QRpedia

Last updated
QRpedia
QR code for QRpedia.png
A QRpedia code which resolves as the URL http://en.qrwp.org/QRpedia, used widely as the logo
Screenshot
Qrpedia.org screenshot.png
The QRpedia website, showing a QR code, which decodes as the URL http://en.qrwp.org/QRpedia
Available inMultilingual
Created by
  • Terence Eden
  • Roger Bamkin
URL qrpedia.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
CommercialNo
RegistrationNone
Launched9 April 2011;13 years ago (2011-04-09)
Current statusOnline
Content licence
 MIT Licence

QRpedia is a mobile Web-based system which uses QR codes to deliver Wikipedia articles to users, in their preferred language. [1] [2] [3] A typical use is on museum labels, linking to Wikipedia articles about the exhibited object. QR codes can easily be generated to link directly to any Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), but the QRpedia system adds further functionality. It is owned and operated by a subsidiary of Wikimedia UK (WMUK).

Contents

QRpedia was conceived by Roger Bamkin, a Wikipedia volunteer, coded by Terence Eden, and unveiled in April 2011. It is in use at museums and other institutions in countries including Australia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, North Macedonia, Spain, India, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine [4] and the United States. The project's source code is freely reusable under the MIT License.

Process

Visitors to Derby Museum using a mobile phone to scan a QRpedia QR code Derby Museum visitor uses QR Code.jpg
Visitors to Derby Museum using a mobile phone to scan a QRpedia QR code

When a user scans a QRpedia QR code on their mobile device, the device decodes the QR code into a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) using the domain name "languagecode.qrwp.org" and whose path (final part) is the title of a Wikipedia article, and sends a request for the article specified in the URL to the QRpedia web server. It also transmits the language setting of the device. [5]

The QRpedia server then uses Wikipedia's API [1] to determine whether there is a version of the specified Wikipedia article in the language used by the device, and if so, returns it in a mobile-friendly format. [5] If there is no version of the article available in the preferred language, then the QRpedia server offers a choice of the available languages, or a Google translation.

In this way, one QRcode can deliver the same article in many languages, [5] even when the museum is unable to make its own translations. QRpedia also records usage statistics. [5] [6]

Origins

QRpedia was conceived by Roger Bamkin, [1] [7] a Wikipedia volunteer, and Terence Eden, [1] a mobile web consultant, [8] and was unveiled on 9 April 2011 [1] [9] at Derby Museum and Art Gallery's Backstage Pass event, [1] [8] part of the "GLAM/Derby" collaboration between the museum and Wikipedia, [10] during which over 1,200 Wikipedia articles, in several languages, were also created. [11] The project's name is a portmanteau word, combining the initials "QR" from "QR (Quick Response) code" and "pedia" from "Wikipedia". [12]

The project's source code is freely reusable under the MIT License. [13]

Implementations

Though created in the United Kingdom, QRpedia can be used in any location as long as the user's phone or tablet has a data signal (or remembers URLs until a signal is available) and is or has been in use at venues including:

QRpedia also has uses outside of such institutions. For example, the Occupy movement have used it on campaign posters. [24]

Award

In January 2012, QRpedia was one of four projects (from 79 entrants) 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, on 29 February 2012. [20] The criteria were "to be effective, easy to understand and with global potential and impact". [25]

Wikimedia UK dispute

A conflict of interest case involving QRpedia was identified as one of the "main incidents" leading to a 2012 review of the governance of Wikimedia UK (WMUK). The review found that the amount of time taken to resolve ownership caused the risk of outsiders perceiving a potential conflict of interest, and that Bamkin's acceptance of consultancy fees on projects (jointly funded by WMUK) involving QRpedia provided an opportunity for damage to the reputation of WMUK. This conflict of interest led to the resignation of WMUK trustee Joscelyn Upendran. [26] Shortly before her resignation on 31 August 2012, Upendran stated that "the charity has in effect agreed to take on responsibility [...] for a service that is 'co-owned' by a trustee", and suggested that "the conflict of interest may present a legal risk under charity and corporate law". [27] On 9 February 2013, WMUK announced that the intellectual property in QRpedia, and the qrpedia.org and qrwp.org domains, were to be transferred to the chapter at no cost. [28] On 12 February 2013, two QRpedia related domain names were registered on behalf of WMUK. [29] On 2 April 2013, WMUK announced that Roger Bamkin and Terence Eden were transferring ownership of QRpedia to Wikimedia UK. [30] On 16 November 2013, WMUK announced that the agreement for the transfer had been signed and the IP rights in QRpedia were held by Cultural Outreach Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of WMUK, and that following the agreement, the transfer of the domain names was an administrative process that could begin immediately.[ citation needed ]

At least one Wikimedia chapter received letters alleging that QRpedia infringes various patents. [31] Though WMUK believes that this is not the case and that the risk of litigation is not high, Cultural Outreach Limited was set up to hold QRpedia, in order to shield WMUK should such a challenge arise. [32]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barcode</span> Optical machine-readable representation of data

