Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

QRpedia

QRpedia is a mobile Web based system which uses QR codes to deliver Wikipedia articles to users, in their preferred language. QR codes can easily be generated to link directly to any Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), but the QRpedia system adds further language-switching functionality. It is currently in use at museums and other institutions in countries including Australia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Spain, Macedonia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Screenshot of http://www.qrpedia.org
QRpedia code for the Wikipedia article about QRpedia

The system is freely available for anyone to use. Try it now at the main QRpedia website!

Wikimedia UK, which leads the project, coordinates the code development and is maintaining a list of all known applications of the technology, around the world. We would appreciate being advised of any use you make of the system (although you are not required to do so).

Background

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QRpedia was conceived by Roger Bamkin, later chair of Wikimedia UK, coded by Terence Eden, and unveiled in April 2011. The QRpedia code source code was published under the MIT License and is freely reusable. Brand and domains were originally owned by the system's authors, Roger Bamkin and Terence Eden. Roger and Terence later generously agreed to donate all their rights to WMUK to allow the system to be freely used by all, and their rights were formally assigned to the charity in November 2013.

Development

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QRpedia code is open-source and everybody is invited to participate to its development:

New development ideas can be discussed on this page.

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All rights in the QRpedia code, domain names and trademark are currently held for the community's use by Cultural Outreach Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wikimedia UK (WMUK), a Registered Charity (no 1144513) and the UK chapter of the global Wikimedia movement.

The project's source code is freely reusable under the MIT Licence. The MIT Licence does not require any attribution.

Do I have to worry about moral rights of the authors of the software?

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No, there are no moral rights which apply to QRpedia.

The law of some countries provides the original authors of copyright works with certain rights which cannot be assigned to a third party. These generally include "the right to object to derogatory treatment of work" and "the right to be identified as author". The original QRpedia authors, Roger Bamkin and Terence Eden, live in the UK so UK copyright law applies. However, under the Copyright, Designs and patents Act 1988, sections 79(2)(a) & (c) and section 81(2), those moral rights are excluded from application where the copyright work is a computer program or a computer-generated work.

Can I use a QRpedia code in conjunction with the Wikipedia Globe logo?

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No. The Wikipedia Globe logo, the stylized word 'WikipediA' (with stylized ‘W’), and the stylized ‘W’ itself are registered trademarks of the Wikimedia Foundation, and the published trademark policy does not permit such use. Although the Foundation has in the past negotiated one-off agreements with QRpedia users, it is unlikely to do so in the future.

WMUK does not have the rights to grant users a licence to use any Foundation trademark in a QRpedia project.

Even without a licence, you are allowed to make use of the word "Wikipedia" in a purely descriptive way, provided that you do not make use of the stylized initial ‘W’. So, it is OK for example to print next to a QRpedia code something like "Scan the code to view the Wikipedia page". Such a use is consistent with the Foundation's trademark policy, specifically, the generic permission to "describe your content as "source: Wikipedia" or "derived from Wikimedia free content projects" (or something similar)".

What about other uses of QR codes?

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QRpedia represents a particular use of QR codes within the Wikimedia environment, and there are many commercial and other uses of QR codes that do not involve QRpedia. The basic ideas behind QR codes themselves were invented in 1997 by DENSO WAVE and do not require any licence to use as DENSO WAVE has chosen not to exercise its patent rights. Further details can be found on Wikipedia.

Usages

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QRpedia is currently in use at museums and other institutions in countries including Australia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, India, Macedonia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States[1].

(The following list is incomplete)

Date Location Town/city Country Name/URL
Children's Chapel, St James' Church Sydney Australia Wikipedia
Children's Museum[2][3] Indianapolis United States Wikipedia
Congressional Cemetery[4] Washington United States Wikipedia
Museum and Art Gallery[5] Derby England Wikipedia
Estonian Sports Museum Tartu Estonia Wikipedia
Galleries of Justice Museum Nottingham England Wikipedia
Fundació Joan Miró[5][6] Barcelona Spain Wikipedia
National Archives[7][8] London United Kingdom Wikipedia
National Museum of Computing[9] Bletchley United Kingdom Wikipedia
Zoo[10] Sofia Bulgaria Wikipedia
Monmouth[11] Monmouth Wales MonmouthpediA project
St Paul's Church Birmingham United Kingdom Wikipedia
Different monuments[12] Prague Czech Republic
New Art Gallery Walsall England Wikipedia
Moor Street Station (in Centenary Lounge cafe) Birmingham United Kingdom Wikipedia
The Barton's Arms (pub) Birmingham United Kingdom Wikipedia
Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Birmingham United Kingdom Wikipedia
Hamburgmuseum Hamburg Germany Wikipedia
various Gibraltar/ Morocco - Wikipedia
2014 See Freopedia map Fremantle Australia Freopedia
2014 various Umeå Sweden Umepedia
GLAM-ZOO [13] Miskolc Hungary GLAM ZOO
National Botanical Garden Hungary [14] Vácrátót Hungary Wikipedia
2013 The Vasa Museum Stockholm Sweden Wikimedia Commons
2015 various Hedemora Sweden Wikipedia
2015 Skopje Zoo[15] Skopje Macedonia Wikipedia
2021 WikiVillage Galichnik Macedonia Wikipedia
2022 WikiVillage Novo Selo Macedonia Wikipedia

