Baroness Warsi, the co-chairman of the Conservative Party, came to see Monmouth's Wikipedia project in action last week.

The Baroness visited the Shire Hall to learn a bit about its history as well as the part it is playing in the future of tourism in Monmouth.

Thanks to the Monmouthpedia project, the Shire Hall is one of a number of buildings housing QR codes, which can be scanned by smart phones and link directly to articles on Wikipedia.

Since the project was started at the beginning of the year, more than 300 new articles have been published on the website in 21 languages on the history, buildings and people of Monmouth.

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Baroness Warsi said was "fantastic" to see what the Monmouthpedia project was doing and tried scanning one of the new plaques with her own phone.

"It really works," she exclaimed.

"It is a great use of technology and is giving power to the people," she said.

"What's brilliant is that the information is there and you can have it in your hands."

Mike Booth, manager of the Shire Hall, said 24 QR codes were going up on ceramic plates around Monmouth's Blue Plaque Trail.

"We are trying to get video up on Monmouthpedia," he said, "we are changing the way people use Wikipedia and the way people use QR codes."

A Monmouthpedia celebration day is being organised for 19th May.