An editable version

Monmouth
Welsh: *Trefynwy*
Monmouth Welsh: Trefynwy;
	Monnow Bridge, 2009
	Monmouth Location within Monmouthshire
Population	8,877
OS grid reference	SO505125
Principal area	Monmouthshire;
Preserved county	Gwent;
Country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Police	Gwent
Fire	South Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
UK Parliament	Monmouth;
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament	Monmouth;
	List of places UK Wales Monmouthshire 51°49′N 2°43′W / 51.81°N 2.72°W

put in somewhere 500,000 page views
wifi
codes for monmouthpedia video and taiwanese video

The story of the idea

It all started at a TEDx talk given by Roger Bamkin and Steve Virgin, two Wikimedia UK directors, about how QRpedia codes had transformed Derby Museum. The talk inspired John Cummings to ask whether there was interest in rolling a similar project out across a whole town. In a flash, the idea that was to capture so many people's imaginations was born.

Monmouthpedia is the first Wikimedia project in the world to document an entire town – Monmouth, in south Wales. The project aims to cover on Wikipedia every single notable place, person, artefact, flora, fauna and anything else related to Monmouth in as many languages as possible, but with a special focus on Welsh.

This booklet tells the story of Monmouthpedia and offers a step- by-step guide on how to create your own Wikipedia town. First though, we need to know what QRpedia codes are, since the project depends on these codes for its multilingual functionality.

QRpedia

QRpedia was conceived by Roger Bamkin and Terence Eden. Normal Quick Response (QR) codes when scanned by a smart phone can direct a user to a web page, QRpedia works by directing users to Wikipedia pages and takes a further step by going to the appropriate page in the user’s own language. So, if you were to scan the code on the Shire Hall in Monmouth with a smart phone that usually operates in French, you’d be taken to the French Wikipedia article about the building.

If the Wikipedia article is not available in the user’s language, then they are offered a list of languages to choose from. However the real answer is for that person to create the missing translation. Its interesting that QRpedia delivers translations, but the more important change is that museums and galleries are trusting their visitors to edit the museums knowledge.

The technology was first unveiled at Derby Museum, England, in April 2011. In the short period of time since then the technology has been used in Australia, Bulgaria, Catalonia, Estonia, Germany and the United States, as well as in the UK. The source code for the project has been made available under the MIT license.

Why Monmouth?

This is a commonly asked question, partly because many people have never heard of Monmouth! At first glance, it may seem an unusual choice. After all, it’s not a large city, nor is it especially famous. However, these factors work in favour of Monmouth, along with the fact that the council also has a legal requirement to support the Welsh language.

Monmouth was actually chosen because it was John Cummings home town and because they were enthusiastic. There were no Wikipedians that we knew of who lived in the town. What was important was that Roger, John and Steve Virgin presented the concept and without asking for a business case the town agreed to move the idea forward. Previously wiki-projects had been based around a core of Wikipedians. On this project we planned to train people and use remote e-volunteers. We think this worked.

Over 550 articles relating to Monmouth were created during the project in 30 different languages. Over a thousand QRpedia codes are on display around the town on buildings, street lights, museum artefacts, by local businesses – even in local library books.

We were lucky to choose a council who had recently committed to use open licenses. With the encouragement of the project, local people and institutions have released over 1,000 images and videos into the public domain. It is important for partners to realise that we believe in sharing information freely. We had some lengthy discussions but the council wanted to be open; the project was able to show them how to do it.

Getting started

You need a few things to create a Wikipedia town. The most important thing you can have is motivation. It’s a big project and one which takes a long time. There’s a lot that needs organising, lots of pieces to get in place and a huge amount of work. You are either very rich or you will require funding.

What are your objectives? Monmouthpedia identified installing 1,000 codes, getting Wikimedia UK on TV and raising the profile of the town as objectives, built it was implicit that we allowed the people of Monmouth to own the project. If you visit the town today then everyone knows about Monmouthpedia, QR codes, smart phones and how useful Wikipedia can be. Some people like the local library and the council's web developer are using ideas and technology they discovered whilst helping with this project.

