Frequently Asked Questions
We put together a little collection of questions that often arise. If there is something not covered here, please send us an email and we will integrate it. So, without further ado, some questions and answers:
So, what exactly is Semapedia?Are you Semacode?
Can I encode any Wikipedia, Wikinews, Wikibooks, Wikisource URL in any language?
Can I encode my own URLs?
What are those Codes you are using?
Why do you use a proxy-URL in your codes instead of the original Wikipedia-URL?
I love the idea. How can I contribute?
How much information can be stored on such a QR Code?
Q: So, what exactly is Semapedia?
A: Semapedia.org is a non-profit project whose goal is to connect the physical world with relevant knowledge from Wikipedia.
As a community you are encouraged to create such connections yourself by creating and attaching Semapedia Tags in your world.
Q: Are you Semacode?
A: No. Although our common Prefix 'Sema' might suggest this, we are independent from individual softwareproviders. Since Semapedia is largely based on the public domain ISO/IEC18004 QR Code Standard, our Tags are readable by any standard-compliant Reader software.
Q: Can I encode any Wikipedia, Wikinews, Wikibooks, Wikisource URL in any language?
A: Yes. This is exactly what we want you to do. All those projects bear such amazing volumes of knowledge and we encourage you to bring this knowledge into the world. When entering an URL into our form, make sure that it is properly escaped.
Q: Can I encode my own URLs?
A: No. Semapedia Tags shall only bear codes that link to Wikimedia projects. Any non-Wikimedia URL will be defaulted to Wikipedias' Main Page.
Q: What are those Codes you are using?
A: The codes we are using are called 'QR Codes' and are basically cellphone-readable URLs. Basically they are 2D codes when they are standard-compliant with ISO/IEC18004.
Q: Why do you use a proxy-URL in your codes instead of the original Wikipedia-URL?
A: We create a redirection to Wikipedia since we have to ensure to provide a mobile version of your requested article. The transformation is done by Sevenval and provides you with a very readable - and live - version of your desired article. If we were not redirecting you via a mobilization service you could end up downloading full-size articles and images that can add-up to several Megabytes and not be rendered correctly.
Q: I love the idea. How can I contribute?
A: Great! We encourage you to create Semapedia Tags for your own area. Print them out on adhesive paper and stick them up to the place where the linked information matters. Of course, please always make sure you do have the proper permission when putting up the Tags.
Q: How much information can be stored on such a QR Code?
A: Depending on your error-correction level, you can encode up to 2.5kB of ASCII-encoded text into a single QR Code. The ability to read so extract all this information from a code heavily depends on the quality of camera though. We believe sticking with short URLs (a couple of bytes) that link to virtually unlimited resources is a more elegant (and maintainable) way to connect things with information.