Were your eyes bigger than your stomach?

Remember that old saying?  I remember being told that after I had eaten about half of what was on my plate at dinner ... and thinking to myself: "but I didn't serve my plate!"


Well ... this time I did, and I think I may have bitten off more than I could chew.  It all started with some scanned photos from my vacation .............


[insert Scooby-Doo wavy screen effects here]


In the beginning, there was Family Tree Maker.  I had used FTM ever since I can remember, and back when I was a "name collector" (not to worry, I have learned the error of my ways!) I would find stuff on Ancestry.com, plug it into my little tree, and go merrily about my business.  So yeah, I have 3,000 or so names in my FTM tree.  Of course, I can only prove a small percentage of those relationships.


In the last year or so, I have become "enlightened" about citing my sources and all that.  Well, the citations in FTM don't play nicely with the way my brain works (citationally-challenged), so  after I attended the Family History Expo in Atlanta last November, I purchased and started transferring all of my data over to RootsMagic 4.  I am only transferring the people to whom I can prove a relationship, and adding sources and media to back it up.  I'm up to 149 people in my database.  It was running along so smoothly.  Apparently, I thought I needed a challenge.


During my vacation I scanned a few hundred photos and newspaper articles that my grandmother had in scrapbooks and photo albums.  In the process of trying to label and organize them all, I realized that I needed to completely re-do my digital filing system, and I needed to figure out the best way to do that.  So last week as I was catching up on my blog reading and I came across a post from GeneaPopPop explaining how to use a wiki as a research tool.  O.M.G.  My mind was officially blown.  It made perfect sense!  I could update it as I went, I could access it from anywhere, and I could invite people to put their 2 cents in if I wanted!  I. HAD. TO. HAVE. IT.


So I began researching wikis.  Apparently, I'm not as tech-savvy as I thought.  This was going to take some serious homework.  In any case, I went ahead and downloaded demos from a few different wiki providers (TiddlyWiki, WikiMedia, and Wikispaces) just to play around and see what felt comfortable to me.  I ultimately chose Wikispaces - mainly because it's free up to 2GB, and since I have all of my media saved in the cloud already I can just point the wiki to the files I've already organized.  Easy peasy, right?


I played around with it, trying to make a template for all of my people pages, adding people as I added information.  (By the way ... you have to upload media files to the wiki - you can't just point your link to them.  I already have 8GB worth of media, not including my new photos and articles.  This is already costing me money!)  Once I got up to about 6 pages, I thought ... "what the heck am I doing?!!?"  I remembered I already had a wiki on WikiTree!  And I've already uploaded my GEDCOM and everything.  Half the work is already done for me -- and it's FREE!  I stopped working on my new wiki and decided to take a break.  Something in my brain needed some rest apparently.


During our Success Team meeting on Saturday, Laura and I were talking about my forays into the world of wiki.  Being supportive like only Laura can, she confirmed my decision that I don't need another project to tackle right now and that I have other goals that need to be addressed first.  She reminded me that I had just mentioned that I'm not getting as much of my own research done as I would like, and that at least one of my goals needed to reflect that desire.  This is why I am so thankful for our weekly Success Team meetings - so I can bounce ideas off Laura and she can tell me whether it's a smart idea ... or just plain crazy!  I'd never be able to stay on track without her.


I have canceled my new wiki.  I am still working on a new filing system, but it's one that involves digital folders in Dropbox.  It will take a lot less time to create and maintain, so that is definitely a plus.


This episode has caused me to create a list of questions that I will ask myself the next time I think I need the "next big thing:"
1.  Does it help me accomplish one of my goals?
2.  Do I have the time to devote to it?
3.  Will my research benefit from it?


If the answer to one of these questions is 'no,' then I will likely abandon whatever it is.  In some cases, it might go on the "want" list, but probably near the bottom.  


GO TEAM!