Monmouth Transformed Into ‘Wikipedia Town’

The Welsh border market town of Monmouth has become the first place in the world to be tagged as a ‘Wikipedia town’.

The project has been dubbed ‘MonmouthpediA‘ and was created after Wikipedia UK and  Monmouthshire County Council teamed with the library, museums and volunteers to work on the project.

Wikipedia Town

So what exactly does it mean when a Welsh market town that was established in 1067 is suddenly transformed into a ‘Wikipedia town’?

For a start, it entails the plastering of QRpedia codes all over the town at particular points of interest.

These codes (pictured) will allow visitors and locals to use their smartphones or tablets to scan QRpedia codes, and then bring up a website displaying a host of information about that particular scanned item, in up to 205 different languages, including Welsh.

The town has now installed over 1,000 QRpedia codes all over the town. This includes ceramic or metal plaques on public buildings, as well as smaller labels for inside buildings, and for labelling particular objects. And local shops also have glass stickers in their windows to give information on their professions.

“What we have here is a grade one style listed building with great stories to tell, with lots of events and activities which have taken place in the building, and yet we have a very very small collection,” explained Mike Booth, manager of the Shire Hall in Monmouth, speaking in an online video about the project.

“So using the QRpedia codes gives people access to wide a range of information about the stories as well as about the artefacts,” he said.

And in an effort to help this Wikipedia town project, Monmouthshire County Council has installed free Wi-Fi in the town for visitors and the town’s local population of 9,000 people.

“The project aims to cover every single notable place, people, artefacts, flora, fauna and other things in Monmouth in as many languages as possible, but with a special focus on Welsh. This is a different scale of wiki-project,” said the organisers.

The project is to be officially launched on Saturday 19 May.

Expect more?

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was quoted by the Independent as saying that he was looking forward to seeing other towns following suit.

“I’m really excited by the MonmouthpediA project. Bringing a whole town to life on Wikipedia is something new and is a testament to the forward-thinking people of Monmouth, all of the volunteers and the Wikimedia UK team,” said Wales.

“I’m looking forward to seeing other towns and cities doing the same thing,” he added.

Jimmy Wales is currently working with the British government as an unpaid adviser to help civil servants develop “innovative” new technology. He also recently backed the government’s drive to make all academic research, funded by the British taxpayer, freely available online.

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