Paul emailed the startup founders he’s helped mentor and asked them what had surprised them about their respective journeys. He listed 19 key things they’ve learned. Nearly all of them resonated with me, so I thought I’d respond to each in turn based on my experiences with Genlighten.

1. Be Careful with Co-founders

Here the takeaways were  “[running a startup is] like you’re married [to your co-founders]” and “don’t pick co-founders who will flake.” I feel quite fortunate in this regard:

• I’m already married to one of my co-founders — Genlighten’s “Chief Lookup Officer” — and the site is largely designed around her specifications for making the lookup process as simple and convenient as possible. I would never have undertaken a project like Genlighten without her as a partner.
• My second co-founder, Justin Ball, has devoted countless night and weekend hours over the last year-and-a-half to get Genlighten built while somehow balancing a family of six, a freelance consulting business, and a passion for cycling at the same time.  He’s kind of the ideal embodiment of not flaking. By the way, thanks to Renee Zamora for introducing me to Justin.

2. Startups Take Over Your Life

This has definitely happened to me. Though I (thankfully) still have my day job, I spend pretty much every waking minute away from that job thinking about Genlighten and what we need to do to make it successful. As an example of this, I looked back at the emails in my inbox over the past week and all but eleven out of 132 are Genlighten-related. When friends ask the seemingly innocent question “So how’s Genlighten going?” I find I have to consciously shut myself up after a few minutes or I’ll just go on and on.

3. It’s an Emotional Roller-coaster

When a new provider posts a lookup on the site, or Google Analytics shows a sharp increase in visitors, or one of our users mentions us on Facebook or on their blog, I  immediately feel a huge surge of elation and optimism. Conversely, when an email we send out doesn’t yield the response we’d hoped for, or a potential client offers well-reasoned negative feedback, or delayed baggage causes me to miss most of a genealogy conference I was scheduled to exhibit at, discouragement can be just as dramatic. Like with a roller coaster, it’s the wild oscillations, rather than the peaks or valleys themselves, that are sometimes tough to stomach.

4. It Can Be Fun

I took a day off from my day job Friday to focus on developing some new marketing strategies and on getting our newsletter out. The day flew by in no time. I never once found myself wishing I could be doing something else instead. As Paul Graham says, “the highs are … very high.” Don’t get me wrong, my day job’s pretty good too, but it’s just not fun the way Genlighten is. Freedom and accountability are probably the main reasons for that.

5. Persistence Is the Key

Occasionally the thought will come to me “This is hard work. You don’t need to do this. Think how much more relaxed you’d be if you just gave up on this. You’re not cut out to make this succeed.” When that happens, I’m reminded of similarly ambitious goals I’ve had in the past (the optics Ph.D., the research grants I fought for when I taught college, the part-time Kellogg MBA) that took a long time to realize, but ultimately yielded to simple persistence.

6. Think Long-Term

Paul doesn’t mince words: “… everything takes longer than you expect.” Those of you who have been following our progress for a while may remember the flyers I handed out at FGS in Fort Wayne in August 2007. Giving myself what I thought was plenty of time, I predicted that our public beta would launch in March of 2008. I’ve had to revise that date six or seven times since (the flyers are now on version 23) and we just barely launched our private beta a few weeks ago.

Why has it taken so long? Partly because our finances have dictated that Genlighten is a nights and weekends project. Partly because we’re not single twenty-somethings who can pull all-nighters for a few months and have a minimum viable product. But mostly because we were (check that — I was) tremendously naive. Now I’m beginning to understand what one of Y Combinator’s more successful founders discovered:

“For the vast majority of startups that become successful, it’s going to be a really long journey, at least 3 years and probably 5+.”

It’s looking like that will prove a pretty accurate description of our journey as well.

7. Lots of Little Things

Paul notes that startup success is rarely the result of “a single brilliant hack” — a killer feature, if you will. We’ve found this to be true so far. A large portion of our design/development time has been devoted to incremental improvements/fixes: the links within notification emails, payment processing glitches, page titles, the location and wording of buttons, etc.

