I’ve been saying version 5 is coming for all too long now. However, as a sole owner of AniMap LLC and the massive work it is, let it suffice to say “sometimes life happens” around plans.
AniMap 5 brings far too many changes to list as bullet points, so the way information will come is through videos I have still in front of work I’m doing. But I still feel the need to name a few.
- Central Subject Management – A single management UI whereby you manage your notes, circles and markers.
- A similar navigation to AniMap version 3.0.2 – Expanded year selection throughout the life of the area.
- Counties are updated based on selected year. A list is shown of counties in existence at the time.
- Changes now appear for all county shapes. No more “Unknown” in popups.
- When clicking on a county you get a popup having the choice to view the detail of the change with source references. A button allowing you to select that county.
- Note Pad added to the mapping UI
- Note pad is just that, notes you need to “jot” down while viewing map data. You have management of these jotted notes where you can append them to your research notes or optionally create an entirely new note.
- This is a major step in feature improvements planned.
- Temporary Markers and Circles – When you place a marker now it is done from the mapping UI.
- Setting a point now lookups data for the location you picked and returns if for your confirmation.
- During confirmation you can make it temporary or permanent. A major step forward in allowing research to exist in a temporary state to discover where your records are found.
- Multiple Subjects on the map – You now control what subjects you want to display on the map. A layer control has been added whereby with clicking a checkbox it will add and remove subjects without need to refresh the map view.
- Reduced map view realignment. This occurs infrequently now.
- One case causes a redraw. If you are viewing a county on one date, then select a date that county no longer existed. The map will view to the entire state on that given date.
- If the county doesn’t exist, it cannot remain zoomed to something no longer there.
- County Search – You can now search all states for a county name. It returns a list of states having that county. Selecting one from the returned results takes you to that county, zoomed to it.
- Society Accounts – A new twist where societies can donate, getting a range of 5-15 sub accounts they can manage.
- Security in these accounts in the data belongs to whom they assign the sub account to. The society does not have access to these accounts information.
- An option to share back to the society will be in a feature enhancement update. But shared will only exist while the account is a sub account. Should the society remove that sub account; all of that users data becomes private to that user.
This list is not the full list of changes coming. There are many more user action improvements throughout version 5. Many coming from recommendations.
The last thing today. No more subscriptions! Yes, you can re-read that.
AniMap version 5 removes subscriptions. Any subscriber will be moved to version 5 as version 4 will be sunset. They will have an option to cancel their subscription without losing any access.
Users have this choice because version 5 is moving to a donation model. It will have a minimum donation requirement to access data only. Not by choice, but needs to keep operating.
This is a slow transition to where my goal for AniMap. I’m taking a major chance because I believe the time is now.
Subscription was something I despised doing, however it was the one choice in life I had to make without regard to my moral judgement. I have financed all of AniMap development. This required using my full-time job income to keep it going. All work was nights and weekends. Yes, I am that dedicated to carrying forward the legacy of Art Lassange, Adrian Ettlinger and John Long.
My goal, community funding through contributions. Monetary needs are low goal. Enough to pay for development in expansion of features along with cost of hosting the platform. Roughly $150,000 per year funds expansions, feature addition and improvements, with all infrastructure costs paid. Profit is NOT a goal here.
I have no board of directors, I have no investors, I only have one third party product in AniMap with plans to remove that expense in version 6.
Where is AniMap going after version 5?
- Railroads – Overlay of railroads from 1840 forward to as far as I can find.
- Genealogy program
- Events – Enter date, state, county and be looking at a map as the location existed on the date you entered.
- Newspaper sources as first rate citizens in your research
- Shared events automatically for children who are of the times considered minority age
- Better tracking from data on events you may be missing
- More generic and yet more specific event entry
- Expansion of historical details in each area
- Example: Deerbrook, Langlade County, Wisconsin I will add many verified facts of the founding and community places our ancestors shared their lives.
- More surname data on people in the area
My major goal is to break the barriers every research has. Dispersed and costly research sources locked behind paywalls with massive monthly fees. Ancestry, My Heritage, etc., I say enough already.
Shared trees are good when a single source of fact owns that person. Shared trees today are a cluster of hundreds of hours chasing your tail because information wasn’t vetted as it should be.
If you held on this long, thank you! There is a lot more coming but limited time currently, hence a long winded post.
Subscribers, THANK YOU! You believed in me, supported me with that unfavorable pricing method. I only hope is you are proud to have been one of whom I will consider my Founding Members. Your account with have the option to be displayed as a Founding Member. You must choose to turn this on as it is your choice to become public and not one I will make for you.