A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or one-dimensional (1D), can be scanned by special optical scanners, called barcode readers, of which there are several types.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile payment</span> Payment services via a mobile device

Mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device. Instead of paying with cash, cheque, or credit card, a consumer can use a payment app on a mobile device to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods. Although the concept of using non-coin-based currency systems has a long history, it is only in the 21st century that the technology to support such systems has become widely available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QR code</span> Type of matrix barcode

A QR code is a type of two-dimensional matrix barcode, invented in 1994, by Japanese company Denso Wave for labelling automobile parts. It features black squares on a white background with fiducial markers, readable by imaging devices like cameras, and processed using Reed–Solomon error correction until the image can be appropriately interpreted. The required data are then extracted from patterns that are present in both the horizontal and the vertical components of the QR image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Children's Museum of Indianapolis</span> Childrens museum in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the world's largest children's museum. It is located at 3000 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana in the United Northwest Area neighborhood of the city. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is 472,900 square feet (43,933.85 m2) with five floors of exhibit halls and receives more than one million visitors annually. Its collection of over 130,000 artifacts and exhibit items is divided into two domains: Arts & Humanities and the Natural Sciences. Among the exhibits are simulated Cretaceous and Jurassic dinosaur habitats, a carousel, a steam locomotive, and the glass sculpture Fireworks of Glass Tower and Ceiling. The museum's focus is family learning; most exhibits are designed to be interactive, allowing children and families to actively participate.

WURFL is a set of proprietary application programming interfaces (APIs) and an XML configuration file which contains information about device capabilities and features for a variety of mobile devices, focused on mobile device detection. Until version 2.2, WURFL was released under an "open source / public domain" license. Prior to version 2.2, device information was contributed by developers around the world and the WURFL was updated frequently, reflecting new wireless devices coming on the market. In June 2011, the founder of the WURFL project, Luca Passani, and Steve Kamerman, the author of Tera-WURFL, a popular PHP WURFL API, formed ScientiaMobile, Inc to provide commercial mobile device detection support and services using WURFL. As of August 30, 2011, the ScientiaMobile WURFL APIs are licensed under a dual-license model, using the AGPL license for non-commercial use and a proprietary commercial license. The current version of the WURFL database itself is no longer open source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikimedia UK</span> UK charity and chapter of the Wikimedia movement

Wikimedia UK (WMUK), also known as Wikimedia United Kingdom, is a registered charity established to support volunteers in the United Kingdom who work on Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia. As such, it is a Wikimedia chapter approved by the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), which owns and hosts those projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broad Ripple Park Carousel</span> Restored antique carousel in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

Broad Ripple Park Carousel is an antique carousel in The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. It was installed in 1917 at an amusement park near the White River in Indianapolis, Indiana, where it remained until the building housing it collapsed in 1956. The ride's mechanism was destroyed, but the animals were relatively unscathed and put into storage by the park's owners, the Indianapolis Department of Parks and Recreation. The animals were carved by the Dentzel Carousel Company some time before 1900 but were assembled by the William F. Mangels carousel company, which also supplied the engine powering the ride.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Wikipedia</span> Free online crowdsourced encyclopedia

The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to Wikipedia:

The Monmouth Heritage Trail is a walking route which connects various sights in the town of Monmouth, Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Rolls Hall, Monmouth</span> Building in Monmouth, Wales

The Rolls Hall, Whitecross Street, Monmouth, Monmouthshire is a Victorian hall, now public library, donated to the town in celebration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee by John Rolls, the future Lord Llangattock. It is a Grade II listed building as of 8 October 2005, and is one of 24 buildings on the Monmouth Heritage Trail.

Conflict-of-interest (COI) editing on Wikipedia occurs when editors use Wikipedia to advance the interests of their external roles or relationships. The type of COI editing that compromises Wikipedia the most is paid editing for public relations (PR) purposes. Several Wikipedia policies and guidelines exist to combat conflict of interest editing, including Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punch House, Monmouth</span> Public House in Monmouth, Wales

The Punch House is a public house and hotel located at Agincourt Square, Monmouth, Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monmouthpedia</span> Collaborative project

Monmouthpedia is a collaborative project linking the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia and the town of Monmouth in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gibraltarpedia</span> Project by the Government of Gibraltar

Gibraltarpedia is a project by the Government of Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, to improve coverage of Gibraltar-related topics on Wikipedia. It builds on Monmouthpedia, an earlier project along similar lines linking Wikipedia and the town of Monmouth in South Wales. The Gibraltarpedia project was announced in July 2012 by the Government of Gibraltar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikipedian in residence</span> Professional role in Wikipedia development