8. Start with Something Minimal

Part of the reason I’ve held off so long launching our private beta has been fear of embarrassment, plain and simple. Paul observes:

“Why do people take too long on the first version? Pride, mostly. They hate to release something that could be better. They worry what people will say about them. But you have to overcome this… Don’t worry what people will say. If your first version is so impressive that trolls don’t make fun of it, you waited too long to launch.”

We probably did wait too long.  But there are plenty of features we wanted in our initial release that we ultimately decided weren’t worth any further delays:

• A slideshow-like page to help you browse through the images providers have uploaded to your account
• The ability to export genealogy document images to Flickr, Picasa, Geni, Footnote, or Facebook
• The ability for providers to rate and give feedback to clients (instead of just the other way around)
• The ability to print out a receipt when you order a lookup
• The ability for providers to print out a list of pending lookups to take with them to the repository

These things will come eventually, but we plan to get early users’ help in prioritizing these features before devoting lots of time to them.

9. Engage Users

Here the key idea is “product development [should be] a conversation with the user.” We’ve already gotten some great suggestions from those who’ve registered for our private beta, and we hope to receive lots more. One of the YC founders told Paul that:

“When you let customers tell you what they’re after, they will often reveal amazing details about what they find valuable as well what they’re willing to pay for.”

That’s a process we’re very much looking forward to.

10. Change Your Idea

Here’s an area where I can’t comment as easily from experience. We’re still very much focused on the original ideas we had for Genlighten (i.e., the features and the business model) though we’re definitely open to “course corrections.” One thing that could potentially change is the kind of provider we aim to serve. So far, we’ve envisioned our sweet spot as fixed-fee, document-specific lookups priced at about $5-$25 with quick turnaround, offered largely by “serious amateur genealogists” rather than professionals. But we’re already noticing providers signing up who want to advertise open-ended hourly research instead. We still think that market is better served by our competitors, and not one we really want to be in. But that philosophy could change.

11. Don’t Worry about Competitors

This is easy to say and very hard to do. I’ve felt a huge pit in my stomach every time I’ve learned of a new potential competitor to Genlighten. I’ve even found it difficult to visit their sites for fear ours would suffer in comparison.

Paul suggests that for many YC startups:

“Companies that seemed like competitors and threats at first glance usually never were when you really looked at it. Even if they were operating in the same area, they had a different goal.”

I’ve found this to be partially true, but of precious little comfort. One of our competitors has a well-thought out offering that targets true professionals and large-scale hourly research projects rather than lookups. They definitely have a different goal than we do and I’m not worried about them. But the 800-pound gorilla in our space is impossible to ignore, despite the difference in our goals. On the positive side, as I keep repeating to myself, competition is a sign that smart people see ours as a worthwhile market to be in.

12. It’s Hard to Get Users

For us this is doubly true, since we need to attract both clients and providers to our lookup marketplace, and the chicken-and-egg problem is in full force (not enough lookup providers => hard to attract lookup clients; not enough lookup clients => hard to attract lookup providers. ) Fortunately, we seem to be making some headway in this regard, and several promising avenues for both client and provider acquisition have recently opened up.

13. Expect the Worst with Deals

I recognized pretty much from the start that fundraising and most business-development efforts would be a complete waste of time for us until we had customer traction, so I’m completely in agreement with this point. Once we get to product-market fit, however, I know we’ll need to undertake these efforts. When we do, I’m prepared for them to proceed at an agonizingly slow pace.

14. Investors Are Clueless

I’m our only investor, so this definitely holds for us!  More to the point, VCs and angels I’ve mentioned Genlighten to so far have said smart rather than dumb things, e.g., “That market’s too small for me to get a significant return.” They’re right! However, I watched the judges at TechCrunch 2008 struggle to “get” what Footnote’s Pages were all about. If we ever decide to approach angel investors in a serious way, I’m sure we’ll face significant difficulties, even with customer traction.

