Hi group! Here are a few New Year's Listowner thoughts from your fearless Blarney Tech Alum ;] : FYI, Rootsweb and the existence of our list is in some financial shifting sands right now. I assume some of you have read about the recent acquisition of The Learning Company by Mattel? In case you were not aware, the genealogical buy-outs and mergers in 1998 looked like this: Mindscape (Legacy) bought out Parsons Technology (huge databases plus peripheral supplies and great tech support) then Broderbund (Family Tree maker) bought out Mindscape. Next, The Learning Company bought out Broderbund then The Learning Company bought out Palladium (Ultimate Family Tree and Rootsweb Sponsor). Finally Mattel bought out the Learning Company. Suddenly, left out there are Sierra (which sponsors Cyndi's List which is supplied with webspace by Rootsweb), Brother's Keeper & The Master Genealogist and this as yet undefined conglomerate. WHY AM I TELLING YOU ALL THIS??? As of this month the Rootsweb folks have let Listowners know that the future of Rootsweb suddenly looks quite different as a result. As you know, Rootsweb is here to promote the FREE EXCHANGE of genealogical information. Mattel is clearly a bottom line oriented entity. The following email came to us from Brian Leverich: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first (and more minor) problem is that due to the acquisition of Palladium Interactive by TLC and it effectively being made subordinate to Banner Blue (Broderbund), the Palladium sponsorship check contractually due on 1 December didn't arrive and Palladium / Broderbund were being terrifically vague about when it might arrive. This resulted in Karen and me making an emergency draw on RootsWeb's credit line at Wells Fargo Bank to meet expenses, and ultimately on 19 December we dropped Palladium's banners and announced we had a problem. On 23 December the "1 December" check arrived. End of this story. ### The second (and much more significant) problem is that the acquisition of PI by Banner Blue / Broderbund / TLC / Mattel completely changed the nature of the sponsorship relationship, and it is not clear that RootsWeb will remain in the contract. Jewishgen.org has already dropped Palladium's sponsorship. I have a bad feeling that there are going to be layoffs at Palladium in January, and it is possible that RootsWeb will feel forced to withdraw from the arrangement at that time. We're going to be throwing away about a third of our revenues if that happens. That won't be the end of RootsWeb, but it's certainly going to take a financial situation that is so bad it occasionally sends me into gales of laughter (you gotta laugh or you'd cry over this) and turn it into a truly interesting mess. Oh well. There you have it from the horse's mouth. Cheers, B. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As Brian stated, Rootsweb may be forced to withdraw from the Sponsorship Agreement in order to protect its goals of remaining a publically accessible, low cost entity. Thank goodness Brian and Karen have had the vision to retain enough autonomy that they can do this! Otherwise, Rootsweb could have been absorbed and cut off the web in all this.... This also involves GenConnect, BTW. Here is where you all come in. For $12 per year, you can become a Rootsweb Member. There are over 170,000 folks subscribed to Rootsweb lists. If all give $12 annually to Rootsweb this will give Rootsweb the autonomy they need to survive as a non-profit entity in a capitalistic world. You can join at other levels of support as well and as you can afford it. To do so click here: <http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html> In this last year, as I could, I "upped" my membership twice from basic membership to Sponsor (so I could start this list!) then to Sponsor Plus (when I was so happy with this list that I became nuts enough to want to adopt another list and begin two more... also, my webpage (with my DEWHURST info!) is now on Rootsweb http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~jmbhome/ Karen and Brian were very willing to accomodate the "feast or famine nature" of my personal financial circumstances! I strongly recommend you consider offering your own $$$ support, as you can, to keep Rootsweb afloat. If you have a homepage, consider letting Rootsweb host it - it only costs $50 per year... I dare you to find another ISP as generous who doesn't require blinking advertising on your page! Other ideas are in the works to solicit $$$ support like a Rootsweb thermometer saying for example "$100,000 = a server to hold all the Irish Emigration Records" ( this is an example of what could be possible NOT an actual offering from Rootsweb at the moment - just wanted to wake you back up if I lost you!). It is not my intention to get dialogue going on this list on this topic, let's keep it to DEWHURST research efforts, but feel free to email me privately if you want more info <jblack@marin.k12.ca.us> Jana Black Listowner, DEWHURST-L