Got this off the listowners list. Not trying to hustle anyone into joining but, this is the best informational message I have seen on the subject. Dave > > > Hi all - > > I'm sorta hoping this post will tie off the discussion on RootsWeb > Memberships / Sponsorships, but you can of course carry on if > there's more interesting to say. > > ### > > The first thing I'd like to do is make sure that everyone > understands that the RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative isn't > Broderbund and *all* of RootsWeb's facilities are available for > free. Most of what we do is completely free, and even nominally > Member- or Sponsor-only facilities like mailing lists are available > freely to folks who can't help support the site at this time. > > That's part of what the "Cooperative" in our name means. > > ### > > The second thing is that while we *greatly* appreciate the > listowners who do actively support RootsWeb, nobody is under any > obligation to do so. *NO* obligation at all. About the only thing > we ask of listowners is that they understand that we're user- > supported and that there's no other sponsoring agency, and that they > can verify that for their users if their users ask what RootsWeb is. > > ### > > Several folks asked about RootsWeb's finances. I'll give > information on our expenses and income below, but the first thing > I'd like to address is what we'd do if we ever turned a "profit" > beyond what it costs to buy hardware and bandwidth. > > We'd use the profits to buy datasets and bring them online. > > The Social Security Death Index is a famous government dataset that > we could buy for a few thousand dollars, but there's a lot more > datasets out there. Many jurisdiction have vitals, property > records, court records, voter records, and all sorts of other > material on electronic media and available to the public at cost. > Some cemeteries now have their records computerized. RootsWeb would > like to make those datasets freely accessible over the Web. > > We'd also use the profits to support record transcription projects. > > We'd like to buy a microfilm scanner, start scanning microfilms as > fast as we can, and uploading the images to The Net. We'd also like > to hack some simple data entry tools, so a community-minded > genealogist could download the tool and a set of images and data- > entry the records in their own home completely at their own > convenience and then upload the transcriptions for everyone on The > Net to use. Done right and with community participation, I think > we could bring the equivalent of Salt Lake's holdings online within > a reasonable number of years. > > ### > > Now about RootsWeb's finances to date. Last year's major hardware > expenses are pretty easy to understand: > > Main servers (4 @ $7,000 each) $28,000 > > Various and sundry smaller servers $ 8,000 > > Network routers, hubs, and cabling $ 3,000 > > Uninterruptible power supplies, batteries, ... $ 3,000 > > We also have substantial bits-and-pieces costs above these. > > We also have substantial bandwidth costs. T1 pipes in California > cost about $2,000 to $2,600 per month, though at this point RootsWeb > gets a substantial discount because of some special circumstances. > Our bandwidth costs will be rising toward market levels in the next > year. > > Finally, we also have all the usual small organization costs: > government fees, bookkeeping, supplies, you name it. And as an > additional pain, we have substantial tax liabilities because we are > a hardware-intensive operation and we have to depreciate our > hardware costs across 5 years. > > Anyway, the bottom line is that our expenses for last year were > above $60,000. > > RootsWeb now has around 1,600 Members/Sponsors, and our total income > has been somewhat less than $40,000 (our median donation is around > $20, and we have a few large donors who have helped pull the total > upwards). > > The $20,000+ difference between expenses and income has come out of > Karen and Brian's pockets. > > [ Not included, as either expense or income, is a server Apple Corp. > is providing to help support the eWorld mailing lists. Also not > included as an expense is the large chunk of consulting income that > I've foregone to have time to support RootsWeb. ] > > ### > > Hope that information helps everyone understand how RootsWeb > operates, what are goals are, and that listowners are welcome (but > not required!) to help us pursue those goals. Cheers, B. > > > -- > Dr. Brian Leverich Co-moderator, soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L > RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative http://www.rootsweb.com/ > P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 leverich@rootsweb.com >