Geneapedia was created because the future of genealogy surely belong to the big databases, instead of letting all new genealogists start from scratch with their own personal database. The big databases let people cooperate and publish their findings so other genealogists may take advantage of them.
Several such big databases have already existed for some time, and we see both the advantages and the drawbacks. The databases have become very big, but full of unreliable information. Source information is often lacking, and if present, only on a person level. Sources are often unreliable too, and it is usually impossible to check where a specific piece of information is coming from. That startet the idea of a "Geneapedia" - a place to collect verifiable genealogical information.
Anyone can enter or modify information, but with a strong focus on sources and reliability. The ultimate goal for Geneapedia is to become the leading collection of genealogical lineage-linked information - and the natural starting point for doing your own research. Whenever you have solved a problem, you can enter your findings in Geneapedia and encourage other's to continue the research.
In Geneapedia no one "owns" the information. Anyone can change any data (login is required), except for living people. Source information can and should be added to all details, and not on person level. Information without any source reference are marked as unreliable.
To start adding information to Geneapedia, you must register, which is of course free.
It currently contains much data from Norway, mainly from the counties of Rogaland and Hordaland. It also contains much Scottish and Danish nobility, mostly from before 1700.
Geneapedia is being developed by Christoffer Owe who has more than 20 years of experience from the IT consultancy business. He has experience from system development, business intelligence, ERP systems (SAP), project management, and people management. He also has been a genealogist for more than 35 years, and has always been concerned with IT and genealogy.
Christoffer is based in Sandnes, Norway.