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Submissions/National-Scale Wiki for Rights and Benefits

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This is an open submission for Wikimania 2011.

Review no.

45

Title of the submission
National-Scale Wiki for Rights and Benefits
Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, panel, presentation)
Presentation
Author of the submission
Amity Korn
E-mail address or username (if username, please confirm email address in Special:Preferences)
amitay.korn@kolzchut.org.il
Country of origin
Israel
Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.)
All Rights Ltd - NGO
Personal homepage or blog
User Page at Kolzchut.org.il - in Hebrew
Abstract (please use no less than 300 words to describe your proposal)

Problem Domain

Research in OECD states shows that benefits take up is usually between 40-80%. The situation is not better in Israel, especially for the weaker parts of the society: Arabs, ultra-religious, geographic periphery etc. The main reason is information gap: people not knowing about their rights, how to realize them, or who could help them.

State of Affairs

One can assume that all relevant information exists on the Internet, but taking a closer look, there are major constraints:

  • No natural authority for knowledge, except Government sites.
  • Information mostly written in "Legalese" – indigestible by the general public
  • Most organizational websites contain only the rights the specific organization provides. However true-life situations span across multiple domains; if your child has been diagnosed as Autistic you may interact with the ministries of Health, Welfare, Education as well as your local town and relevant NGO’s.
  • There is a huge information gap in the area of realization of rights.
  • Rights and benefits are constantly changing, affected by new legislation, by-laws, policies and court rulings. Most websites tend to be outdated
  • Most people who are deeply under-served are also ‘digitally challenged’.

All Rights

All Rights LTD (Kol Zchut in Hebrew) is a non-profit organization that created a cross-organization collaborative MediaWiki-powered websit]. All Rights WEB site handles all the rights for all domains in Israel, including detailed explanations on how to realize them, and translations to relevant languages such as Arabic.

See also initial English translation of the site

Status as of March 2011

All Rights has already created high-quality content on Employment, Holocaust Survivors, Housing, Foreign workers, Noise Damages, Elderly Rights, and more etc. Many government agencies and NGOs collaborate with us.

We have already created an unprecedented coalition of partner organizations from multiple sectors (see here):

  • Government: Ministry of Social Services, Government WEB sites Administration, the Social Services division of the City of Jerusalem etc.
  • Health system: Hadassah Hospitals, Israel Medical Association etc.
  • JDC, Yedid, ACRI etc.
  • Universities: Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar Ilan University, Michlala Leminhal College, Ono College etc.

Special Approach to Wiki Implementation

All Rights uses the MediaWiki software as well as many Wikipedia practices, but designed a concept and processes, highly relevant for the special task at hand (and similar initiatives):

  • Editing rights are given to representatives from dozens of partner organizations - government agencies, NGOs and academia, all accredited authorities in their specific domains. Thus we ensure accuracy and reliability, minimize confrontational language, and leverage the complimentary knowledge of the various organizations. The collaboration of these organizations (otherwise competitors, confrontational, or oblivious of each other) is without precedent. In order to still leverage the general public wisdom, we allow every user to submit "Suggeted Changes".
  • The hard core of All Rights beneficiaries is ‘digitally challenged’. Thus, we invest in promoting usage of All Rights by Government and NGO customer-facing organizations, as well as train their employees and volunteers
  • Israel is a mixed society, speaking Hebrew and Arabic as well as populations that can read only Russian, English, French etc. However, Rights are the same to all and legal/process information should not change when presented in other languages. We are building the technology and processes to support this (Arabic translation of vocational rights is undergoing, soon to be followed by other languages and domains).

Global Value Proposition

We see our model as relevant not only to Israel! The problem statement as mentioned above is valid everywhere and we will be happy to share our knowledge with other similar initiatives.


Track (People and Community/Knowledge and Collaboration/Infrastructure)
People and Community
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
Yes
Slides or further information (optional)
After working for 8 years as a software engineer (1983-1991) he founded Astea International (NASDAQ:ATEA) R&D center in Israel which he headed for 6 years. Between 1997 and 2006 he founded and managed Tefensoft Inc. a company specializing in CRM and ITSM software acquired by Mercury Interactive (NASDAQ:MERQ) now part of HP (NYSE:HPQ).

Amitay served in HP in a few leading technology roles where he gained recognition also as an HP Distinguished Technologist. In 2010 Amitay moved to a 25% role in HP while launching All Rights NGO.

Amitay is married with 3 children, lives in the Galilee, Israel, and reads, hikes and bikes.

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