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First Wikipedia town to launch in Wales
A Welsh town where English King Henry V was born will make history again by becoming the world’s first “Wikipedia town.”
A Welsh town where English King Henry V was born will make history again by becoming the world’s first “Wikipedia town.”
Visitors from Saturday will be able to use smartphones to scan barcodes at points of interest in Monmouth, Wales, instantly bringing up a Wikipedia page about the landmark on their phones, in whatever language they are set to.
Wikimedia UK —which works to support, develop and promote Wikimedia Foundation projects such as Wikipedia — says articles about the life and history of the town will be available online in over 26 languages, from Hindi to Hungarian.
Around 1,000 different bar codes plaques and stickers now decorate its schools, museums, historical sites and even pubs.
The project — dubbed “Monmouthpedia” — has been in the works for six months, helped along by the local council’s installation of town-wide free Wi-Fi.
Residents and businesses have created and edited articles about Monmouth that are linked to the barcodes, while other volunteers have been translating them.
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 of local Kings Head Hotel.
