Britain’s first ‘Wiki-town’

Tourism boost for Wales as Britain’s first ‘Wiki-town’ is launched in historic Monmouth.

The small Welsh town where King Henry V was born in 1387 is about to make history again by becoming the world's first ‘Wikipedia town.’

From tomorrow, visitors to Monmouth, in south-east Wales, will be able to scan barcodes at points of interest, instantly bringing up a Wikipedia page about the landmark on their phones. Hundreds of articles about the life and history of Monmouth will be available online in more than 26 languages, from Hindi to Hungarian.

Around 1,000 different barcodes, plaques and stickers are now displayed on the town’s schools, museums, historical sites and even pubs have signed up, highlighting the history of their establishments.

And while the project is geared at capturing ‘every notable place, person, artefact, flora and fauna’ in the town, some less-historically notable - but equally welcome - articles have been added.

Local businesses such as bakeries have been involved, placing barcodes in their windows linked to articles about the history of baking.

The project - dubbed ‘Monmouthpedia’ - has been developed by Wikimedia UK over the last six months, helped by the local council's installation of town-wide free Wi-Fi.

Local residents and businesses have created and edited articles about the town, while other volunteers have been translating them.

More than 450 new articles about Monmouth have been added to Wikipedia and nearly 150 existing articles have been improved in the past six months.

Czech speakers can now learn about Monmouth Castle in their native tongue, while Fijian Hindi speakers can check out articles on the Monmouth Cricket Club, Methodist Church or the local Kings Head Hotel.

Scholars of lesser-known languages such as Esperanto or Latin will also have their pick of Monmouth-related articles.

Monmouthshire County Council's chief officer for regeneration and culture, Kellie Beirne, said the project had already boosted tourism.

The town was chosen for its rich cultural history, says Wikimedia UK's communications organiser Stevie Benton.

He said: ‘It's really captured people's imaginations in ways we hadn't expected.'

‘If everyone shares the stories of their local area, we'll have a much clearer understanding of the world we live in and that's a powerful thing.'

Roger Bamkin, a director of Wikimedia UK, said, 'We're delighted that Monmouth is becoming the world's first Wikipedia town.

‘Both the quality and quantity of the new Monmouth Wikipedia content is outstanding, reflecting the rich cultural, historical and natural heritage of the town.

'At last foreign visitors can not only read information in their own language, but they can edit it too.’

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said he was looking forward to seeing other towns following suit.

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