A Wikipedian in residence or Wikimedian in residence (WiR) is a Wikipedia editor, a Wikipedian, who accepts a placement with an institution, typically an art gallery, library, archive, museum, cultural institution, learned society, or institute of higher education to facilitate Wikipedia entries related to that institution's mission, encourage and assist it to release material under open licenses, and to develop the relationship between the host institution and the Wikimedia community. A Wikipedian in residence generally helps to coordinate Wikipedia-related outreach events between the GLAM and the general public such as editathons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freopedia</span> Wikitown project in Fremantle, Western Australia

Freopedia began as a project to install QRpedia codes at sites around Fremantle, Western Australia to link people to articles on Wikipedia. It has since evolved into a WikiTown project aiming to build comprehensive coverage of Fremantle on Wikipedia.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Skopje, North Macedonia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amarapedia</span>

Amarapedia is a collaborative project linking the quarter of Amara in Donostia-San Sebastián and the on-line encyclopaedia Wikipedia, which is focused on the facilities of local information system, covering subjects such as places, buildings, facilities, and streets. Amarapedia is inspired by the Welsh experience of Monmouthpedia and it was a pilot project for future larger-scale projects that took place in the city of Donostia-San Sebastián in 2016, when the city was the European Capital of Culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Red</span> WikiProject to address the systemic gender bias in Wikipedia

Women in Red is a WikiProject addressing the current gender bias in Wikipedia content. The project focuses on creating content regarding women's biographies, women's works, and women's issues.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Eden, Terence (2011-04-03). "Introducing QRpedia" . Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  2. 1 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. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  3. ↑ Johnson, L.; Adams, S. (2011). The Technology Outlook for UK Tertiary Education 2011-201 (PDF). NMC Horizon Report Regional Analyses. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. ISBN   978-0-615-38209-8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-05.
  4. 1 2 Першим в Україні Wiki-містом стала Одеса, Укрінформ, 27.09.2013
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Byrd Phillips, Lori (2011-06-15). "Going Multilingual with QRpedia". Marcus Institute for Digital Education in the Arts. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  6. ↑ "QRpedia Statistics (example)". Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
  7. ↑ Bamkin, Roger. "Three days of Action - QR codes at Derby Museum and Art Gallery". Wikimedia Foundation . Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  8. 1 2 Anon (2011-05-21). "Quiet Realities". Imperica. Archived from the original on 2012-11-08. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  9. ↑ Various. "Wikipedia:GLAM/Derby/QR code experiment". Wikipedia . Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  10. ↑ Various. "Derby Backstage Pass". Wikimedia UK . Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  11. ↑ Roger Bamkin, interviewed on BBC Radio Derby by Phil Trow, 2011-08-30
  12. ↑ Eden, Terence (2011-11-03). "QRpedia in Russia" . Retrieved 25 November 2011. The 'QR', of course, standing for 'Quick Response'; The 'pedia' comes from 'Wikipedia' - which, itself, derives from Encyclopedia.
  13. ↑ "qrwp — QR Redirection to Wikipedia". Google Project Hosting . Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  14. ↑ Byrd Phillips, Lori (2011-07-29). "QR codes + Wikipedia = QRpedia". The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  15. ↑ Greta Kreuz (17 July 2012). "Historic Congressional Cemetery Program to get Wikipedia boost". WLJA . Archived from the original on 7 January 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  16. ↑ Hinojo, Alex (2011-05-11). "QRpedia Codes at Fundació Joan Miró". The GLAM-Wiki Experience. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  17. ↑ "Monmouth to be Wales' first WiFi town". Monmouth Today. 2012-02-29. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  18. ↑ "New collaboration between Wikimedia UK and The National Archives". The National Archives (United Kingdom). 2011-09-15. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  19. ↑ Eden, Terence (2011-09-18). "National Archives and QRpedia" . Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  20. 1 2 "Become an instant expert with a little help from your mobile". Smart UK Project. 2012-02-02. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  21. ↑ "QRpedia a Praha 10: QR kód na každé památce". mobilmania.cz. 2012-09-30. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  22. ↑ Shared Knowledge projects: Skopje Zoo, Meta
  23. ↑ Одесса стала первым вики-городом Украины, Мир Энциклопедий, 28 сентября 2013
  24. ↑ "We Don't Make Demands: Posters". 2011-12-02. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
  25. ↑ "Smart UK Project – the final four". Smart UK Project. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  26. ↑ Young, Niki May (8 February 2013). "Wikimedia UK trustees have been 'too involved' to effectively govern charity". Archived from the original on February 11, 2013. Retrieved 2013-02-09.
  27. ↑ "Review finds Wikipedia UK board needs major leadership overhaul". The Register .
  28. ↑ Keating, Chris (2013-02-09). "QRpedia". Wikimedia UK . Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  29. ↑ "User:Mike Peel/Wikimedia compensation".
  30. ↑ "Announcement – QRpedia donated to Wikimedia UK - Wikimedia UK Blog". 2 April 2013.
  31. ↑ Chris Keating (7 June 2013). "QRpedia". Wikimediauk-l Archives. At least one Wikimedia chapter has received letters from people who purport that QRpedia infringes on various patents.
  32. ↑ "[Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.