Presentation made to the DS7 Digital Storytelling Festival at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff on 7th June 2012

1. Attribution: John Cummings Wikimedia Commons
Exploring community curation
of the
World’s First Wikipedia Town
Matt Chilcott
PhD Researcher
Communities 2.0

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/MonmouthpediA

3. PhD in Digital Inclusion, New
Technologies & Social Justice
A correlation exists between
enabling meaningful digital inclusion
and the manner in which internet
tools are constructed and utilised to
support excluded members of society
express their sense of identity and
cultural heritage.
DIJ Digital Inclusion Journal
- digital scholarship research
methodology
- portal of sources, evidence base
and dissemination tool
Matt Chilcott
PhD Researcher
Communities 2.0

4. http://www.raglanundersiege1646.co.uk

5. Chilcott, M. & Damsell, T. (2012) DLPR Industrial
Past Heritage Interpretation Trail
Chilcott, M, Howell, R., Gray, M. & Damsell, T.
(2012) Ancient Cwmbran – A Walk through time
Digital Heritage Trail
Howell, R., Chilcott, M. Damsell, T. & Richards, E.
(2011) Raglan Under Siege 1646 Digital Heritage
Trail
Howell, R, Chilcott, M., Hadfield, T. & Richards, E.
(2010) Roman Caerleon Digital Interpretation
Trail
Chilcott, M., Howell, R., Damsell, T. &
Smith, A. (2010) Digital Heritage Learning and
Knowledge Exchange Zone, including the
Medieval Newport Virtual Museum - a Featured
Destination in Second Life
Chilcott, M., Howell, R., Hadfield, T & Pruegel, I
(2009)Reclaiming King Arthur - The Legend in the
Landscape
Howell, R., Chilcott, M., Hadfield, T & Richards, E.
(2008)Newport's Historical River Digital Heritage
Trail
http://idl.newport.ac.uk/romancaerleontrail/promo

6. Monmouthpedia is a World first project which attempted
to use Wikipedia (the People’s Encyclopedia) to cover
every notable place, person, artefact, plant, animal and
other things in Monmouth in as many languages as
possible.
Devised by John Cummings and supported by Wiki Media
UK, Monmouthshire County Council and local and global
content creating contributors.
Philosophical underpinning - Knowledge gives us context
and it allows us to appreciate our surroundings more.
The Council for British Archaeology designated
Monmouth as the seventh best town for archaeology in
Britain.
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.

7. http://qrpedia.org
QRpedia is the first language detecting QR code that can connect community
curated notable digital content around the world to Wikipedia.
Developed by Roger Bamkin and Terence Eden in 2011 & originally deployed in a
curatorial context in Museums across the world.
People scan a QR code and are taken directly to a mobile friendly Wikipedia page
written in the user’s preferred language.

8. Wiki Media UK statement on Monmouthpedia:
We’re working to make the sum total of human
knowledge available to everyone, everywhere, for free.
For this aim to ever be achievable will require mass
collaboration and mobilisation of communities = local
communities, but on a global level.
Monmouthpedia is the first step in this process and shows
a way for other communities to follow.
Or, as our co-founder Jimmy Wales puts it:
“Imagine a world in which every single person on the
planet is given free access to the sum of all human
knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.”
In January 2012 Wikipedia was the 6th most visited
webspace in the world and Wicipedia Cymraeg is
identified by Welsh Government as the most visited web
space in the Welsh language.

9. 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.
Over 1000 QRpedia codes have been deployed around the
Monmouth to date.
Articles have coordinates (geotags) to also 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.
Ceramic plaques for places exposed to the elements for
articles specific to Monmouth.
Labels for use inside buildings, e.g. for objects in
museums.
Glass stickers in the windows of shops to give information
on their professions .

11. Community co-created content curated through local
and international online collaboration .
Use of QRpedia code technology to enable anywhere
access to the relevant content from the People’s
Encyclopaedia throughout the town.
Community collaboration with the Museum, Library,
Tourism and University contributors to enable a pervasive
museum visitor experience .
Local knowledge and curation of the digital space creating
visitor trails and sharing of newly digitised content
celebrating the cultural identity and heritage of the town.
New sense of place and enabling new understandings and
digital identity with both a local and global reach.
Monmouth as a consequence has become Wales’ first
Wifi Town with free public access to the internet . There is
a new emphasis on anywhere or mobile digital inclusion.

12. Over 1000 new images relating to Monmouth shared for
creative commons use in Wiki Media Commons over a 4
month period.
Attribution: Victuallers Wiki Commons

13. Over 1000 QRpedia codes around the town including -
including the Heritage trail, Food Mile trail, the
Professions trail, fingerpost signs, plaques on
buildings, codes in the Shire Hall, Monmouth
Museum, Regimental Museum.
Monmouth Library embraced potential of QRpedia have
been adding codes in books linking to the authors.
In May 2012:
550 of the articles generated for the Monmouthpedia
experience were available in over 30 different languages.
Launch media led to 270+ newspaper articles in 38
countries, including Independent, Wall Street
Journal, New York Times, Times of India, Iran Today……

16. Exploring the Literacy & Lifecycle of Digital Curation
Source: DCC Digital
Curation Centre
http://www.dcc.ac.uk
/resources/curation-
lifecycle-model

18. Attribution: John Cummings Wikimedia Commons
Exploring community curation
of the
World’s First Wikipedia Town
Matt Chilcott
PhD Researcher
Communities 2.0