You can ask people for help but remember you have the world's best and free encyclopedia backed by 100,000 volunteers. Make sure you feel that the volunteers role is in line with our mission. Some potential partners will find it difficult to understand that we demand that all information is shared and we don't allow our web site to be exploited. Make sure that you are happy that they understand our values and they are willing to adapt theirs where necessary. John was installed as the project manager supported by a steering group with a representative from Wikimedia UK, Monmouth County Council and the local university.

Then you need a list of existing articles relating to your town. You can do this by creating categories. Its important to record what it looked like before the miracle happened.

You will need a list of those that could be created. The only way to do this is to ask others to help. Build relationships with galleries, museums, the local council / government, community associations – anyone with local knowledge who can help you with the content.

Roisin Curran, the Wikipedian in Residence at Monmouth Museum

Tell schools, colleges and universities what you’re up to. Roisin Curran a history student chose to do her work placement with MonmouthpediA at Monmouth Mueum, she knew very little about editting Wikipedia when she started, but she left with "Wikipedian In Residence" on her CV. The project also attracted seven post graduate researchers from several universities who are studying this project. Some are interested in the QR codes and our ability to use augmented reality, but others are interested in Journalism and the way that we work together.

Don’t forget your local chapter or the Foundation. They can offer merchandise, help with promotion, contacts and money.

Promote your project in the community and among Wikipedians. Every wiki project likes to create and edit good content and learn about new topics. If you intend to do a town then you will need a better method of attracting help. The method devised by Andrew Dalby for the Derby project was to create a multi-lingual challenge. We found enthusiastic Wikipedians who work in languages such as Esperanto, Hungarian and Welsh. Some editors are interested in languages and others are interested in geotagging, nature reserves, historic ships or ancient buildings. Your project needs to follow and reward other people's enthusiasm.

Crowd sourcing works because people like doing it. They like to be seen to be doing something clever and useful, they like to complete lists, they like to have their work noticed and they like to be thanked. If they wanted to make money then they would go to work. If you are clever then you will learn how to make people enjoy the project. If you are very clever (or lucky) then your volunteers start to create their own lists, spot things that could be done thank each other. The multilingual challenge used in Monmouth was developed by Andrew Dalby for the Derby project. He created a simple points system and allowed contributors to record their own points by adding them to a wiki page. The system is so open to cheating that nobody tries.

Small prizes attract large competitions. Search for the Charles Rolls Challenge for more details. Some contributors created over 50 articles!

Making and sharing QRPedia codes

At first glance QRpedia codes look pretty daunting and confusing. It’s just a lot of black and white squares! Don’t despair. There’s a handy web tool you can use. Simply take your Wikipedia URL and paste it into the field on the QRpedia.org site. Hey presto! Your freshly minted code appears on the screen. Click on the code and it instantly downloads to your computer. The page also shows you how many languages the article appears in – the article about Wikipedia will load in 250 languages, for example.

Sharing the codes is an area in which you can be really creative, but the real difficulty in Monmouth was permissions. In Monmouth for important articles, the codes were printed on ceramic tiles and cemented on to the front of buildings. For an important Welsh building you need the permission from three public bodies in addition to the owner of the building and the owner of every logo that you intend to use. Do not underestimate this task.

A simpler task is to create the tiles themselves. In our case we used an art therapy workshop in Monmouth and a local ceramicist. Some of the codes were printed on promotional posters around the town, on bookmarks, on labels for museum objects, the inside cover of library books, on stickers for shop windows and doors... letting others decide how to do this means that they will realise that its their project.

