Wikidelphia Meeting 2025 July

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These notes come from a Wikidelphia meeting held on 2025 July 17. These are just notes and should not be taken as verbatim quotations.

Present were Wikidelphia Instigator Stan Pokras (S), Staff Editor Paul Sank (P), and volunteer Ted Hewson (T).

9:28 PM

T: P got Grok AI to write a description of Wikidelphia. Let's look at it.

S: [Reads it aloud.]

T: [Says something about raising funds. P can't hear because of loud A/C running.]

S: What might people feel is worthy of subscribing to? a useful feat to add to attract subscribers? don't necesly make it a paywall situation. so that's a first stab at fundraising from users. we have emails, right?

P: yes but I've gotten few replies.

S: ... people have full inboxes.

P: story about Heather Talarico

S: i've heard said that emails aren't answered because somebody has to be paid to do that. what about volunteers doing that?

P: no replies from Norcross, either

S: if a sender comes with money, THEY'll get a reply ... why vote for somebody who doesnt reply?

T: this is why I don't value politics much. so, where is the most useful place to invest time? with local community leaders. ... I'm continuing to try to get a foot in the library door. i get so far, and then people dont follow up. the grok descrip is helpful but doesnt necly get to ... tell the stories of where it's been most helpful

S: we could call people. send emails to Wik subject about what they find most useful. it's tricky to figure out how peo might use Wik. ... why have a whole earth catalog of peo who dont pay attn to others?

all the stuff that makes the world work needs to be thought thru. ... it's not easy, but I dont wanna stop trying. write down my view of what I'm trying to do.

P: writing is good for organizing thoughts.

S: nice about AI. it writes back. ON: Stan's Other Networks AI. I'll keep writing to 'SONAI' and put it on ON so I can remember and others can see.

T: What about a SONAI for Wik?

S: I talked to Matt about that.

T: who set up on's?

S: somebody from Calif. I'll remember his name eventually.

P: we have about 10 min left.

S: Kyle Oliver is the guy. designed SONAI using ChatGPT to help peo understand what happens at ON. [details of how SONAI works.] one problem: it goes to bottom of responses not the top.

location "Stan's first conversation with SONAI ..." on ON

I'll show Matt what Kyle did.

P, have I told you that HR has been spending time on how to communica with extraterrestrials?

If Matt doesn't jump in, maybe we'll pay Kyle. But Matt seems interested.

S: I guess we're all tired now.

T: next meeting first Thu of Aug?

S: I'd like to spend more time with the CCC and Wik; cut back on ON and HR.

S: How to make this thing make money?

T: One strategy ... Next week in this RIS meeting we were having ...

Every other week with various sources of resource info—findhelp, 211, upliftme (upcoming). Purpose:

Build relationships with them.
How they're entering info, vetting.
Find opportunities for cooperation.

Finding strengths and weaknesses of different tools. We'll do it with Wikidelphia. Matt Williams, etc. Identify gaps, opportunities for sharing info. An asset of Wikidelphia is the depth and breadth of what's listed. Maybe that can lead to opportunities for some sort of investment.

A good guy for that question would be Matt.

S: Define "gaps".

T: What's not being done.

S: Back up. The organization that carries all the businesses, do they fall into a category of similar resources? Name? Not Zoom. The restaurant source.

T: That's one.

S: We should have them in Wikidelphia.

P: What's the name? [P does a search; finds nothing.]

T: ... as we explore the area of food.

S: Yelp. I tried restaurants on Google. "10 best" on Trip Advisor. Something under "venues". You've been researching.

T: Not like I should.

S: But you're doing something with people who want cart space.

T: There are some I want to approach. Haven't done it yet.

The venue for the next CCC meeting wants to host community events.

P: [Mentions Does-Facility_Rentals.]

T: This is for places that want community events specifically.

S: "See Also".

How might we expand Wikidelphia from services, charities up to having businesses ..., places not usually thought of as commercial. Useful to have a way to organize businesses that serve the underserved population.

T: Yeah.

Good about Wikid that ...

S: I'm sleep-deprived ...

T: All the more reason to involve other people. So there may be possiblities with the other resource sharers. Bring providers together to learn about different sources incl. Wikidelphia, and how to use it.

S: Talking to libraries is still good.

T: Nicole in Haverford supposedly will get me in touch with a library consortium. I see her once a month, so I can remind.

S: A series of meetings of Germantown library staff. I haven't been to many East Oak Lane library meetings.

T: I'll do that if you like.

S: I'll suggest it to Michael. He can probably hook us up with regional library meetings. The East Oak Lane one has faded out.

T: I'll be glad to talk to whoever.

Summit purpose: have a much larger gathering.

S: To Do: Develop a plan for presenting this kind of program.

T: On March 21 ... Matt's coming, Sue Altman from FindHelp, try to recruit people to help put something together.

