More Technology News for Genealogists

Google

Ear­li­er this week, Apple announced a new sub­scrip­tion pay­ment mod­el for the iPad.

Google respond­ed yes­ter­day with a much more flex­i­ble sub­scrip­tion mod­el using Google Check­out (a Pay­Pal com­peti­tor), and pro­vid­ing 10% in rev­enue for Google (in com­par­i­son with Apple’s 30%). Google does not require that the in-app pur­chase price be at least as inex­pen­sive as any oth­er web offer­ing of the prod­uct. It’s a more open pro­gram, and hope­ful­ly will gain trac­tion and help fos­ter a more sus­tain­able sales mod­el for con­tent providers.

Until and unless oth­er mod­els come along, expect to see genealog­i­cal con­tent providers, as they move into the tablet space, to opt for the Google pric­ing mod­el, which will bet­ter align with their oper­at­ing prof­it mar­gins.

SlideShare

SlideShare is a site that allows you to upload Pow­er­Point-style slides to share with oth­ers. (I post all my slides at SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/genealogymedia. This week they announced a free 1‑click con­fer­enc­ing prod­uct, Zip­cast. I have not tried it, but it looks inter­est­ing, as most con­fer­enc­ing sys­tems that share slides require that the slides be uploaded in real time, as images of from the per­son shar­ing the slides. Zip­cast might be faster, because the slides will not need to be uploaded dur­ing the meet­ing, and will already be opti­mized for web view­ing at SlideShare.

Don’t be sur­prised if your next geneal­o­gy meet­ing does not hap­pen in per­son, but instead over SlideShare’s Zip­cast.