From: john1@s145802280.onlinehome.fr   
      
   On 26/04/2018 15:55, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:   
   > I thought it would be an interesting discussion to how people go about   
   > two (or more) people working on the same database.   
   >   
   > This is regardless of which genealogy software is in use.   
   >   
   > I suppose one way is to store (or at least share) it in the cloud   
   > somewhere; personally I don't like the cloud, (a) because I don't   
   > consider it reliable, (b) I'm not too sure who has access to it, but   
   > even if you _do_ do that, you need to agree who is working on it when;   
   > if, say, two people are working on different parts of it (they're   
   > pursuing different lines, maybe because they're in different parts of   
   > the country [or world!]), they need some way of combining what they've   
   > found/added. By cloud, I include general cloud (such as dropbox), and   
   > specific genealogy ones (such as an Ancestry tree).   
   >   
   > Brother's Keeper has the facility to compare two similar databases (or   
   > versions of the same one), and highlight differences, allowing you to   
   > move/merge/whatever facts and people from one to the other; I presume   
   > some other softwares have something similar. This does mean both   
   > participants have to go through this process, though, and presumably   
   > they'll still end up with different databases: if, say, they each start   
   > with 100 or 1000 people, and each add 5, then in person A's case, he   
   > will have his additions as numbers 101 to 105 and his co-worker's   
   > additions as 106 to 110, and person B will have the opposite.   
   >   
   > I know moderately distant cousins won't _necessarily_ consider this a   
   > problem: they probably are extending the database - at least, the modern   
   > end - differently anyway, not being _that_ interested in their cousin's   
   > close family. But say a couple of brothers (or siblings) are both   
   > working on different lines of their common tree: say they both take   
   > their holidays around the same time, but go to different places, where   
   > they research the line that is in that locality. How do they merge their   
   > results.   
   >   
   > I _suspect_ it's an intractable problem, especially where (or at least   
   > more so where) the two (or more) participants use different software.   
   >   
   > I don't have a solution; I just thought it'd be an interesting   
   > discussion to have.   
   >   
   > [I don't have the problem _much_ myself - my brother lets me do it all   
   > for our family. And other cousins keep their own, different except where   
   > we overlap, trees.]   
      
   Some quick thoughts:   
      
   You need software that applies a lock so that only one person at a time   
   can update the data but I don't think that is common in most genealogy   
   software.   
      
   At the simplest, with a lot of trust, you could put the program data in   
   a folder on the web so several people with passwords can access it e.g.   
   Dropbox and then at the simplest level add another file which you open   
   which says you are editing so others should not edit.   
      
   You do really need to be able to tag any added data so you know who did   
   the change and holds proof of the reason for the change.   
      
   And you do really need a "god" so if X changes data from A to B, Y then   
   swaps it back, and X swaps it back again....   
      
   There are various PHP-based (and usually web-based) genealogy programs   
   (eg. TNG, webtrees) where (usually only) one person is the owner and,   
   although others can submit changes, the owner has to approve changes.   
   Those programs can be run on your own computer with appropriate software   
   and remote access.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)