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.

I'm a Real loser...Welsh voices removed completely from Welsh radio station by new owners

As of next Monday, Wales' biggest commercial radio station will have NO Welsh presenters on it at all during the whole of its weekday output.
Real Radio's new owners, Global, have decided that from the 5th of November, all of its daytime output will come from Manchester -with presenters from there getting all the jobs.
The breakfast show will broadcast from Cardiff, but it is presented by two English presenters.
This means you will not hear a single presenter with a Welsh accent or a single presenter from Wales on Real Radio Wales in day.
Irish radio stations have Irish accents. Scots stations have Scottish presenters. Even English stations are mainly using English presenters.
Real will be the only local station in Britain not to employ presenters for the nation it broadcasts to.
Whilst the new owners have promised to safeguard local news output, the fact that people will not be able to hear presenters with their nation's accents on their nation's radio station is unbelievable.
What does that say to the next generation of wannabe Welsh presenters? How can they build careers if they can't even get a break on the radio station of their own nation?
This is not about petty nationalism. There should absolutely be a diversity of voices on any station. But to eradicate the Welsh voices on a WELSH radio station shows commercial naivety at best, or a total disrespect for the Welsh at worst.
It suggests our accent is not god enough to be on our national radio station.
It seems, as of Monday, Wales REAL-LY will lose its voice.

My Welsh Digital Hero No.1 - Rhodri ap Dyfrig

A few weeks ago, I posted a rant about how us Welsh are useless at promoting our achievements - especially when it comes to digital.

Well, in an effort to right this, I promised that I would start blogging about the people who I think are doing some wonderful work in the digital arena and deserve as much exposure/support as possible for that work.

My hope is, that by doing this, you will all take a peek at their work and tell the world about it. Also, that it might spark an idea which you could work with them on.

So, let me introduce you to Rhodri ap Dyfrig - or @Nwdls as he is also known.

Rhodri is an outstanding worker bee for the promotion and use of the Welsh language on digital platforms and has used his knowledge to help create things that make it easier for people to use Welsh online.

Furthermore than that, he is reaching out to other minority languages around the world to see what they are doing online. He then brings that knowledge back to this country so he can make us all better at digital.

Whilst others talk about making Welsh a digital living language - he is doing it. 

He has been a guiding light in the formation of Haciaith -a blog and (at least annual) get together about all things digital in the Welsh Language. If you want to know what's already out there and what can be done in Welsh digitally - Haciath is the place to go.

Rhodri is a PhD student at Aberystwyth University and is funded by Boomerang. So, credit should absolutely be given to them for supporting his work. And credit should be given to all those who work with Rhodri on the growth of Haciaith - a body which wants to help us all get digital in Wales.

It is doing some of the awareness-raising and support work which should arguably be done by other bodies and it is utter proof that we can create great things together when motivated to do so.

To be fair, for most of those that already use digital methods to access the Welsh language, Rhodri is not a stranger. But I am hoping that this little blog can help those people that don't know of his work see how great his achievements are.

I hope anyone learning Welsh or interested in how we are developing as a digital nation (in whatever language) will take a peek at Haciath, look at @nwdls twitter account and generally cheer and support his work.

Say hi to him - I'm sure he'll say hi back.