S: At some point we could put up a curriculum and offer it to the 60 libraries in Philadelphia.

If we develop something unique, it would be fun.

T: Sounds great, but it's hopefully part of the outcome of this work group I've been in.

S: MI2?

T: No, MI2 is doing ... RIS is the name I've given it, meeting biweekly. I have to start making connections. ... Cap[?] for kids. ...

The two meetings I see coming up over the next four weeks. Two more beyond next Tuesday. Then summarize and what are next steps? A training curriculum? ...

S: We have a "Ted Hewson" page and a "What's Ted Doing Now?" It would be useful for you to let P and I know what you're organizing.

T: I should probably look at that page and update it.

I've been reaching out to Alvin Tull[?]. ___ said he got a busy line. ... that's a work group that's sorta stuck.

S: Worked for a while. Jim faded away.

T: Maybe call some other people.

S: The lady who interviewed Alvin's community?

[P has laptop battery issue.]

T: [Goes through details of his calendar.] Are any of those Wednesdays good for you? (RIS group).

S: Wednesday the ____. Time?

T: 2:30 to 4. With Uplifme's Katrina.

The 26th. I propose March 26 and April 9, the target dates for the next two RIS meetings. 3:00. Late afternoon.

T: [To P:] Thank you for setting up PFV. they're doing some good things. thanks.

P: You're welcome.

T: I recall we mentioned followup with libraries. That's continuing. Then there's a meeting—I've talked about RIS, trying to recruit people to plan an event to share the results of that work. ... One community meeting where they can share too. Maybe a chance to introduce AI for nonprofits. A United Way person is willing to come in to present.

S: Isn't Matt into that stuff?

T: Yes. That's part of the opportunities we want to explore. Use of AI to integrate some of these tools and help respond to needs of others.

Matt is interesting. Has a lot of big ideas. I'd be interested in his thoughts about monetizing Wikidelphia.

Next step ... I'm still concerned in terms of its continued reliance on S. Avoiding a situation like that of a few weeks ago when the website shut down.

I know it's hard but we want a way to notify key players—to a secondary contact who can act on your behalf.

S: Can you handle [the cost]?

T: I already invested $600 into a site problem.

S: They were calling us spammers.

T: ...

S: I still keep getting messages, "this is going to happen" ... Don't know why I keep getting them.

T: It's been working fine. I've sent out hundreds of emails.

The other thing I've done ... computer ... upload to YouTube ...

S: ?

T: When we have meetings, we record and upload. To save you from having to deal with any of the disk space. I'm no longer using your Zoom space.

The other area ... Matt Williams set up another Zoom I can use, I'll try at the next RIS meeting. Another way I'll have access to Zoom for meetings.

S: I have a bunch of recordings I need to get off ____.

T: I think I have more recent ones. My wife wants me to declutter.

What i ask of you is to have an alternate contact.

I too want to see what comes out of these discussions.

S: There was a national movement of local wikis. We could tune in to that. I should invite you to join the Philadelphia Wikipedia Group. Two or three are librarians, one a techie. I keep forgetting to reach out with questions, and now I can't remember the questions.

P: They have so many rules, it seems doubtful.

S: Thousands of rules. Some call the Wikipedia people "snobs".

...

T: If we can get collaborations going, we could maybe include Wikidelphia in seeking funding.

First i have to finish the RIS [calendar].

S: Weird, I've been thinking about a nonprofit dating service. Would be popular. No charge, just donations.

T: That's a business venture. ... Right now i think our job is to highlight business ventures and other happenings ... having investment enough to make sure everything's current.

S: ...

[All talk about updating Wikidelphia pages. P has been doing it.]

S: Starting to think about how to handle emails of people we want to stay in touch with.

[All talk about how P adds email addresses of page subjects.]

S: We want to have a way to broadcast. Using the category system, we can single out specific recipient groups.

T: The more we can automate that sort of thing, the better.

[P gives 5-minute warning.]

S: Put these notes on Wikidelphia by date. Category:In-House Meeting.

T: I just uploaded a video ... didn't do it right. ...

S: ... [details]

T: For followup ...

Alternate contact.

S: Set up time for you and I to write up the memo we started last year. Have a version for [...]

T: Sunday night.

S: We separated Bluehost out of the mix. Cityhosting carries Wikidelphia and other networks.

S: We're on the way towards engagement of Philadelphia in the network of networks. The dream system. Idea to use bots to maintain certain kinds of relationships.

T: Goal: keep up relationships. ... See how things unfold. Hopefully you [S] have reserved those two dates.

[S writes on his calendar.]

T: I'll send out invites when we know [enough about what's in the meeting].

I may ask P to help update the Google Sheet about Wikidelphia.

[The rest is off-topic.]

Wikidelphia Meeting 2025 July

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