The Unofficial Footnote Blog

Footnote recently announced that they will publish the complete US census.

The Footnote announcement, in part:

Today Footnote.com announced it will digitize and create a searchable database for all publicly available U.S. Federal Censuses, ranging from the first U.S. Census taken in 1790 to the most current public census from 1930. Through its partnership with the National Archives, Footnote.com will add more than 9.5 million images featuring over half a billion names to its extensive online record collection.

With over 60 million historical records already online, Footnote.com will use the U.S. Census records to tie content together, creating a pathway to discover additional records that previously have been difficult to find.

“We see the census as a highway leading back to the 18th century,” explains Russ Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “This Census Highway provides off-ramps leading to additional records on the site such as naturalization records, historical newspapers, military records and more. Going forward, Footnote.com will continue to ad valuable and unique collections that will enhance the census collection.”

How much interaction is interactive?

INTERACTIVE CENSUS

Footnote frequently refers to content as “interactive” to indicate that the site supports user augmentation of the published information, through the uploading of images, addition of comments and connection of records to other records.  I was curious about how users have interacted with the census published so far.

1860 Census

27,829,177 names.
1,130 spotlights (0.0041%)
159 connections (0.0006%)
146 comments (0.0005%)

1930 Census

124,334,104 names.
824 spotlights (0.0007%)
242 connections (0.0002%)
169 comments (0.0001%)

If one were to graph the census on a pie chart, the amount of interaction would be invisible. What does it mean?

It w0uld appear that Footnote is counting on customers and volunteers to enhance their census publications. To date, the public has spotlighted, connected and commented on a vanishingly small portion of the census collection. The probability that a new customer is going to find a census record that has been acted on by another customer previously is presently about 1 in 100,000. In comparison, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was extremely well received by the “social network.” Of the 58,257 images, there are 565 spotlights, 106 comments, and 4 connections. If, by “interactive” we mean that someone has added a spotlight, comment, or connection (which really means “augmented” as opposed to “interactive”), then 99% of the most interactive title on footnote is not interactive. When it comes to census, the story is similar, except with a lot more 9’s in the percentage.

Numbers don’t tell the whole story. More than 99% of all the species that ever lived are extinct. Statistically, there is no life on earth. Yet, there IS life, and it’s high, wide, and handsome. The opportunities to enhance Footnote titles, and to find those enhancements and empathize with the person who submitted it, is real. It’s important. But it’s also pretty scarce.

Some customers are asking, “Why do we need another census?” since the information is readily available elsewhere. Apparently Footnote’s managers believe that there is a need.

CENSUS? ANYTHING ELSE?

One has to wonder what to expect from Footnote in 2010.

If recent trends are an indication, in 2010 they might

• produce 10 million census images and not much else
• produce 10 million images of a variety of titles, and not complete the census
• increase production above the 2009 level by enough to complete the census (about 17 million images total)
• return production to 2008 levels, including the census, and publish 23 million images

As you can see, there are enough possibilities that it’s silly to say that we know what will happen. But if production stayed at 2009 levels, and the ratio of census to other content remained the same, the census collection could still be finished in less than 4 years. Footnote’s competitor’s don’t announce their publication schedules in advance, and Footnote would be at a significant disadvantage if they pre-announced their publication plans.

Some Footnote subscribers are concerned that they might see a relatively small number of non-census records published in 2010. There is reason to wonder. First, the number of non-census records published in 2007-2009 (in million) is 23, 22, and 7. Second, progress on other large non-census titles, such as Texas Births and Deaths, has been hard to predict. The census announcement was not specific about a timeline, and did not mention what impact (if any) that the project would have on the continued publication of unique records.

Footnote made a bit of a brand out of publishing the whole title, and unique content. Now, the question is not, “Is Footnote changing?” but rather, “How much is Footnote changing?” That question will be answered by what is published in 2010. Let’s watch and see.