I have a Haplogroup! Genebase and DNA Ancestry Project Revisited.

This is a follow-up to my post about Genebase's DNA Ancestry Project and DNA-based Social Network. 

So, I did finally get my haplogroup results (well, I got my genetic markers that lets me find my haplogroup, among other things)!  I have been checking back on the Genebase site intermittently, about every 3 weeks just to see.  Sometime in mid-March, my account had 3 genetic markers added!  W00t!

It turns out that it is 40% likely that I am from Haplogroup J!  Here are some of the deets on Haplogroup J:

Haplogroup J

Time: Emerged approx 50,000 years ago
Place: Near East

The woman who founded Haplogroup J lived approximately 50,000 years ago in the Near East (Mesopotamia). Descendents of the Haplogroup J line moved north and west into Eastern Europe approximately 10,000 years ago. Today, descendents of this line can be found throughout Europe, but are most commonly associated with individuals from Russia and Eastern Europe.

I'm not really surprised - we're Croatian (on my dad's side) as far back as I know.  It's actually pretty cool because they give you a few other possibilities as well.  My other potential groups (interestingly, all at 36% likelihood) are JT, H, HV and pre-HV which are all European Haplogroups.  The cool one to belong to is H which is the one Marie Antoinette and the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia belong to.

I also have to say that they've made some major improvements to the site since I visited.  While I do find that some of their links still put me into a click loop that always ends at "order more markers", there are some new features that give you the kind of info that most people who want to get their DNA traced are looking for.

First, there is now a tutorial explaining the different features of the site.  I found this invaluable!  It's a screencast with voiceover that walks through the major areas, including the genetic research and the social networking component.  This screencast also demonstrated the search feature which lets you find other genetic ancestry matches.  Good stuff.  And good learning for other products.  If you have a relatively technical product but are trying to reach a lay audience - the more support you can provide, the better. They've also started an "About DNA" blog which is another significant addition.

Second, I did find an improvement to their navigation.  Now, on the bottom of where you find your results, there are big friendly buttons.  Never under estimate the power of big friendly graphical buttons.  And the one I (along with, I'm guessing, 90% of the other folks who buy a kit) am really interested in: DNA Archaeology.  Am I related to anyone famous?

That their DNA Archaeology is now working is HUGE.  This kind of comparison is at the crux of their marketing strategy and now they can finally deliver.  Unfortunately, I am not, in fact, related to Marie Antoinette, nor to any of the dozen or so famous people's DNA profiles they have on the site.  But they seem to keep adding profiles and projects so who knows, maybe someday I'll find that Queen or Empress in my background.

Takeaway Lessons for Social Networks and Community-Building

So, ultimately, after my experience with Genebase and the DNA Ancestry Project, I would have to say that my big takeaway lesson is about over-promising and under-delivering.  In most social networks or Web 2.0 software applications, you can get away with not always following through or being 100% ready.  Clay Mitchell wrote a great piece called "The Power of Beta" which describes how marketers can actually take advantage of their product being "in beta" to build community, get feedback, tweak the product, etc.  The key is to not over-promise.  I think the DNA Ancestry Project ran into problems (and certainly raised my ire) for a few reasons:

1. If you're going to charge people real $$ for something, it better be good.  Facebook gets away with all kinds of stuff because no one is paying cash money for it.  I don't want to pay $$ for something that isn't quite done UNLESS I feel like my $$ are an investment and are helping build something great (e.g. when Flickr was in alpha and not part of the Yahoo machine, I happily paid them my $50 bucks because I felt I was contributing to an amazing team and ultimately investing in a cool product).
2. If you're going to reach out to a lay audience with a sexy promise (e.g. find out if you're related to Marie Antoinette), be able to deliver.  Even if that is the ONLY thing you deliver on.  There is a bunch of functionality in Genebase that I haven't explored at all.  Some of it is really specialised for folks who are serious genealogists and some of it is just not functionality I'm interested in (e.g. there is some hard core customization you can do of your profile page), but what I really wanted (the Ancestry stuff) wasn't there.
3. If you are in a beta or development cycle, REACH OUT to your members.  There are all kinds of settings for how I want to get contact info from other members of the Genebase community, but not from Genebase itself.  I didn't receive email notification that my results were it.  I didn't get any notice of new features or the tutorials or the new blog.  I would have welcomed this kind of community outreach from Genebase.  Plus, a number of social networks will give you at least one friend (someone from the company) when you join.  There is no one in my Genebase social network, so it's kind of tricky to figure out how to find and add contacts.  Having one there would be a great example, plus make it a more friendly experience.  I don't know if Genebase is planning on doing this in the future, but hiring a community manager who spends most of their time making connections and resolving issues for community members would be a important addition to the team.

I do think there is something interesting and noteworthy happening in this product - I would just like to see a little more transparency and participation from Genebase in their own social network.  But genealogical research and social networking around that are certainly de rigeur and here to stay.  At the end of March, comScore released  the  Top Canadian Web Rankings for Canadians in Feb 2008.  What type of site had the highest % gain (19% from Jan to Feb)?  Genealogy sites.