A plaque made by Swan Court Studio
A plaque for Shire Hall made by Ned Haywood

Some Key Comments about Monmouthpedia

Glyn Moody, writing for Techdirt, questioned whether Monmouthpedia was the future of Wikipedia. He described the project as creating “a kind of fractal Wikipedia” likening it to the 2010 film Inception, potentially enabling “[a] Wikipedia within a Wikipedia within a Wikipedia.” Within days of the launch, the initiative had led to widespread interest. Stevie Benton from UK-Wikipedia reported that the project page had been viewed 10,000 times. Benton also reported there had been inquiries from towns in Norway, France, Scotland and Texas, USA. One test of success will however be the project’s ability to attract more tourists to the town.

Ive not included the Jimmy bit, suggest we might use the "Monmouythpedia wont be the last" piece and also a quote from a map person I have which says who will map monmouthshire ..we will.

Key stakeholder engagement

A key feature of this project was the way it managed to bring various groups with different interests together to unite behind a common goal. It wasn’t just Wikipedians involved: Monmouthshire County Council, residents, businesses, cultural institutions such as Monmouth Museum and students all played important roles in making Monmouthpedia a success. The council, in particular, threw their weight behind the project, by installing a free wi-fi network across the town and allowing the installation of QRpedia code plaques on civic buildings.

Businesses showed their support by displaying codes in their windows. A bakery, for example, hosted codes linking to articles on bread, baking and cake. The local museums opened up their archives to volunteers as a resource, not just for research but to share images and documents on Commons. Local historical societies teamed up to share their local knowledge and objects too.

Promotion and Press

QR code for Taiwanese video

Probably the two key bits of promotion were not the obvious ones. The project was reported in 300 different newspapers in 30 countries, but why? One reason was because Monmouth was first, another was because of the Wikipedia brand and another important point was that the idea could be easily explained and understood. However our most important communication tool was the local weekly newspaper. Every other issue it wrote about the project and the first time this happened the news of the project went around the world for the first time. The other communication tool was Wikipedia itself. Articles about Monmouth appeared on the front page 50 times. On St David's Day and "Monmouthpedia Day" we had articles about Monmouth numerous times a day. All of this creates mentions of "Monmouth" within the Wikipedia community. This wasn't just on the English wikipedia as we saw Monmouth being mentioned on the front page of the Danish and German wikipedias. Tell wikipedians how successful the project is. Editors like to work on successful projects.

An important first for this project was the work that Steve Virgin put in to crowd source our P.R. Steve had been working with P.R. companies on behalf of the UK chapter because of the scandals arising out of the misuse of Wikipedia entries. As a result of our efforts to assist them the PR agencies volunteered to help with a cool project. Sam Downie created an entire web site whose sole purpose was to support PR volunteers and their press contacts. On the launch day we had a PR team of about twelve people. Press releases were written for national newspapers, local newspapers, technical journals and Wikipedians.

So, a goal was set; to create a set of Social Media Guidelines for PR industry professionals. A target was agreed, to have these ready for the Wikimedia UK AGM on May 12th at the Science Museum, where they would be introduced by Neville Hobson of the PRCA and Phillip Sheldrake from the CIPR. The new guidelines were published after the AGM to launch a Wikimedia UK-PR industry public consultation process. This is a process that is now underway.

A second goal was set. That was to get the two PR industry bodies to approach their membership and ask them to get involved in the launch of Monmouthpedia the World’s First Wikipedia Town. The idea behind this was to get PR professionals working alongside Wikipedians on a project of common benefit. It was also to show the value of the work that Wikipedians do in a fresh light to public relations professionals, thereby, starting the process of deepening the level of understanding of each others’ ways of working on both sides.

The Monmouthpedia press campaign involved a number of PRCA member agencies who produced some fabulous communication support. With agencies such as Montpellier PR behind the Wikimedia UK communications team, the press campaign saw 277 news stories across 36 countries and created immense value to the town of Monmouth and to the technological innovation-driven notion of hyper-localism using multi-lingual Wikipedia pages.

