HAVING already become the world's first Wikipedia town, Monmouthpedia is to expand across the whole county as the local authority enters into a trademark agreement with San Francisco's Wikimedia Foundation.

The agreement provides Monmouthshire County Council with a restricted right of access to the Wikipedia branding for use in conjunction with the Monmouthpediashire project.

Kellie Beirne, the authority's chief officer for regeneration and culture explained at last week's cabinet meeting: "We've had visits from national and international organisations, because Monmouthshire is creating a buzz around the world. Interest has been especially expressed by Barcelona with Gibraltar claiming to be the first Wikipedia city.

"Locally Chepstow and Raglan are the next town and rural village to get the Monmouthpediashire treatment and resources have been set aside to make this project work.

"The beauty of the project is that we've only had to provide a small amount of funding, £40,000 to be exact, to run the project."

Councillor Roger Harris pointed out that the £40,000 was a good investment while Councillor Phil Hobson agreed and pointed out that volunteers in Chepstow and Raglan were already preparing for the next stage.

He added: "I welcome the expansion of Monmouthpedia to countywide and I feel everybody behind the scheme should be congratulated."

The scheme centres around Wikipedia's adaptation of the Quick Response codes that links mobile phones and other mobile devices to Wikipedia articles written in the user's language. This technology had been successfully used in a museum environment.

Councillor Bob Greenland said: "This is a fantastic project, there is so much more we can do with it.

"Caerwent is a prime example of where it can work and make a big difference.

"Currently its information centre is only open one day a week and by having these Quick Response codes on site it can effectively be open all week.

"The effect on tourism and the appeal of the area can be greatly improved as the codes can be translated into an assortment of languages giving information to tourists that we've got a lot to offer here in Monmouthshire."

Chief executive Paul Matthews said: "This is exceptional value in more ways than just financial as it's all about the community taking possession of the project.

"This was always intended to be a county wide project with Monmouth as the starting point.

"I've just heard today that Monmouthpedia has been voted as the 'coolest' project in the world."

Councillor Peter Fox said: "We don't realise what we've got until outsiders vote us as the coolest Project in the World. It surely is a team effort. We are onto something here and the challenge for us is now to scale the project up."

Councillor Liz Hacket Pain concluded: "The continuing success of Monmouthpedia is expanding on what we have already and by rolling out the scheme to all of Monmouthshire towns and villages it can only go from strength to strength."