Local homelessness fight gets boost from Wikipedia

The founder of Wikipedia will be back in the Bay area this week to help launch a new online project to fight homelessness in Hillsborough County.

The project creates an online resource for service providers, government agencies and advocates to share information on services, news, resources and volunteer opportunities - using the collaborative model of Wikipedia.

The project is a partnership of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, local social media consultant Julia Gorzka and the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.

"The great thing about a wiki is that it provides a tool for quality organization without central planning or top-down control," Wales said. "Anyone in the community who wants to help out can help out."

Wales founded Wikipedia in St. Petersburg, though operations have moved to the San Francisco area. Wales cited similar projects to fight homelessness already running in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

For instance, a service provider can build their own profile online, and ordinary people can find where to help, share photos and join forums on topics.

"I kept hearing about the need for a 'one-stop shop,' a central location where citizens in need could go and get direction on how to get help," Gorzka said. "With huge obstacles like funding making it impossible to realize a physical central location, we got the idea to create a virtual community resource."

According to some estimates, there could be as many as 10,000 homeless people in Hillsborough County.

As for funding of the project, there is none, which organizers say is part of the point. They're donating their time and effort to build the system on www.wikia.com, a free wiki-building Web site founded by Wales and Angela Beesley in 2004. That site generates some income through selling advertisements on the pages that individual wiki groups build.

The Hillsborough County homeless Web site officially launches this week at www.tampabayhomeless.wikia.com. Wales will be at the launch event Friday, which will be open to the public, at 5 p.m. at the Teatro on Seventh restaurant in Ybor City.