Legal stuff

You need permission to use Wikipedia and Wikimedia logos. Your local chapter has some leeway, but if a town wants to use a Wikipedia logo then it needs an agreement with the Wikimedia Foundation. The Foundation are well aware of the value of the logo and they will need to be convinced that your project will improve the brands image.

More important than the brand permission is the agreement that you make with the town and your project. In Monmouthpedi's case this agreement was made by the chapter. This is important where volunteers are involved, especially if the chapter is supporting the project.

Normally there is a contract that ensures both parties comply with an agreed purpose. Where the agreement does not involve money then it can be tempting to think that agreements are not required. This is not the case. It is more more important to have a firm agreement when there is only a small amount of money involved.

If volunteers give freely of their time and expertise then it is imperative that the project is not abandoned. It is tempting to abandon volunteer projects when the going gets difficult as the cost of cancellation is small. A good agreement ensures that both sides do their best.

Who did it?

The Wikimedia community did it. Its amazing that we have a movement who can give so generously. We wanted to find out what the world will look like when we have shared all of the world's knowledge. Monmouth gives us a glimpse of how that might be. Hopefully we will still have the feeling of co-operation and generosity that allowed the project to succeed.

What is next?

The Monmouth project is being completed so that the community can decide how to develop it further. Plans are in progress to extend coverage down the valley to the sea at the town of Chepstow. Chepstow is the start of a footpath that allows people to walk the coastline of Wales. Other people are developing this idea for other places in the world. Roger and John plan to create the first Wikipedia city. Details of this will be announced at Wikimania on July 14th.

(Use a faded picture of "a Bridge to Africa" picture in background or ask the artist to mimic this is the design of the landscape.

Attribution

Images from John Cummings, Rock Drum ... Text from Roger Bamkin, Stevie Benton, John Cummings, Rock Drum and Steve Virgin Stuff from the above and Lvova, Dr Blofeld and and and the Wikimedia community Funding from Wikimedia UK and Monmouthshire County Council. Council staff included Mike Booth, Kellie Bierne, Nicola Smith ... Partners included the Monmouthshire Beacon....

Monmouthpedia - A Grand Project (back page blurb)

What is MonmouthpediA? (with French sub-titles)

Monmouthpedia is a "Grand Project". It isn't a GLAM project. It contains at least four GLAMS. It isn't a university collaboration as we had at least three involved. It could be seen as a QR code and augmented reality project but these are not the drivers of this project. This project was formed when John Cummings saw the collaboration that Wikimedia UK had made with Derby Museums. He made the outrageous proposal that we should take what we had done for a small museum and apply it to a town. Here we tell you how we found that this "outrageous idea" was a meme that everyone understood and wanted to help with.

The project was able to create a partnership between a County Council, The Town council, Wikimedia UK, QRpedia, Monmouth Civic Society, Monmouth Archaelogical Society, 3 schools, 3 museums, 2 universities, 1 college, a library, a primary school, an art therapy centre, 200 busnesses, a newspaper, TV producers, the wiki community .... oh and the people of Monmouth.

Monmouthpedia is an experiment into the integration of free and easily accessible knowledge into people’s everyday experience of the world and the use of Wikis in the public sector, charities and private sector. The project includes GLAMs and engages with WikiCulture concepts like digital literacy, deletionism, minority language support, open software usage, augmented reality and editor retention. Key to this are the communities historic research and cultural heritage. We have involved Educational institutions but we have also created some educational opportunities. The project has experimented with novel technology and in the process of installing its own dedicated open acces wifi infrastructure throughout the town.

"MonmouthpediA - A Grand Project"

Photo pool

trails

IGNORE THE TEXT BELOW HERE, JUST USE THE IMAGES

Monmouth

Monmouth (/ˈmɒnməθ/ MON-məth; Welsh: Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a traditional county town in southeast Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow meets the River Wye, within 2 miles (3.2 km) of the border with England. The town is 36 miles (58 km) north-east of Cardiff, and 127 miles (204 km) west of London. It is within the Monmouthshire local authority, and the parliamentary constituency of Monmouth. According to the 2001 census, its population was 8,877.

