Road sign cites Wikipedia
June 30th, 2008
German Wikipedians discovered a road sign citing Wikipedia. The road sign is located at Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany. It denotes the “Erika-Mann-Bogen”, a street named in 2006 after Erika Mann (1905–1969) (article in English), the eldest daughter of Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann.
Members of the German Wikipedia community assume that the Hamburg municipality, by explicitly citing Wikipedia, wanted to express its esteem for the Wikimedia project, which is in Germany comparably high. Others raised the question if the usage of the text complies the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). One participant of the discussion joked that the GFDL had perhaps been printed on the backside of the sign which can not be seen on the photo.
Frank Schulenburg
Head of Public outreach
July 1st, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Well, it says “Quelle: http://www.wikipedia.org“, so i suppose that it’s reasonable.
I wonder - would they refer to any source if it wasn’t GFDL?
July 1st, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Well, this is great. Finally some more real life citations.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
During summer 2007, I have seen a Wikipedia definition for [[Candela]] in a Museum. I suddenly realized how important the mission is : to share knowledge !
July 8th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I don’t know what the German laws are, but the cited extract likely qualifies as a fair-use quote. I think it is great to see Wikipedia being viewed as valuable enough to do something like this. And… It’s free advertising.
I’d love to hear more on the general perception in Germany of Wikipedia and other projects. You see their accomplishments, like the book, and the serious quality drive, and I think Frank is understating the respect afforded to the project in the country.
July 10th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I’ve seen citations at two museums in Ontario, Canada: One is at the Peel Heritage Complex, the other was at a small town museum, I believe referencing something to do with Napoleonic Europe.