I'm Denise Colbert, the new Engagement Co-ordinator for Free UK Genealogy, and I will be supporting communications and volunteering. I've had a varied career but during the last few years I have used my skills and experiences volunteering with Wigan Archives and Local Studies which has brought me to this happy point.

I started out as a secondary science teacher. History has always been my passion, but my father suggested that science was the future and 'where the jobs would be' so I took his sage advice and really enjoyed learning about the scientific principles that underpin our everyday lives. I suspected that teaching would satisfy my desire to gain and share knowledge, and it really did. However, after a time I started to feel pulled in a different direction. I was devouring historical fiction, quizzing the elders in my family about their elders, and obsessively watching 'Who Do You Think You Are?'. The winds of change were blowing!

I started volunteering in Wigan Archives and Local Studies around this time. My teaching background enabled me to develop and deliver a series of Local History workshops for primary schools, which were very well received. They then contracted me to do more, going forward. While compiling my own Family Tree I helped others with theirs, conducting Family History workshops in the archives. I soon began to offer my research services in a professional capacity, which led to me being contracted to perform genealogical research on canal boatmen families for The National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port. I still remain actively involved with Wigan Archives, writing articles for Past Forward, their quarterly local history publication.

I realised during this time that heritage has a great capacity to engage people of all ages and abilities, and can be quite therapeutic. I set up Heritage for Health CIC, which offers bespoke local history-based services for people who could benefit from them, including those with dementia, autism and Asperger's.

I'm excited to be joining the Free UK Genealogy team, and really looking forward to the coming months.

Thank you to all those who came to the Open Data Conference on Saturday 30th January and especially to John Sheridan (Digital Director, the National Archives), Simon Tanner (Pro Vice Dean Research Impact & Innovation, King's College London) and our own Trustee Richard Light, for giving such enjoyable and illuminating talks.

Welcome slides with notes and the new Free UK Genealogy Open Data video can be seen here. A (poor quality) video of this section can be viewed here.

John Sheridan's talk can be seen here (we apologize for the poor quality of the recording). Simon's slides can be seen here and Richard slides can be viewed here.

The formal presentations were followed by a presentation of a new Free UK Genealogy video explaining why we believe Open Data is so crucial to the future of the organisation and projects, and hence the need for a new transcribers agreement.

Whilst the 'in person' attendees were able to join in the lively debate, online attendees became increasingly frustrated with streaming issues that were caused by the WiFi provision at the Linnean Society, not within our control unfortunately.

We understand how disappointing this must have been and are now working hard on editing the conference video, which will be published with a transcript as soon as we can.

Thank you for your patience if you tried to join us via one of these methods, and as one of the Trustees commented we need to ensure that technical issues do not undermine the messages of the day. It is important to ensure that all transcribers get an opportunity to hear the case for Open Data and get easy access to the proposed transcriber agreement and consultation process.

• The proposed Transcriber Agreement Consultation can be found here.
• Please use the consultation process to let us know your views on the proposed transcriber agreement and
• please check FAQs if you have any questions. We will be adding the questions raised at the conference to this page shortly. If you still have questions please email us at info@freeukgen.org.uk

Press coverage:
Digital adventurers - Family Tree Editor Helen Tovey gets to grips with 'Open Data' and what it means for family history http://family-tree.co.uk/2016/02/digital-adventurers/

A new copyright notice from the IPO clarifies status of photographs of original documents

The statement, issued at the end of November says "Simply creating a copy of an image won't result in a new copyright in the new item."

So are digitised copies of older images protected by copyright?

This is the question that is of particular importance to Free UK Genealogy. Here's what the IPO has to say:

Simply creating a copy of an image won't result in a new copyright in the new item. However, there is a degree of uncertainty regarding whether copyright can exist in digitised copies of older images for which copyright has expired. Some people argue that a new copyright may arise in such copies if specialist skills have been used to optimise detail, and/or the original image has been touched up to remove blemishes, stains or creases.

However, according to the Court of Justice of the European Union which has effect in UK law, copyright can only subsist in subject matter that is original in the sense that it is the author's own 'intellectual creation'.

Given this criteria, it seems unlikely that what is merely a retouched, digitised image of an older work can be considered as 'original'. This is because there will generally be minimal scope for a creator to exercise free and creative choices if their aim is simply to make a faithful reproduction of an existing work.

However, this doesn't mean that every photograph of old records is free of copyright;

• the original record may be in copyright or,
• the photographer may have been only allowed to photograph it or,
• you may have only been allowed to view it after entering into a contract with the owner or custodian of the physical records.

Nevertheless, this statement is a very welcome development which will make access to historic records much easier.

Free UK Genealogy is becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation

We will shortly be opening a new organisation: Free UK Genealogy CIO.

CIO is the abbreviation for Charitable Incorporated Organisation (its a standard financial abbreviation, as Ltd. and PLC are). The CIO will have the same objectives and Trustees as the existing Free UK Genealogy. Like the existing organisation, the new organisation will be a registered charity.

Once the new CIO is set up, new contracts will be made with it, rather than with the existing charity. This will include the Transcribers Agreement. The existing contracts will be moved to it when time allows, the assets transferred and the old charity will be wound up after that. Unfortunately it is not legally possible to simply change the existing charity and its contracts to become a CIO.

We are doing this for two reasons: governing an unincorporated charity presents a risk to Trustees because they, personally, are financially liable rather than the charity. It is normal for a charity to change from being unincorporated to incorporated when it starts to employ staff.

The unincorporated status of the current charity also presents a difficult in forming a trading company because only an individual or an incorporated body can hold shares. All the shares in the trading company will be held by the CIO - and all profits will be given to the CIO. We need a separate trading company because while a charity allowed to trade, this is restricted to a small proportion of its income, and we earn most of our income from banner advertising.

You can read more about the kinds of charities on the Charity Commission's pages.