Our goal is to connect the virtual and physical world by bringing the right information from the Wikipedia to the relevant place in physical space. We believe that bringing knowledge to where it matters changes minds and worlds. Our motivation to create Semapedia is to let everyone collaboratively physically hyperlink their world, thus sharing knowledge and making it accessible to others in a helpful and meaningful way. We strongly believe bringing knowledge to places and things that matter to others is a great way to help others understand our beautiful and complex world. To accomplish this, we invite you to create and distribute Semapedia-Tags which are in fact cellphone-readable physical hyperlinks to the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia (or any of Wikipedias' sisterprojects such as Wikibooks, Wikinews). You can create such Tags easily yourself by choosing and pasting a Wikipedia URL into our creation-form . Pressing the button will generate a custom PDF file to download and be printed. Once created, you put the Tags up at their according physical location. Others can now use their cellphone to 'click' your Tag and access the information you provided them.
Users of the [tagging] system are the ones that have more knowledge about specific places or objects than others and who want to share this knowledge with others at the relevant place. Users therefore range from local neighborhood insiders, environmental activists to tourism boards of cities and countries. The people that use the taggers' provided infrastructure are interested (and triggered by their peer's Physical Hyperlinks) in learning more about their environment such as the building they are standing in front of, the fruit they are holding in their hand, the book they are reading, the waterhole they are using.
Together with Semapedia.org co-founder Stan Wiechers we have started the project in mid-2005. Since we have been committed on pushing the idea of connecting knowledge with places that matter ever since. Semapedia.org has thus grown fast over the past 2 years and we would like to continue this development and reach out and support more specific communities where we want to promote the contribution and distribution of knowledge via Wikipedia and Semapedia. Please note that Semapedia was from the beginning based on open content, standards and protocols only. This makes it possible for the members of our community to adapt new technologies beyond 2D Barcodes easily. Since the idea is to connect the virtual and physical world - by any means necessary. We strongly believe bringing knowledge to places and things that matter to others is a great way to help others understand our beautiful and complex world. We are committed to that.
We commit Semapedia to be a starting point for creating a physical world that is enriched by relevant knowledge by the people for the people. This accessability brings wealth to others by providing the right information at the right time at the right place in a bottom-up approach using an authentic and credible source. The shift from traditional PC/laptop-based information retrieval to full mobile access to the location and thing-related knowledge is in our eyes fundamental and we want to support and co-create this new, 'clickable' world by any means necessary. In this regard, especially in developing countries, we strongly believe we can create awareness that a.) one can share knowledge with others using Wikipedia, b.) that this information can easily be distributed to others using Semapedia Tags and c.) that documenting and distributing knowledge helps local communities as well as strangers to understand their physical environment. If all stars are aligned, Semapedia is the first step into learning a new set of expectations and behaviours towards technology in that it is available and reliable when and where it is needed. That technology supports the daily life and its' challenges as they happen. And that I as an individual can use and contribute to this new world with the simplest means.
Most importantly our success needs to be measured by the value it creates for the individuals that distribute and use Wikipedia knowledge in the real world using Semapedia Tags. If Semapedia is employed and used in the daily life of people and is understood as a utility we have achieved what we have set out to do. Furthermore, in relation to the world we want to co-create using Semapedia as a tool, we see Semapedia as one very real example of what the combination of the physical world and mobile internet can achieve. We encourage and exemplify a.) using and contributing to Wikipedia as a knowledge base - which in many countries and even continents still has a long way to go - and b.) finding new ways, beyond 2D Barcodes, to create a simple-to-use connection between physical and virtual worlds. The education and rise of Wikipedia contributions in developing countries is yet another major goal to be measured and achieved (and in accordance with Wikimedia Foundation's strategy to promote Wikipedia use and contribution in such a way in these areas). The other goal, building on top of the first, is to support local innovations to create access-channels to this stored knowledge. Semapedia Tags can be seen as a prototypical example that it is not only possible to bring knowledge back into the world, but also that it can be practical and simple to do. Semapedia is about the people, not about one specific technology. We are a pioneering community of local innovators to augment technology, Wikipedia and the real world. We have made a difference once Wikipedia contributions in developing countries is stronger and Semapedia itself is heavily used by everyday people and other diverse forms of physical hyperlinking establish themselves.