The town was the site of a small Roman fort, Blestium, and became established after the Normans built a castle here after 1067. Its mediaeval stone gated bridge is the only one of its type remaining in Britain. The castle later came into the possession of the House of Lancaster, and was the birthplace of King Henry V in 1387. In 1536, it became the county town of Monmouthshire.

Monmouth later became a tourist centre at the heart of the Wye Valley, as well as a market town. It now acts as a shopping and service centre, and as a focus of educational and cultural activities, for its surrounding rural area, and is linked by the A40 road to the M4 motorway at Newport and the M50 at Ross-on-Wye.

MonmouthpediA

Monmouthpedia is a "Grand Project". It isn't a GLAM project. It contains at least four GLAMS. It isn't a university collaboration as we have at least three involved. It could be seen as a QR code and augmented reality project but these are not the drivers of this project. This project was formed when John Cummings saw the collaboration that Wikimedia UK had made with Derby Museums. He made the outrageous proposal that we should take what we had done for a small museum and apply it to a town. We found that "the outrageous idea" was a meme that everyone understood and wanted to help with.

The project was able to create a partnership between Monmouthshire County Council, The Town council, Wikimedia UK, QRpedia, Monmouth Civic Society, Monmouth Archaelogical Society, 3 schools, 3 museums, 2 universities, 1 college, a library, a primary school, an art therapy centre, >100 busnesses, a newspaper, TV producers, the wiki community .... oh and the people of Monmouth.

Monmouthpedia is an experiment into the integration of free and easily accessible knowledge into people’s everyday experience of the world and the use of Wikis in the public sector, charities and private sector. The project includes GLAMs and engages with WikiCulture concepts like digital literacy, deletionism, minority language support, open software usage, augmented reality and editor retention. Key to this are the communities historic research and cultural heritage. We have involved Educational institutions but we have also created some educational opportunities. The project has experimented with novel technology and in the process of installing its own dedicated open acces wifi infrastructure throughout the town.

2 people are studying the project as part of their PhDs and a history degree student is doing her 20 day work based learning placement with us.

from the wikipedia article we didn’t write: Monmouthpedia (stylised as MonmouthpediA) is a collaborative project linking the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia and the town of Monmouth in South Wales.[2] The project uses QRpedia QR codes to provide multilingual smart phone access to Wikipedia articles covering notable subjects in Monmouth, such as places, people, artefacts, flora and fauna.[3] It was formally launched on 19 May 2012, and led to Monmouth being described as the "world's first Wikipedia town".[4][5][6]

So this is about Wikipedia having a presense in the real world. You can walk around Monmouth and find out about buildings and items in the museum or the library. You can switch on an augmented reality app like LAYAR and it will show you an annotated view of the town. However what makes the town a wiki-town is more about the people who live there. Members of nearly all the town’s societys have been involved, the local paper did a story every two weeks, all of the town’s front line staff were trained. The shops not only have stickers in the window, but they know what the QR codes are for. The schools know about the project and local universities have helped in its construction. The people in the pubs know that they live in a Wikipedia town. The local librarians and council workers have created new uses for Wikipedia articles.

Achievements

over 550 new articles (in 29 languages)
145 improved articles
over 1000 new images
≈500,000 more page views per year of articles relating to Monmouth in English
48 Articles on the English Wikipedia main page in Did You Know? (We also appeared on other DYKs)

Welcome to the World's First Wikipedia Town

Croeso, Bienvenido, Benvido, Benvenuto, Benvinguts, Bienvenue, Bonvenon, Willkommen, آداب عرض, स्वागत, Fàilte, Ongi etorri, Tere tulemast, Üdvözlet, Välkomna, Velkommen, Vítáme vás, Witamy, Καλώς Ορίσατε, Добро пожаловать, Salvē, 歡迎, 欢迎, 歓迎, 환영합니다, ยินดีต้อนรับ, Dobrodošli, أهلاً وسهلاً ,ברוך בואך, Вітаємо, Welkom, सुस्वागतम, Добредојдовте