15. You May Have to Play Games

I’ll admit that I don’t really get this one yet. I can’t imagine how “feigning certitude” would help us at all. Even if investors would even listen long enough for me to feign some.

16. Luck Is a Big Factor

My favorite quote in this section from Paul:

“Founders who fail quickly tend to blame themselves. Founders who succeed quickly don’t usually realize how lucky they were. It’s the ones in the middle who see how important luck is.”

We’re definitely in the middle.

17. The Value of Community

We haven’t had the privilege of being part of the YC experience or the Silicon Valley atmosphere that YC startups benefit from. But both the startup and genealogy communities have been tremendously supportive of our efforts, and we greatly appreciate that.

18. You Get No Respect

I’m instinctively aware of the extent to which “I run a genealogy web startup” would be a complete conversation killer among casual acquaintances. As a result, I rarely mention my involvement in Genlighten to those who don’t already know about us. (Except at our exhibit booth, that is!) This is obviously a problem, since job one for me right now is sales and marketing! So as a result of reading Paul’s essay, I’m going to work on saying “I work at a small startup you’ve never heard of called Genlighten.com” to anybody who will listen.

19. Things Change as You Grow

I’ll get back to you on this one when we have employees and reach “cruising altitude.”

The Super-Pattern

Paul’s summary conclusion is that

“As you go down the list, almost all the surprises are surprising in how much a startup differs from a job.”

This is only now beginning to become clear to me. Nothing in my undergraduate or graduate educations (with the exception of Yael Hochberg’s class at Kellogg) prepared me for the aspects of startup life that Paul outlines so succinctly in his essay.

Though he didn’t refer to it, Darlin’s article seems to echo a similar sentiment expressed by William McKeen several years back in a fun-to-read essay called “The endangered joy of serendipity,” McKeen posits:

“Put a couple of key words into a search engine and you find - with an irritating hit or miss here and there - exactly what you’re looking for. It’s efficient, but dull. You miss the time-consuming but enriching act of looking through shelves, of pulling down a book because the title interests you, or the binding… Looking for something and being surprised by what you find - even if it’s not what you set out looking for - is one of life’s great pleasures, and so far no software exists that can duplicate that experience.”

But back in 2006, Steven Johnson convincingly called baloney on McKeen (and in a tweet today, revisited his argument and targeted it to Darlin’s article as well.) His riposte:

Thanks to the connective nature of hypertext, and the blogosphere’s exploratory hunger for finding new stuff, the web is the greatest serendipity engine in the history of culture. It is far, far easier to sit down in front of your browser and stumble across something completely brilliant but surprising than it is walking through a library looking at the spines of books.

I’m siding with Mr. Johnson on this one. I think the web offers all sorts of opportunities for serendipity –  that it in fact can amplify and accelerate serendipitous discovery.  Rather than merely offering the spines of books for your browsing pleasure, for example, Google Books makes those spines transparent, and lets books’ content become the jumping-off point for all sorts of adventures.

One of our family’s most surprising recent genealogical discoveries was partly the result of a casual Google Books search for Benjamin Swetland. Yes, we “found what we were looking for” (i.e., basic info on my ancestor) but we also found stuff we weren’t looking for too, such as a photo of a bed warmer, and Benjamin’s composition of a politically-themed song, which led my fiddle-enthusiast wife to go looking for the tune to which that song may have been sung… you get the idea.

What about you? Do you think the web offers genealogists more or less opportunities for serendipitous discovery? Or to recast Darlin’s, McKeen’s and Johnson’s points into genealogically-relevant questions:

• Do genealogy-related social networks (e.g., Geni, GenealogyWise) offer better or worse chances to find random-but-helpful genealogy sources or connections to fellow researchers than, say, StumbleUpon?
• Which process have you found more helpful to your genealogy research: browsing randomly through the stacks of your favorite genealogy library, or searching for random ancestors in Google Books?
• What would an UrbanSpoon for genealogy research look like, would it be at all useful or fun, and would you buy it?

