User:John Cummings/Archive/New Welcome Page

Welcome
Monmouthpedia will be the first Wikipedia project to cover a whole town, creating articles on interesting and notable places, people, artefacts, flora, fauna and other things in Monmouth (Welsh: Trefynwy) in as many languages as possible including Welsh.

The amount, detail and quality of the information we could create is amazing. The Council for British Archaeology has designated Monmouth as the 7th best town in Britain. Knowledge gives us context, it allows us to appreciate our surroundings more, Monmouth may be first place in the world to offer its tourist information in up to 270 languages.

Monmouthpedia will use QRpedia codes, a type of bar code a smartphone can read through its camera that takes you to a Wikipedia article in your language. QR codes are extremely useful, physical signs have no way of displaying the same amount of information and in a potentially huge number of languages.

Articles will have coordinates (geotags) to allow a virtual tour of the town using the Wikipedia layer on Google Streetview, Google Maps and will be available in augmented reality software including Layar. MonmouthpediA may not use standard black and white QR codes to differentiate between MonmouthpediA codes and other schemes and individual's codes.

There will be different kinds of QR code plaques and stickers:
 * Larger ceramic or metal plaques for places exposed to the elements for articles specific to Monmouth.
 * Smaller biodegradable plastic, ceramic or metal plaques for labelling objects non specific to Monmouth, e.g. for use in the Flora and Fauna guide.
 * Stickers for use inside buildings, e.g. for objects in museums.
 * In addition there will be information posters, signs, notice boards and leaflets to help people contribute and stay informed.

Twitter: @MonmouthpediA

Achievements and News in Brief
We have had a lot of media coverage at the end of December 2011 and through to the new year. We had over 18,000 hits in the last week of December and twelve new articles have been written. In April we want you to see something you helped build.

Achievements

 * 16 new articles
 * 57 improved articles
 * Church of St Thomas the Martyr, Monmouth on Did You Know?, 27th December

News
press contacts: john.cummings@monmouthpedia.org and info@wikimedia.org.uk
 * Wikipedia project to cover life in Monmouth, BBC News, 30 Dec
 * Monmouth becomes the world’s first Wikipedia town monmouthshire.gov.uk, 2 January
 * Is Monmouthpedia The Future Of Wikipedia?, TechDirt, 5 January
 * Monmouth chosen for new Wikipedia venture, Monmouthshire Beacon, 29 Dec
 * Wikipedia vai criar a Monmouthpedia, Sol (Portuguese) 30 December
 * Wikipedia analizará la vida en un pueblo británico, Baquía (Spanish) 30 December

Participate
We are very keen for local people to be involved in what ever way they would like. Computer skills are not that important, it’s the interest and the willingness to be involved, suggesting and writing articles, taking and donating photos and recommending good reference materials. If you speak another language it would be a great place to practice your writing skills and learn new vocabulary and grammar. There are a lot of opportunities for community involvement including teaching and learning of I.T skills, local history, natural history, languages and people of different ages working together.