1. SFHOMELESS.NET and Wikia: Wiki technology expanding into government and social service resources Presented by: David Beall, Executive Director San Francisco Revival Ministry August 3, 2007

2. The Goal Homeless Advocacy: To provide charitable relief and professional support to the homeless who lack life’s basic necessities. Food Shelter / Housing Medical Care  Personalized support and treatment  Counseling, Legal Solutions, Aid Applications  Case management (possibly long-term)

3. The Very Diverse Provider Community Individuals Small 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

4. Our Beginning… SF Revival full-time September 2006

6. Our Beginning… SF Revival full-time September 2006 The HAP Manual (SF Bar Association Volunteer Legal Services Homeless Advocacy Project)

9. Our Beginning… SF Revival full-time September 2006 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)

10. Converting the Resource 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-SS STEP 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

11. The Wiki! SF Homeless.net www.sfhomeless.net sfhomeless.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…?”

12. Other 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

13. Problems with other solutions Government control of online homeless resources leads to outdated, inaccurate, misleading information.  Government webmasters are not the primary source of the information  Information sent to webmasters needs verification, which can be bounced between multiple persons and agencies  When information cannot be updated quickly, the providers of new information can be discouraged and disinterested, instead relying on their own sources and notes.

14. 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

15.  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 Help Part 1 Wiki is an online tool that is appropriate for certain types of resources, either exclusive or supplementary

16.  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 Help Part 2

17. 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

18. 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 systems  Administrators 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 Common reservations about using wiki

19. 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)

20. The Future 1.Neighborhood Portals 2.Better agency page watching 3.More global communication 4.More document storage

21. Q & A Thank You! Question Time… ? ? ?

22. 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!