Japanese Wikipedian released a book titled “City Revitalization with Wikipedia”

by , Japanese Wikimedian and Librarian, real name is Yuriko Kadokura; Author of "A 70-year-old Wikipedian talks about the charm of libraries" in 2023; Wikimedians of Japan User Group; Member of the WikiOrchestra
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On December 2023, a book titled “ウィキペディアでまちおこし：みんなでつくろう地域の百科事典 (City Revitalization with Wikipedia : let’s create a local encyclopedia together!)” has been released in Japan, published by Kinokuniya Co. Ltd., a major Japanese publishing house. The author is Japanese Wikipedian 緑丹 (Ryokutan).

Town entrance sign for Monmouth, World’s first Wikipedia town (John Cummings, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

This book focuses on local edit-a-thons called “Wikipedia Town” in Japan, like Monmouthpedia in Wales. In 2018, the author who lives in Kyōtango, west part of Japan, has started to edit Wikipedia, soon created a local group “edit Tango” and held many times Wikipedia Town about many themes on Kyotango. They believe that to write on Wikipedia about vanishing villages or declining local industry is to connect the memories to the future.

Kotohiki Beach in Kyotango, Kyoto Prefecture (hashi photo, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Since the first Wikipedia Town was held in Japan in 2013, it had gradually spread throughout the country. The auther joined many edit-a-thons held in different parts of Japan, in addition held Wikipedia Exibition at Library Fair (図書館総合展) in 2022 and 2023 in Yokohama, Japan. As a result, Wikipedians from all over the country got to know each other.

The author said, “If I don’t have any Wikipedians around me, but I don’t forget to make a best and greatest encyclopedia in the world, I won’t be alone. Many editors who have different motivations involvement based on certain guideliens, as a result, an encyclopedia of excellence that embraces diversity is made. I realy like the nature of this Wikipedia community” (p252).

The book has three chapters, then the author presents many episodes about Wikipedia Town edit-a-thons in 13 sections. Interspersed between each section are specific, easy-to-understand columns on Wikipedia editing, which can be read alone for practical use. This book is a very useful guide to the whole of Wikipedia Town.

I wrote about the same theme on my Japanese blog. The author contributed to Diff about the book’s talk events.

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