadership and workspaces to serve the needs of a truly global community.

In the hope you might help us with the community outreach effort, we're sending along a colourful, "I'm In!" graphic for you to post on your website or blog.

Just as your support has brought us closer to the big day, FHISO's organisers* are communicating with others to ask for their support too. Part of the outreach effort is focused on vendors, service providers, and genealogy-centric groups, societies and organizations? We ask that they allow FHISO to post their support publicly in a press release or blog article.

Here's how you can learn more information or get involved in the organising effort.

(1) Join the organising effort. We are a nine member international group; usually on five different continents. Most of our work is done asynchronously (e-mail or common workspace). We hold a GoToMeeting session weekly (Wednesday at 1:30 pm EDT/US); attendance is encouraged, but optional. Those interested should e-mail fhiso@fhiso.org.

(2) Not ready to join the organising effort but interested in meeting with the organisers? Drop a note to the address above.

(3) FHISO is the sponsor of the BetterGEDCOM wiki (http://bettergedcom.wikispaces.com). Meetings are held most Mondays (1:00 pm EDT/US). A part of each meeting is set aside for questions, answers and discussion about FHISO.

(4) Comments are always welcome on the FHISO blog or on the FHISO Open Discussion page at the BetterGEDCOM wiki.

(5) Speak out and let us know about it. If you blog or post about FHISO, send a notice to the e-mail above.

If you are interested in learning more about standards and conformity assessment, check out http://www.standardslearn.org/

Thanks

--Andrew Hatchett III and the team

*The independent group of volunteers organising FHISO are: Robert Burkhead (USA); Geir Thorud (Norway); Andrew Hatchett (USA); Greg Lamberson (Egypt); Tony Proctor (Ireland and UK); Neil Parker (Canada); Roger Moffat (USA); Brett McPhee (Australia); GeneJ (USA). All the organisers are genealogists. Robert and Geir have standards backgrounds (Robert, HL7; Geir, ISO); Tony is a developer; Greg and Neil are information technology professionals.

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Ancestry.com set to collaborate about community standards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ancestry.com set to collaborate about community standards

Gilbert, AZ USA—May 17, 2012—Family History Information Standards Organisation, Inc. (FHISO) announced today that Ancestry.com, Inc. has finalized its plans to become a founding member of the organisation. FHISO is a newly-formed international organisation created to develop standards for the digital representation of family history and genealogical information. As a founding member, Ancestry.com will designate five organisational member representatives to participate with other FHISO members from the global genealogical community.

Ancestry.com is the world's largest online family history resource, with 1.9 million paying subscribers. More than 10 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 34 million family trees containing approximately 4 billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site, Ancestry.com offers several localized Web sites designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.

FHISO is a standards-setting organisation bringing the international family history and genealogical community together in a transparent, democratic forum for the purpose of developing information standards to solve today’s interoperability issues. To learn more about FHISO, visit our website, http://fhiso.org/ .

Please join us in welcoming Ancestry.com and their member representatives to FHISO!

CONTACT:Anthony C. Proctor, FHISO Media Relations (acproctor@fhiso.org)Robert M. Burkhead, FHISO Acting Chair (rmburkhead@fhiso.org)Andrew G. Hatchett III, FHISO Acting Secretary (agh3rd@fhiso.org)

Comment: This is an important announcement, in this Blogger's opinion. This group was formed out of the BetterGEDCOM project, that started about 18 months ago. That project started because two end users could not successfully share their genealogy research.

As I understand it, the word "organisation" is spelled this way specifically to reflect the international scope of this project.

As part of the group that started BetterGEDCOM, there was a lot of talk about "getting the right people to the table". I think that this announcement is a step in making that table real.

Congratulations to ALL!!

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