In 2012, QRpedia was one of four projects declared the most innovative mobile companies in the UK of 2011 by the Smart UK Project, and thus chosen to compete at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Assistance

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Wikimedia UK is happy to provide assistance and advice to Wikimedia community colleagues who are considering launching a QRpedia project. Please contact us.

Frequently Asked Questions

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  1. If I have made a plaque with a QR code on it, do I need to change the plaque or QR code each time someone creates a new language version of the article linked to?
    No. QRpedia will use the current article and those versions in other languages that are currently linked to it by intrawiki links. So you can add versions in other languages, and QRpedia lookups will find them once they have their intrawiki link.
  2. Does QRpedia support all languages?
    QRpedia only supports a language if there is a Wikipedia in that language (currently there are nearly 300 languages covered), and the mobile phone that you are using supports the language and or script that you want to use.
  3. What statistics are available?
    Usage statistics are available here. (Follow the 'qrwp' link for usage, ie number of scans. The 'qrpedia' link provides statistics on the number of codes that have been generated using the system, but not all generated codes will necessarily be put into actual use).
  4. If there isn't an article in the language I have set in my mobile phone preferences, will QRpedia give me a computer translation of one?
    No, the user will be routed to the original Wikipedia URL used to create the QRcode.
  5. What is the difference between qrpedia.org and qrwp.org?
    qrpedia.org is a tool which creates a *.wikipedia.org URL corresponding QRcode. This QRcode leads to qrwp.org, which is then responsible to redirect to the correct localized Wikipedia, based on the browser prefered language and on the original *.wikipedia.org article interlanguage links analysis.
  6. QRWP does not seem to support sister projects and other wikies... What are the chances this gets implemented anytime soon?[16]
    QRmedia is a follow up project that servers Wikimedia content

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Article on Wikipedia
  2. ↑ Anon (2011-08-19). "The Children's Museum of Indianapolis Creates New Learning Opportunities through Wikipedian-in-Residence". The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Retrieved 25 August 2011. 
  3. ↑ Byrd Phillips, Lori (2011-07-29). "QR codes + Wikipedia = QRpedia". The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Retrieved 25 August 2011. 
  4. ↑ Greta Kreuz (17 July 2012). "Historic Congressional Cemetery Program to get Wikipedia boost". WLJA. Retrieved 21 July 2012. 
  5. ↑ a b Byrd Phillips, Lori (2011-06-15). "Going Multilingual with QRpedia". Marcus Institute for Digital Education in the Arts. Retrieved 25 August 2011. 
  6. ↑ Hinojo, Alex (2011-05-11). "QRpedia Codes at Fundació Joan Miró". The GLAM-Wiki Experience. Retrieved 25 August 2011. 
  7. ↑ "New collaboration between Wikimedia UK and The National Archives". The National Archives (United Kingdom). 2011-09-15. Retrieved 16 September 2011. 
  8. ↑ Eden, Terence (2011-09-18). "National Archives and QRpedia". Retrieved 18 September 2011. 
  9. ↑ "Become an instant expert with a little help from your mobile". Smart UK Project. 2012-02-02. Retrieved 2 February 2012. 
  10. ↑ "Уикипедия:Сътрудничество/Софийски зоопарк". Wikipedia (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 14 February 2012. 
  11. ↑ "Monmouth to be Wales' first WiFi town". Monmouth Today. 2012-02-29. Retrieved 1 March 2012. 
  12. ↑ "QRpedia a Praha 10: QR kód na každé památce". http://www.mobilmania.cz. 2012-09-30. Retrieved 1 October 2012. 
  13. ↑ "Wikipédia:Miskolc-műhely/GLAM-ZOO". Wikipedia (in Hungarian). Retrieved 1 May 2014. 
  14. ↑ "Wikipédia:Növények műhelye/Vácrátót". Wikipedia (in Hungarian). Retrieved 23 May 2014. 
  15. ↑ Shared Knowledge projects: Skopje Zoo on Meta
  16. ↑ https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T259406
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