Seeing those square QR codes everywhere could get a little ugly.
CBS News reports that the world's first Wikipedia town is now located in southeast Wales. It features around 1,000 different landmark plaques sporting QR codes that can be scanned with smartphones. The resulting links pull up Wikipedia pages related to the landmark in question.
Monmouth, a small Welsh town where English King Henry V was born, went live with its square codes on Saturday. The project is supported by Wikimedia UK and will eventually pump out hundreds of online articles about the life and history of the town. The articles will be offered in more than 26 languages ranging from Hindi to Hungarian.
Project "Monmouthpedia" has been in the works for six months. Local residents and businesses created and edited the articles, and other volunteers helped translate the text. The local council installed a town-wide Wi-Fi network that can be accessed by both residents and visitors for free.
Stevie Benton, Wikimedia U.K.'s communications organizer, told CBS News that over the past six months, nearly 150 existing articles related to the town's history were improved while the locals themselves added more than 450 new articles, some of which aren't really about the town's past (like the history of baking).
"It's really captured people's imaginations in ways we hadn't expected," he said. "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."
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is hoping the initiative set forth by Monmouth will be carried out in other towns and cities across the globe.
When my ex-girlfriend's grandmother went into labour with her son, her Welsh husband drove her past several suitable hospitals in Monmouthshire because it wasn't a Welsh enough area for his child to be born into. Even though it was at the time, and still is, Welsh.
Wanna scan me ?
Just a joke of course, but only a question of time that someone will put one on his/her body.
"Oh gramps stop living in the 80s!" LOL
Who said it hasn't been done?
http://www.geekytattoos.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/tattoo-code.jpg
Hah.
Have a return address in the QR code for when you have been drinking...
If Henry V was born in Wales then he must be Welsh, surely.
It's all a matter of perspective - as the first Duke of Wellington reputedly said in regard to being born in Ireland, and therefore Irish, "Just because one was born in a stable doesn't make one a horse" - or, possibly, of being in a powerful enough position to have the luxury of ignoring the "accident" of your birthplace..