My wife Cynthia has become a fan of a new service called Sunnygram. It basically lets you send email to your non-computer-using grandparents.

How it Works

You, your brothers and sisters, and your kids compose electronic messages that you want to send to a grandparent (or other friend or relative.) The messages can include text, photos — whatever you’d like. You submit them via the Sunnygram site or simply email them to a special address you select.

Sunnygram compiles your submissions weekly and prints them out in a large font on high-quality paper. They then send your messages and photos to in a bright, attractive envelope to the recipient you designate.

Our Experiences Thus Far

My wife’s been using the service for a little over three weeks now. Cynthia, her sister, and our daughter have all contributed messages and photos. Cynthia’s grandmother in upstate New York has gotten three Sunnygrams, and she seems thoroughly delighted to receive them.

The website is nicely laid out and straightforward to navigate. It has lots of convenient touches that show some real thought went in to the design.

The company has been featured in Seventeen, AARP Bulletin Today, and Time.

The service costs $9.95 per month, and offers a one-month free trial.

To me that sounds like a very reasonable fee for the utility and impact Sunnygram provides. I encourage you to check it out and let us know what you think of it.

The presentation went surprisingly well, despite a few minor projector resolution issues. The highlight for me was when my wife and I managed to pull off our first-ever live demo of the site. Attendees got to watch as I ordered a lookup and Cyndy fulfilled it, in slightly-faster-than-real time. That could have easily been a disaster, but fortunately it worked just fine. There were also a gratifying number of extremely helpful questions and suggestions from the audience for features we should consider adding to Genlighten.

The main thing that prompts this post, however, is the chance to share the way the EGS runs their meetings. I’m sure many top-notch societies manage to hold great meetings, but here are some of the things I found particularly impressive about Elgin’s approach:

A great meeting venue

EGS meets at the Gail Borden Public Library alongside the Fox River in Elgin. The meeting room was well-equipped with a projector, screen, plentiful outlets, a movable lectern, and free wireless. Very speaker-friendly.

Efficiently-run society business time

Larry headed up this section, started right on time, and in right around 15 minutes had managed to:

• Share health updates on current and past members
• Highlight upcoming events
• Solicit donations to enable the genealogy section of the library to acquire some new books recommended by EGS members
• Receive a brief treasurer’s report
• Welcome guests and get them to introduce themselves and the surnames they’re researching

Refreshments and social time

For about 15 minutes prior to the speaker’s presentation, members had a chance to chat, get to know guests and new members, and enjoy some great refreshments in the back of the meeting room. As guests, we were received warmly and made to feel welcome.

A surprise guest

The meeting took a spontaneous turn when a member of a quilting group that happened to be meeting in the library the same evening was given a few minutes to display and discuss a pieced quilt displaying a fairly detailed genealogy of his family back to “the 1300s” (hmmm…) The quilt was quite impressive and generated a lot of interest from attendees.

The main event

My Genlighten presentation ran about 45-50 minutes plus questions, including the live demo. I can’t vouch for whether the audience went away satisified, but I sensed a good connection with those in attendance. Judging by the list of past presentations and upcoming ones listed on the EGS website, they seem to cover a wide range of topics and draw on a number of outside participants in addition to society members.

Generating Attendance from the Community

EGS arranged to publicize my talk on their own website and passed info along to websites for other neighboring societies as well. They also placed a meeting notice in the Fox Valley Daily Herald. From what I saw, it looked like as many as eight guests may have attended, in addition to the 50 or so existing members who were there.

Frequent Meetings

I was surprised to note that EGS meets twice monthly: once during the day, and once in the evening. That seems like a great way to attract a wide spectrum of potential members and to keep them actively engaged.

Summary

EGS prides itself on being “one of the most active genealogy societies around.”  It’s easy to see why. Judging from the quality of the meeting we attended, I expect their membership to continue to prosper and grow. On behalf of Genlighten, I’d like to thank Larry and EGS for a highly enjoyable evening.

