Hey, go read this good post on Serial Entrepreneurship and Genealogy over at the digicopia blog. That post was in response to this Geneabloggers post.

I agree with his assessment of the field – and since my comment kind of turned into almost its own blog post, I thought I’d post it here for posterity as well.

I agree wholeheartedly that the serial entrepreneurship as of late is a very good thing for the genealogy community.

These entrepreneurs are almost by definition smaller, fast moving or working outside of “comfort zones” – while they may not be adding the great numbers of records the Big Gorillas do, these innovators are the ones that could most likely come up with most useful next generation tools that provide better ways to find and visualize connections.

The exceptional thing about the effectiveness of entrepreneurship in this realm is that genealogists are more than willing to use multiple resources, tools and methods to ferret out information. The result is that new sites can really get their tires kicked by a vocal and experienced community.

If the downside of entrepreneurship is genealogists having to deal with splintered resources, weighing the value of multiple subscription charges and, as you stated, the potential for sloppy research, the upside of the combination of the fast growing Big Gorilla datasets and innovative tools is almost certainly big fat plus for genealogists who are going to need all the help they can get as more data goes online.

Finally, as with any field, it is only a matter of time before the at least some of the chaos of entrepreneurship is incorporated into the Big Gorilla’s arsenal – either through assimilation or emulation.

It is a terrific time to research online!