My Welsh Digital Hero No. 2 -Louvain Rees

A couple of weeks ago, I started a feature on this blog called Welsh Digital Heroes. The aim was quite simple, to highlight the lesser-known achievers in Wales who are getting things done in the digital world and are making all our lives better. These people deserve as much publicity as possible for what they are doing and I hope that, after reading about my second Welsh Digital Hero, you will agree and share this link and visit her fantastic stuff online and on Facebook.

So, my second hero is actually a heroine. Ironically, a heroine who is using future technology to make us more aware of our past.

Let me introduce you to Louvain Rees. She is bringing local history into the 21^st Century with her wonderful content on her Hello Historia blog and through her ‘Remembering Bridgend’ page on Facebook.

She is no full-time historian. Yet she has managed to do very cheaply online what some renowned historical institutions have failed to do with mega-budgets. She has engaged a totally new audience in the past stories of their town by doing simple things, finding great content that makes things personal to people and showing and sharing it in a highly simple way.

She has reinvigorated my passion for my home town and opened the eyes of people much younger than me to how Bridgend was. And, as a result, she is getting people who have seen what she is trying to achieve offering her pictures of Bridgend for free to share with everyone.

By the way, we are talking about someone here who is much younger than me. I never ask a lady her age…but if she is older than 23 I’ll eat my hat. She is passionate about local history and she is using her youth to make people of all ages realise that where we come from can be relevant and exciting in a digital world.

It’s quite clear she is not doing this work for financial gain. But just look at the Facebook profile or the blog and you see she is creating something of worth to the community and our nation’s history online. I would argue she is achieving more for preserving our heritage in a digital domain than some government-funded organisations.

The popularity of her work grows day by day and I think as many people as possible should know about what she is doing. So please, go to the REMEMBERING BRIDGEND page on Facebook or visit her blog HELLO HISTORIA and say hello to my latest Welsh Digital Hero.