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A small town in Wales is about to become the first ever ‘Wikipedia town’, with the website dubbing Monmouth as ‘Monmouthpedia’ from now on.
But what on earth is a Wikipedia town, and why is the internet invading Wales? The project is to promote awareness of the website and town, and to encourage people to help keep Wiki going with accurate information.
Tomorrow, on May 19th, there will be a day of events to celebrate the town’s becoming of the first ever Wikipedia town. There will be drop-in sessions held where you can learn how to contribute to and edit the site, the famous Shire Hall will be open all day with exhibitions and trials, and later in the day Monmouthshire County Council and Wikimedia UK will sign an agreement to make Monmouth the first ever Wikipedia town.
The idea is to turn the town into its own Wikipedia page of sorts, with information on people, places, buildings, artifacts and more placed everywhere. QR codes will be placed on buildings and monuments in a sort of plaque form, and if you’ve got a smartphone you can use a QR Reader app, point your phone’s camera at the plaque and read all about it in Wikipedia style.
These codes are Wikipedia specific – QRpedia codes in fact – and they will take you to an information page linked to the code in your own language, which is perfect for tourists visiting the town.
For the project, a free Wi-Fi network has been installed which spans the entire town. These are in place to help everyone to access the information loaded from the QRpedia codes, of which there will be 1000 throughout the town by May 19th.
It’s certainly a different way to learn about a place you’re visiting, and the ability to load up information in your own language and read it on a smartphone could revolutionise tourism if it were to be used in some of the world’s most popular cities.
If you have the chance, get yourself down to Monmouth tomorrow and witness the inauguration of the world’s first ever Wikipedia town – surely that’s internet history right there!
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
Via: Wikipedia
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