“I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way”

– Linda Creed, The Greatest Love of All, made popular by Whitney Houston

OK, I know the eighties are over, but these lyrics echo well a sentiment I’ve often heard genealogists express: “We’ve got to find a way to get the younger generation interested in genealogy/family history! But how?”

I discussed this topic briefly with Randy Seaver during the Geneablogger Dinner at the recent SCGS Jamboree. Randy suggested that I consider the example of Elyse Doerflinger, seated at the table across from us. Twenty years young and currently a student at El Camino College, Elyse first became interested in genealogy about eight years ago:

“It all started with my aunt when I was 12 or 13.  She had discovered Ancestry.com and … I thought the facts she told me were so interesting. … Then, during a trip to Tennessee to visit my grandpa for the summer, I discovered so much about my family that I became permanently hooked.  Everyone was telling me stories and giving me information.”                                  (via Larry Lehmer’s blog, Passing It On)

So there’s one answer to the “How do we get kids interested” question — we simply nurture loving and positive relationships with our nieces, nephews and grandchildren and introduce them in a natural way to the pleasures of family history research. Many will listen politely and go no further, but a few, like Elyse, will become “hooked.”

I sensed another possible answer as the geneabloggers left the dinner later that night. I overheard Elyse remark that her mother had early on labeled her lovingly as “an old soul”. That struck me as an important insight. The same qualities of curiosity, selflessness and “wisdom beyond her years” that led her to feel so comfortable around her aunt and her grandfather might well have helped her feel excited to learn the stories of her deceased ancestors as well. So perhaps as genealogists (or as geneabloggers, society volunteers, conference organizers… whatever) we can foster and encourage activities that will specifically attract “old souls” like Elyse — the better to nurture them and welcome them into a supportive community.

At the same time, I think it’s important that young people interested in genealogy have the chance to socialize with others their own age who share their interests. Elyse notes that she met someone at Jamboree who was actually younger than her — Michael Melendez — when they both worked together at the “Kids Family History Camp” held the first morning of the Jamboree. The Youth Genealogists Association, of which Michael is the webmaster, strikes me as a tremendously promising organization in this regard. I would love to get behind it with some kind of modest corporate sponsorship. (Of course, we’ll need some revenue first!)

So where to go with all this? How about a session at next year’s Jamboree specifically aimed at genealogy enthusiasts in their teens and twenties? Or perhaps a panel discussion aimed at genealogy societies in which young people make up the panel and explain what attracted them to the field? Or at the very least, as several have already suggested, how about having Elyse be on the panel at next year’s Geneablogger Summit!

Whenever I attend genealogy conferences as an exhibitor, I look for chances to either visit extended family nearby or perform research regarding our various family lines. I don’t have any deceased ancestors that spent time in southern California, but my mother lives up the coast a ways, and she’s joining me at the Genlighten booth for the SCGS Jamboree this weekend.

We took the opportunity yesterday before the Jamboree got underway to tour several of the galleries at the Huntington Library in nearby San Marino. The highlight was definitely “Treasures Through Six Generations:  Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Weng Collection.” Basically a Chinese family has cultivated an impressive collection of art objects stretching back to the 15th century, preserved it and passed it on to succeeding generations, each of whom have added their own unique contributions. The family thus continues to honor their ancestors through fine art.

I was struck by the “Family Tree” highlighted in the gallery guide.  It looked a little different than the ones I’m used to. In particular, I noticed several arrows that appeared to tie branches of the family together laterally. The text accompanying the family tree explained what the arrows signified:

“Passing on the family name is of key importance in Chinese culture. The transfer of a son from one branch of a family to another by internal adoption, an old tradition very rarely practiced today, was essential in ensuring the survival of the family name and lineage. A father with several sons would bestow one on a brother who had none; ideally, every male would have an heir who would pass on the family name. The Weng family observed this practice (indicated here with arrows) for several generations.”