What is MonmouthpediA? (with French sub-titles)

Monmouthpedia is the first Wikipedia project to embrace a whole town—specifically, the Welsh town of Monmouth (/ˈmɒnməθ/ MON-məth; Welsh: Trefynwy). The project aims to cover every single notable place, person, artefact, plant, animal 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. The project is jointly funded by Monmouthshire County Council and Wikimedia UK, Monmouthshire County Council intend to install free town wide Wi-Fi for the project.

Monmouthpedia uses QRpedia codes, a type of bar code a smartphone can read through its camera (using one of the many free QR readers available) that takes you to a Wikipedia article in your language. QR codes are extremely useful, as physical signs have no way of displaying the same amount of information and in a potentially huge number of languages.

Articles have coordinates (geotags) to allow a virtual tour of the town using Wikipedia's mobile apps (or the Wikipedia layer on Google Streetview) and are available in augmented reality software including Layar. Monmouthpedia may not use standard black and white QR codes, in order to differentiate between MonmouthpediA codes and other schemes and individual's codes. There are different kinds of QR code—plaques and labels—all put up with the permission of the council and building owner:

Larger ceramic or metal plaques for places exposed to the elements for articles specific to Monmouth.
Smaller plastic, ceramic or metal plaques for labelling objects non specific to Monmouth, e.g. for use in the Flora and Fauna guide.
Labels for use inside buildings, e.g. for objects in museums.
Glass stickers in the windows of shops to give information on their professions
In addition there will be information posters, signs, notice boards and leaflets to help people contribute and stay informed.

The amount, detail and quality of the information that the community could create is staggering. The Council for British Archaeology has designated Monmouth as the seventh best town for archaeology in Britain. Knowledge gives us context, it allows us to appreciate our surroundings more: Monmouth may well be the first place in the world to offer its tourist information in over 250 languages.

We have over 1,000 QRpedia codes in Monmouth, including the museums. If you think you can help, contact info@wikimedia.org.uk.

Contributors

Not sure how to do this bit

Online

this is an incomplete list

Anthony Cope
Bill william compton
Dominik
Farras Octara
Istvánka
Àlex
Amjaabc (Arne)
Andrew Dalby
Asanagi
Ashliveslove
Eileen Sandá
Ghmyrtle
Lvova
Tchoř
Zangar
Robin Owain

Offline

Volunteers

Dilly Boase creating exhibition of images donated to Wikimedia Commons tagged Monmouth
Roisin Curran, the Wikipedian in Residence at Monmouth Museum
Harry Mitchell (left), teaching people how to edit Wikipedia
File:Doug Taylor
File:Thomas Boase
Sam Downie
Many other volunteers came to Monmouth on MonmouthpediA day, 19th of May 2012

Monmouthshire County Council

Council people

How it started

Write a list of possible wikipedia articles that could be written make an inventory of all the articles and images that already exist contact local groups who may be interested in taking part e.g civic society, photography society, museums, libraries, tourism people

What makes it work

Crowd sourcing works because people like doing it. They like to be seen to be doing something clever and useful, they like to complete lists, they like to have their work noticed and they like to be thanked. If they wanted to make money then they would go to to work. If you are clever then you will learn how to make people enjoy the project. If you are very clever (or lucky) then your volunteers start to create their own lists, spot things that could be done thank each other. The multilingual challenge used in Monmouth was developed by Andrew Dalby for the Derby project. He created a simple points system and allowed contributors to record their own points by adding them to a wiki page. The system is so open to cheating that nobody tries. :)

short interviews/quotes with

(could be dispersed throughout the whole thing)

Plaques and codes and stickers

How to make a qrpedia code

Copy Wikipedia article url paste it into the box at qrpedia.org click on image to save it keep the code black, have a light background and make it at least 4cm wide