We see the need to share information with others one of the greatest abilities and driving-force of man. On the other side of the spectrum, the need and ability to consume information is just as strong. While traditional media and the internet in general provides tools at our disposal that can be used to generate knowledge already, the missing link that we are introducing is the relation back to the real world where Wikipedia knowledge really matters and where it can help others. We want to provide and develop many tools to make this missing connection as easy to create and to consume as possible starting with the proposed 2D Barcode-based version.
We see the three main factors for Semapedia's success coming together: Wikipedia and it's sister projects have matured to a degree where they are reliable, authentic and multi-lingually accessible. Secondly, 2D Barcode technology has begun to emerge into the mobile mainstream in Europe, the US and China. It has proven itself as a utility in Japan and South Korea over the past years in many applications already. The mobile internet is becoming more and more wide-spread and considering global investment into broadband internet infrastructure for cellphones, mobile connectivity will be commonplace and considered a utility. For the specific application of all three described components we are unique and are trying to pioneer into the new world in which every physical thing will one day be clickable. We do however encourage - and wish to support - projects that are reaching for the same goals as we do, there are simply none out there yet. From a strategic standpoint it is important to say that being based on open content, protocols and technologies, Semapedia does have an advantage to be adopted with very low entry barriers. The system is decentralized in that anyone can participate and since Wikipedia is such a huge resource of knowledge, users can create their own and unique applications. We see Semapedia as a framework for physical hyperlinking.
In it's heart Semapedia is bound to be spread by the people for the people and it is exactly what has been happening. From experience we have learned that through the playfulness of creating and using Semapedia Tags people can quickly understand the concept and are excited about the possibilities it provides them.
No. We have not received funding or investments from other parties. We have received server infrastructure from Sun Microsystems in 2006 as a donation to our project.
The Semapedia core team is Alexis Rondeau and Stan Wiechers, both based in New York City. Over the course of the project we have created a network of local Semapedia ambassadors in Europe (Hector Rinaldi) and Africa (Guido Sohne) who are helping to bring Semapedia to their communities.
The larger context of our work is to make the world clickable by any means, create virtual connections between physical entities and provide the missing link to information that exists in todays web. There are cell phone based social projects like Socialight, Dodgeball and Jaiku who let you know where you friends are and what they are currently up to. There are game companies like area/code who aim to use those new territories as a gaming platform. Companies like Nike track your running performance while using an iPod to let users share the data and have virtual asynchronous competitions while doing real running. (Disclaimer: Stan Wiechers was a Nike+ Project Member) 2D Barcode provide not only a marking mechanism for locations but for for objects as well, we will see surge of 2D Barcodes on packages or in magazine that link to useful web content and services. Since that is a huge business opportunity, you see frequent announcements to from companies like orange, t-mobile and china mobile to create standards in that area. Note that 2D Barcodes have been heavily in use in Japan and South Korea for many years for many different applications. We believe the business interest will push those technologies more and more in the mainstream and create a true paradigm shift in information consumption. First signs of mainstream adoption can be seen in the new Pet Shop Boys newest video 'Integral' which uses 2D Barcodes to create links to issues of Privacy and Security within their video.
We are used to a world where information placement in the public space is dominated by advertising. The public information space is hardly driven by the greater public, it is largely driven by business objectives. We are optimistic that providing tools and inspiration in physical hyperlinking will make the public understand that they can claim back that space. We want users not consumers. We want to raise the bar for information consumption in the public space with the deep, high quality and multi lingual content of the Wikipedia project.