I found the tremendous importance this family placed on “the survival of the family name and lineage” simultaneously quaint and awe-inspiring. It helped me step back from the often inscrutable details of my various familial lines and briefly glimpse the larger picture of my shared heritage. I was motivated by the exhibit to worry a little less about filling in blanks on a pedigree chart and to invest a little more effort in reaching across generations to strengthen actual family ties. It also made me wonder if I’m leaving a legacy to my descendants anything like the one Weng Xincun left to his. Even if I can’t afford to build a world-class collection of Chinese art masterpieces, surely there’s something I can leave to future generations!

It’s been pleasantly hectic at the booth almost the whole time, so I’m only just now getting around to posting about my experiences. Here’s a list of personal observations from the Expo:

• Colorado is gorgeous and Loveland is no exception. The interplay of tall mountains and towering thunderstorms has been magnificent to watch (if not to drive through.)
• Holly and her crew at FHExpos have managed to pull off a successful conference, despite this being their first time in Colorado. Logistics have gone smoothly, booth traffic has been disproportionately high (nearly as good as at NGS, I’d estimate) and the attendance at my presentations has been surprisingly good.
• A lot of genealogists in Colorado (and even New Mexico) are interested in offering lookups from their local records. I’d estimate between 20 and 25 people indicated solid, detailed interest in becoming Genlighten lookup providers. That’s 2-3 times what we typically see at a regional-level gathering.
• At past FHExpos events, the balance of booth visitors has tilted more toward genealogy beginners looking to use Genlighten to find source documents. Here most of them have been interested in finding documents for others. I credit that shift to Holly’s efforts to get local genealogical societies involved. Both the Larimer County Genealogical Society and a collective of other Colorado and Wyoming Genealogical Socities are represented in the exhibit area. Their members have also given some well-attended presentations. This has raised the level of research experience among the attendees, in my opinion.
• Family History Center consultants seem hungry for how-to help with Footnote.com. They recognize its potential value, but have yet to find success with it for their own research. That makes it tough for them to recommend it to their patrons, even though it’s accessible at FHCs for free. One attendee at my talk asked if I’d write her FHC a “manual” on how to use Footnote. Maybe someone (not me!) needs to do that.
• Just as the “Genealogy Demographic” has turned to Facebook, they now seem willing to explore Twitter. Will they be turned off by the increasing levels of spam on the site? Very possibly. But if they could post their genealogy queries and questions to Twitter and receive “real-time” help from their followers, I think they’d join in droves. Facilitating that kind of interaction is definitely on Genlighten’s product development roadmap.
• Our MiFi Wireless hotspot has provided reliable internet connectivity throughout the Expo, whether in my hotel room, at the exhibit booth, or in the presentation venues. The amount I’ve saved on wireless charges this trip has already offset the initial purchase price.

Time to pack up the booth and hit the road. Next on the Genlighten schedule? The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank, California, June 26th-28th.

A few thoughts sparked by this graph:

• The results here would be more encouraging if they weren’t obviously the result of our Google AdWords experiment in May, combined with our mention in Family Tree Magazine’s blog during that same time frame.
• We’ve already passed the peak of this spike.
• I wonder who typed Genlighten into Quantcast to generate the Google alert? Who besides me is interested in our traffic stats? Hmmm.

The folks at Slice of Lime have been working with us for a while now to develop a “How it Works” illustration for the Genlighten homepage. This is what they’ve created. We really like it. Look for it to be added to the site soon.

Just by way of comparison, here’s an earlier draft that we ultimately decided not to go with. What’s your opinion? Did we make the right choice? Why or why not?

I haven’t felt the need to do any genealogy gadget reviews on this blog up until now. Dick Eastman’s got that area pretty well covered, I’d say. But I do feel compelled to share a brief review of Novatel’s MiFi 2200 broadband wireless modem/router.

