Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Technology Tuesday: Read the RootsTech 2014 Flipboard Magazine

I received this announcement via email from Sunny Morton, who works with Lisa Louise Cooke:

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Free Flipboard App Now Delivers Exciting Genealogy Content



Now that it’s 2014, RootsTech is almost upon us, so the genealogy industry is abuzz with new and emerging technologies for family history. Consider what’s been happening in the mobile space this last year:

§  Smartphone usage in the U.S. increased by 50 percent (Kleiner Perkins)

§  The number of emails being opened on mobile increased by 330 percent (Litmus)

§  Tablet usage doubled in the U.S. (Pew Research Center)

The bottom line: More than ever folks are accessing websites, videos, podcasts, blogs and other online information on their mobile devices.

As part of its mission, RootsTech helps family historians embrace these new technologies. Well, RootsTech has already gotten off to a running start by introducing attendees to Flipboard, a free magazine app available for all major mobile platforms.


RootsTech 2014: Where Genealogy and Technology Converge is a Flipboard magazine published by Genealogy Gems in conjunction with the RootsTech team. The magazine crowd-sources great web content from RootsTech speakers, exhibitors, and official bloggers in one beautiful and convenient place. It is multimedia, too – you’ll find video and audio content as well as text.





How to Access the Magazine in Flipboard:


1.      Get the free Flipboard app at flipboard.com, in iTunes or Google Play.

2.      Set up your free account.

3.      In the search box at the top of the homepage, search for ROOTSTECH.

4.      Tap “RootsTech 2014″ by Lisa Louise Cooke (you’ll see a magazine icon next to it).

5.      When the magazine loads, tap the SUBSCRIBE icon at the top of the page.

6.      Starting at the right hand side of the page, swipe your finger from right to left over each page to “flip!”

You can also access the magazine through your browser at http://tinyurl.com/RootsTech2014.


As you can see, Flipboard offers exciting possibilities for curating, organizing, and presenting online content. It aggregates social network, other online content and RSS channels for Android, Blackberry 10, iOS, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8. Content is presented in a captivating magazine format, allowing users to “flip” through it with a simple swipe of the finger.


As a genealogy new media content creator and publisher, Genealogy Gems is excited to introduce this creative use of this emerging technology to the genealogy industry. Check out two more new FREE Flipboard issues from Lisa Louise Cooke that you can share with your audience:


Using Newspapers for Genealogy and Family History

Using Historic Maps for Genealogy and Family History

How to learn more about Flipboard:


·         PODCAST: Tune in to the newest Genealogy Gems Blog and Podcast episode #163 for Lisa’s exclusive interview with the folks at Flipboard who provide tips and tricks for creating magazines!


·         FAMILYSEARCH: Click here to read FamilySearch’s press release on RootsTech 2014: Where Genealogy and Technology Converge.


·         ROOTSTECH: Attendees can catch Lisa’s workshop “Flipboard for Genealogy: Create Incredible Mobile Magazines of Your Favorite Genealogy Web Content” on Thursday at 4:00pm (LAB1263T) and Friday at 2:30 PM (LAB-1263F). Register at www.Rootstech.org. Session description: Turn your favorite genealogy web content into a customized and personalized digital magazine with the free Flipboard app. You’ll add free genealogy blogs, podcasts and video channels to your mobile devices (tablets, smart phones) in this hands-on session.


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I was very pleased to see my picture of Tammy Hepps and my blog post featured on the cover of this premier issue of the RootsTech 2014 Flipboard Magazine!  


I downloaded the app to my iPhone and flipped through the pages.  Here are my screen shots from my iPhone:






My thanks to Lisa for the Flipboard app information and the RootsTech 2014 magazine.


The one quibble I have with the RootsTech 2014 magazine is that the byline for every article is Lisa Louise Cooke.  She wrote some of the articles included in the magazine, but she didn't write all of them.  I think that there should be a clear byline for the author of each article.  There are links to the blog posts or news articles, but a magazine reader might think that Lisa wrote all of the articles herself.


I find it easier to read the magazine on my desktop computer and laptop computer than on my iPhone and small tablet.  I don't have an iPad or large tablet to compare the experience.  But it looks like a great way to make a short presentation (or perhaps even a longer one) if you have Internet access at the venue.


 I can see tremendous potential for this as a way to interest our family members in their ancestors and their heritage, or to advertise for a local genealogical society.  A genealogist could create the magazine, then email the link to their family or society members, just as Sunny did with the notice above.  


Who else in the genealogy world has a Flipboard magazine published?  What other examples might there be to promote family history and genealogy research?  Tell me in comments!   


The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/01/technology-tuesday-read-rootstech-2014.html


Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver



1 comment:

Misty said...

I absolutely agree with you about the byline issue. The app should really highlight the author of the actual article not the person who is curating the content. Even positioning the magazine creator below the text of the article would help a bit.

The app does have the ability to "fetch" the magazine to read offline if you don't have internet. I don't believe you can do the same thing on a laptop so if you were presenting from that you indeed would have to have internet access.

Caroline Pointer has a couple of magazines I have subscribed to. I'm sure many, many more in the genealogy world will hop on board and have their own. So many fun possibilities!