sfhomeless.net and wikia: wiki technology expanding into government and social service resources...

SFHOMELESS.NET and Wikia: Wiki technology expanding into

government and social service resources

Presented by:

David Beall, Executive DirectorSan Francisco Revival Ministry

August 3, 2007

The GoalThe Goal

Homeless Advocacy: To provide charitable relief and professional support to the homeless who lack life’s basic necessities.

FoodShelter / Housing

Medical Care

Personalized support and treatmentCounseling, Legal Solutions, Aid Applications

Case management (possibly long-term)

The Very DiverseThe Very DiverseProvider CommunityProvider Community

IndividualsSmall Agencies (< 5 people)Large Agencies (20-50 people)

Governments - Non-Profits - Businesses - Hospitals - Religious Groups - General Public - Advocacy Groups - Neighborhood Associations

•Political Action / Policy Makers / Government•Shelter / Housing, Food, Medical•Specific Need Providers / Targeted Service Group•General Outreach

SIZE

TYPE

FOCUS

Our Beginning…Our Beginning…

SF Revival full-time September 2006



The HAP Manual (SF Bar Association Volunteer Legal Services Homeless Advocacy Project)



The HAP Manual (SF Bar Association Volunteer Legal Services Homeless Advocacy Project)

From October 2006 to December 2006 had meetings and “collaborations” with HAP members and other advocates, and decided on using the wiki format to post information online; (picked Wikia based on recommendation of someone already using it; had lots of support available and security features)

Converting theConverting theResource ManualResource Manual

HAP Manual 625 pages, 700 agencies, and 45 sections for each category (HIV, Food, Veterans, etc) an agency could be listed once in one section, or multiple times in different section if they provide different services, and then they could be described differently under each section!

STEP 1: Label the categories A-Z, AA-SSSTEP 2: For each agency occurrence in manual, in each section, insert page

break and type Category label in first line, and Agency Name in second line

STEP 3: Change all the paragraphs ^p to zzz; Change the page breaks to paragraph

STEP 4: Convert the whole document to a table; Sort the table; Change zzz back to paragraphs

STEP 5: Combine the agency listings together, adding all differences into a master listing; add categories into a long string A, E, S, FF

STEP 6: Copy new listing into wiki page; add real categories per string

The Wiki!The Wiki!

SF Homeless.netwww.sfhomeless.netsfhomeless.wikia.com

•Resource Manual, 700 agencies, 45 categories, online

•Central board for the most active advocate agencies

•Calendar of events

•Announcements and notices

•Discussion board link

•Documents for reference, training

•Training area with FAQs “How Do You…?”

http://www.sfhomeless.net/



http://sfhomelessresource.wikia.com/




Other SolutionsOther Solutions

Other San Francisco resources:

SF Gov Mayor’s Office on Homelessness

SF Find, Neighborhood Services (Shelters)

SF 311

United Way Bay Area 211

Other community resources:

New York’s Searchable Resource Manual

Chicago Homeless Training Documents

Houston Homeless Resource Directory (link)

Los Angeles 211 Healthy City

Problems withother solutions

Government control of online homeless resources leads to outdated, inaccurate, misleading information.

Government webmasters are not the primary source of the informationInformation sent to webmasters needs verification, which can be bounced between multiple persons and agenciesWhen information cannot be updated quickly, the providers of new information can be discouraged and disinterested, instead relying on their own sources and notes.

More problems

Governments and their contracted database managers rely on other web interactive technologies for government resource information•211 and 311, FIND, and other databases have the same deficiencies as previous slide: need a verifier!•These new technologies rely on technicians who have high job turnover•These technologies are expensive, complicated; government decision makers have “faith” in the technology and its future•These technologies have the temptation to solve all resource needs with one solution•Customer service representatives are going to need some ultimate resource for the information they are giving out

Wiki pages are editable by any user with instant results, so information can be updated by any person with new information

Wiki has intricate security controls to quickly identify changes, and quickly reverse changes on a page, or globally by a user

Wiki pages are customizable, for the community pages, or for the individual pages

How Can Wiki HelpPart 1

Wiki is an online tool that is appropriate for certain types of resources, either exclusive or supplementary

Wiki technology is a highly adaptable technology, with system feature customization

The personnel required to administer a wiki system is much less than current webmaster hierarchies

Wiki is a community, and collective knowledge and wisdom and creativity is always building the usefulness of the site

How Can Wiki HelpPart 2

1. Loss of control by government

• This can be a good thing, allowing the community to be more involved

2. Threat of Vandalism

(As stated above…) Wiki has intricate security controls to quickly identify changes, and quickly reverse changes on a page, or globally by a user

Vandalism on wiki sites is much less than one might think

Pages also have security features to allow changes by certain users only, for high risk pages

Common reservations about using wiki

3. Information usefulness relies on the interactivity of the community

Advertisement and testimonials in the community need to promote the usefulness of the site, and the community should eventually see the superiority over current systemsAdministrators need to create training guides for users who are new to interactive internet pages like wiki

4. Government employees may be reluctant to contribute for various reasons

Government leaders need to be convinced that wiki is best for the community, and encourage their employees to contribute when possible



5. Governments may be unwilling to put their name/involvement on a site that could be vandalized and have misleading information

Although the potential for someone using the site just after a vandalism and before a security review is possible, this must be weighed against the overall benefits of having community-driven up-to-date information, as opposed to government webmaster-controlled out-of-date information which can be on a web site for months or years (and we have examples of this)

The Future

1. Neighborhood Portals

2. Better agency page watching

3. More global communication

4. More document storage

Q & A

Thank You!

Question Time…

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About the Presenter

David Beall is Executive Director of San Francisco Revival Ministry and co-founder of SFHomeless.net hosted at SFHomeless.Wikia.com. As a social worker providing services for San Francisco's homeless, David saw the community need to have homeless resources in a wiki format on the internet, available for all to use and edit. Prior to his non-profit work David was a Senior Business Analyst in Quality Assurance working for a San Francisco IT company.

Look for copies of this Powerpoint and video at www.SFHomeless.net under the Documentation section after August 11, 2007.

Contact us with any questions!