Plaques

Earthenware? ceramic plaques with clear glaze and printed ceramic decals have a hole in the back to rest on a screw whilst the cement is drying produced by Swan Court Studio (cream plaques) Ned Haywood (blue plaques)

Attach them with:

Lime Mortar for listed buildings
Epoxy resin for wood (this may not be long term solution ?)
Quick dry cement for non listed buildings

key the suface if it is non porous, drill a hole in the mortar, put plug and screw in the wall, wet wall and back of plaque add cement to both surfaces, rest plaque on screw hole, add extra cement to sides where needed, clean wall and floor with water, wet cement to slow drying lime mortar takes several days to cure completely, only cures over 14 degrees centigrade

lime mortar is dangerous, wear hand and eye protection

Stickers

Glass Stickers

Static Film produced using photoshop template

clear stickers

Sticky printable labels, lots of brands, both laser and inkjet

Monmouth Museum

Released images QRpedia Codes Articles written because of the museum's involvement

Wikipedian in residence, Roisin

Andrew, museum curator

how many people read the articles Museum doesn't have a website, only a council page with the opening times

Schools

Welsh language and Welsh Government stuff

(I realise some of this stuff isn't directly Monmouthpedia) Robin Welsh phone People's Collection Wales Meeting Welsh government people

Council

Agreement between WMUK and MCC
Money
Wifi
Permissions
Changed Website

Press

interview with Steve V stats about how many articles

Identity

Banners Town signs

Public Relations

Steve Virgin
Stevie Benton

What did they do? As a Wikimedia UK Board Trustee I met with the CIPR in early February to confirm our willingness to support this CIPR initiative. I then met with the Public Relations Consultancy Association in March, to ask for its support and collaboration in this too.

At these meetings common threads were emerging. Most PR professionals are keen to work with open, online communities such as Wikipedia, and many already do so. However, there would be benefit in increasingly the level of understanding about the two community’s respective values, processes and needs.

It was felt that on the PR industry-side there are many Wikipedia policies on best practice for editing and on the issue of paid for editing, which many believe are too dispersed, and so not easy to find. It was felt that the belief system or culture which motivates 100,000 Wikipedian volunteers to donate their free time to creating the World’s No1 encyclopaedia needs better explaining. In a traditional commercial environment where time is billable, the nature of expectations of another persons’ actions is different from a volunteer-driven world. Being in a position to ‘think more like a Wikipedian’ and to ‘appreciate what motivates a volunteer’ would help to set support expectations at a more realistic level and lead to a deeper understanding of what the wider Wikipedia project is setting out to achieve.

In a more practical sense, it was felt that there was a need for the codification of existing Wikipedia paid for editing policies, WMUK training support in how to best use Wikipedia for PR professionals across the UK and a strong desire on the CIPR and PRCA side, to create a formal training module that could be introduced into PR training courses at university level at some time in the future.

So, a goal was set; to create a set of Social Media Guidelines for PR industry professionals. A target was agreed, to have these ready for the Wikimedia UK AGM on May 12th at the Science Museum, where they would be introduced by a representative from both industry bodies: Neville Hobson (on behalf of the PRCA) and Phillip Sheldrake (on behalf of the CIPR). Then, if this was well-received by the Wikimedia UK membership, to post the Guidelines online shortly after the AGM and to launch a Wikimedia UK-PR industry public consultation process which invited comment from both PR professionals and Wikipedians. This is a process that is now underway and will conclude later in June.

A second goal was set. That was to get the two PR industry bodies to approach their membership and ask them to get involved in the launch of Monmouthpedia the World’s First Wikipedia Town on May 19th, one week after the AGM. The idea behind this was to get PR professionals working alongside Wikipedians on a project of common benefit. It was also to show the value of the work that Wikipedians do in a fresh light to public relations professionals, thereby, starting the process of deepening the level of understanding of each others’ ways of working on both sides.

