GeniBeta.jpgMy brother, Ronnie, sent me an invite to Geni, a site that is basically a linkedin concept, but for family. The site is very cool and a lot of fun. It works where you (1) build out your own profile and (2) build your family tree.

What is it in short?

Geni is a website that allows families to collaboratively build their family tree. Family members can then use the tree to learn more about each other, share knowledge about common ancestors and relatives, and stay in touch with each other.

(1) Your own profile is information about you such as, where you work, how tall you are, your education, methods to contact you and your interests.

(2) Your family tree is where it gets cool...

It builds out this Web 2.0 enabled (Flash tools) family tree, where you can keep adding branches too. For example, look at this screen shot...

geni-screenshot.png

Here you see a picture of me, and you see I clicked on the left arrow. That opens up a branch for me to add a brother, sister or wife. So I went ahead and invited my wife, who is now on my right (but you don't see that). My brother invited my other siblings, so I didn't have to invite them. Above me you see my dad on the top left and my mom (I blurred her out) on the top right. My dad can then add his brothers and sisters, plus branch up to his parents (if he wanted to plot that information).

The cool part is that if my wife branches out, her family tree can then grow and I can see it. This grows virally and what is best, it up keeps itself, by user participation. So far, I think it rocks.

There is a complete FAQ over here and you can check out their blog here.