Web Access on the Go — How I’ve Done it So Far

Besides hotel accomodations and plane fare, one of my biggest expenses as an exhibitor at genealogy conferences has been the cost of Internet connectivity while I travel. Though some conference venues thankfully provide free wireless, many others charge $75-$100 per day for access to the web. Since my main reason for attending these shows is to demonstrate a working website, I’m stuck paying these fees.

For about the last year, I’ve used a broadband wireless card from Verizon to let my personal laptop connect to the web when I’m traveling. That way whether I’m waiting at an airport gate or manning the Genlighten booth, I’ve been able to retrieve email, browse RSS feeds, or make changes to the Genlighten site as needed for a single monthly fee (about $60 plus taxes.) But since my card only works with one laptop at a time, the computer I’ve used to demonstrate Genlighten to booth visitors has needed its own separate web connection, forcing me to pay the extra fees mentioned above. With luck, it looks like I won’t have to pay them any longer.

An Attractive New Solution

I first heard about the Novatel MiFi 2200 about a month ago from David Pogue of the NYT, in his article “Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed“. The article claimed that the device acted as a “personal Wi-Fi bubble” — compact and battery-powered — for up to five nearby PCs.  When Pogue mentioned that it would work particularly well for “trade show booth teams” I was sold.

I would have happily bought one that very second, but as it turned out I had to wait a few weeks for them to become available. Mine arrived yesterday. It cost me $149.99, or $100 after — you guessed it — a $50 mail-in rebate.

The Set-Up Process

Setup was a bit more involved than I would have liked. To begin with, I had to charge the battery for 2.5 hours. Then I plugged the unit, which is about the size of a 8 credit cards stacked together, into my notebook via a provided USB cable.  Verizon’s access management software promptly auto-installed and began configuring the device to work with my machine.

A few minutes later configuration seemed complete. My laptop’s internal wi-fi quickly recognized the MiFi 2200 and let me connect to it. Unfortunately, bringing up Firefox did not produce my usual iGoogle homepage. A call to Verizon Customer Service made it obvious why — I still needed to activate the device and associate it with my existing account. The manual gave the impression that the software would prompt me to do this via the web — so that aspect of the process seemed to fail. Nonetheless, the knowledgeable customer service rep soon had me up and running.

Speed and Strength Comparison

So far I’ve tested the MiFi 2200 under normal usage conditions here at “Genlighten World HQ” — i.e, in my daughter’s former bedroom that acts as our office. This has involved retrieving email, paging rapidly through RSS feeds using the “j” and “k” keys, switching between multiple tabbed windows in Firefox, and perhaps viewing the occasional brief video clip. At first, web pages loaded much slower than they do for my home Comcast connection. But that turned out to be related to signal strength rather than capacity.

Because the MiFi device doesn’t need to be plugged into my laptop, I’m free to locate it where cellular reception is better — like by a window. Doing that immediately got me four bars of reception and much more competitive download speeds. I haven’t measured it with any benchmark utilities, but I’d say it’s probably about one half the speed of my Comcast connection — pretty much in line with Verizon’s claim of 0.6 - 1.4 Mb/s. That should be good enough for airports, trade shows and the like, but not so fast that I’m tempted to ditch Comcast just yet.

But Will it Work at Genealogy Conferences?

Will the MiFi completely eliminate the need to pay for exhibit hall Internet access? I’ll find out this coming weekend, at the Family History Expo in Loveland, Colorado.

As I write this, I’ve got four laptops (mine, my wife’s, the Genlighten exhibit booth machine and my son’s MacBook Pro) all connected to the web over a single cellular connection. And I’m watching a streaming video, with only the usual minor glitches. So I’m cautiously optimistic that things will work well in Colorado.

I’m planning to blog from the booth during the Expo, so I’ll write a follow-up post to let you know how well the MiFi performs under enterprise-level conditions. Wireless internet at the Expo costs $45/day for a 0.5 Mb/s connection. That’s actually pretty reasonable, but if the MiFi let’s me forego those charges, I’ll have nearly paid for the cost of the device in a single weekend. That would be sweet indeed!