The Monmouthpedia initiative involved a number of PRCA member agencies who produced some fabulous communication support. With agencies such as Montpellier PR behind the Wikimedia UK communications team, the press campaign saw 277 news stories across 36 countries and created immense value to the town of Monmouth and to the technological innovation-driven notion of hyper-localism using multi-lingual Wikipedia pages.

QR Code Link to Taiwanese Video

Library

librarians
qrpedia codes
editing wikipedia
venue
advocates and advertising, getting people involved
resources: wifi and books

Shire Hall

Breakdown of Website

tracking articles

list of suggested articles

Images

learn wikipedia online tool to track images

use catscan or catgraph to keep track of new images (currently broken) use Tim1357's Wikiproject Watchlist to keep track of new and improved articles use http://stats.grok.se/ to measure traffic for articles

Agreement between WMUK and MCC

Legal: You need permission to use Wikipedia and Wikimedia logos. Your local chapter has some leeway, but if a town wants to use a Wikipedia logo then it needs an agreement with the Wikimedia Foundation. In the case of Monmouth they also made agreements with their local chapter. This is important where volunteers are involved. Normally there is a contract that ensures both parties comply with an agreed purpose. Where the agreement does not involve money then it can be tempting to think that agreements are not required. This is not the case. If volunteers give freely of their time and expertise then it is imperative that the project is not abandoned. In this case partners can get confused between value and cost. Agreements remind partners that they have obligations.

MonmouthpediA Day

Monmouthpedia launches to substantial media acclaim

Following 6 months of work, the Monmouthpedia project publicly launched. Following blog posts on the Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia Foundation blogs, 212 different news services in 33 different countries picked up on the story over 3 days, including the following coverage:

The Huffington Post: Monmouthpedia: Monmouth 'Wikipedia Town' Makes World History.
The Independent: Monmouth to become UK's first 'Wikipedia town'.
The Telegraph: Monmouth to be world's first ‘Wikipedia town’.
Soon to be on BBC 2: a TV segment as part of Discovering Welsh Towns.

The day began with experienced Wikimedians from across the country travelling to Monmouth Library}} to help local residents get to grips with contributing to Wikipedia. Wikimedians then moved to the "Monmouthpedia Control Centre" in Shire Hall, Monmouth where the media-monitoring team had been busy documenting the press coverage of Monmouthpedia - from all around the world. In the afternoon representatives from Wikimedia UK and Monmouthshire County Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding in front of TV cameras.

Later in the afternoon, a couple of Wikimedians went on to Monmouth Museum to help more locals learn the ropes of editing.

Written by Rockdrum

QR Codes

use any qr codes scanner use qrpedia.org to make them

References

Andrew Dalby on Multilingual Challenges, The Linguist Liam on British Museum MonmouthpediA article on wiki Monmouthpedia blog

Videos

We can use QRpedia codes for printed document, this will be brilliant :)

Roger Bamkin and John Cummings

Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.): wikimedia.org.uk and Monmouthshire County Council

How did Monmouth respond to our grand plan? Is it possible to get UK organisations to release their images? What are the challenges of operating in a country with two official languages. What are the critical things needed to make the project work? Wikimedia UK believe this is an innovative and important project. One influential blog by Glynn Moody asked, "Is MonmouthpediA the future of Wikipedia?" Well is it?

Track (Wikis and the Public Sector; GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums); WikiCulture and Community; Research, Analysis, and Education; Technology and Infrastructure): YES (See above)

Partners

Wikimedia UK
Monmouth Shire Hall
Monmouthshire County Council
Monmouth Museum
Monmouth Civic Society
Computing at School
Monmouth Archaeological Society
University of Wales, Newport, South Wales Centre for Historical and Interdisciplinary Research
Swan Craft Studio
University of Birmingham
Gwent Archives
Monmouth Library
People's Collection Wales
Culturenet Cymru
Monmouth Beacon newspaper
Haberdashers' Monmouth Schools
Monmouth Comprehensive School
Monnow Voice