What the Welsh are rubbish at

I come from the country that makes the smallest computer in the world.

I come from the country which was the birthplace of one of the biggest technology investors in the world and one of the greatest technology company bosses in the world.

I come from the country which has the highest percentage of e-book owners in the United Kingdom.

I come from a country where its native language is more appreciated in the digital sphere by US companies like Twitter and Facebook than many of its own media and government institutions.

And I come from a country which has thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people, creating wonderful things online everyday.

That's what Wales is good at. Now let me tell you the one thing it is truly useless at.

Shouting about those achievements so more and more people know about them and use them.

Over the past couple of years, I have worked with some great people making great things online in Wales. In any other country, these things would be supported by at least a social buzz -at best a considered partnership and marketing campaign where all the major bodies and people in Welsh society help to raise awareness and market these achievements.

Neither has happened. Sometimes, it feels like we are ashamed of our own success.

We don't talk about what we are achieving because it'll sound like we're bragging or being arrogant and that's not the Welsh way.

There's only been two times in the past five years that Wales has really said 'look how good we are'. The first was when we won the Grand Slam, the second was when we reached the semi finals of the Rugby World Cup.

Meanwhile, 'foreigners' that come into this country instantly recognise how brilliant we are. They ask in wonder, "Why don't I know more about what you are doing?" "What a wonderful country!"

These were the very points made to me on the balcony of the Celtic Manor by a wonderful American visitor to Wales the other day. He wasn't just any old Yank - he was a Social Media Guru! His name was Mark Schaefer (look him up here) and he spoke at a wonderful conference organised by Real Radio MD Tony Dowling in Newport the other day. (and yes, declaring an interest - I was a speaker!)

The truth is, we struggle to market to ourselves as a nation, let alone tell anyone outside about our achievements -so what hope have we got to get the world to realise what we can do when we can't even tell ourselves?

The irony is that the one thing the Welsh are good at is talking. If there was an Olympic gold for sgwrsio, we'd be the Chris Hoy or the David Weir -we'd blow the field away.

But we have a tendency when it comes to our digital abilities to either talk but not do anything or to talk and not listen. We also have a skill of undervaluing ourselves and of forming cliques which stop us all learning about what everything we do.

I don't blame one institution for this. We are all to blame. And every single one of us should start shouting and sharing the wonderful work being done by lots of individuals and companies in our country to eradicate the lack of awareness about our digital achievements either here or abroad in England :)

And I'm happy to get the ball rolling. Starting this week, I'm going to be blogging about my Welsh Digital Heroes and Heroines. People who you would have never heard of but have created some really interesting things online and are worth a look at.

I hope you will take a peek at their work and tell your friends, colleagues and enemies -so all of us know what's out there and we all get involved in our future.

If you have a 'Digital Hero' and you want them to get recognition for what they have done, then please leave a message for me on the blog and I'll be happy to blog about them.

I'm going to shut up now...these Welsh don't half rattle on, eh?!

Nawr mae bois Lundain yn gweld werth cynnwys Cymraeg

Am yr ail dro dros y misoedd diwethaf, dwi wedi gweld cwmni marchnata Llundain heb unrhyw staff sy'n siarad Cymraeg yn greu cynnwys Cymraeg ar gyfer S4C a Radio Cymru.

Yr esiampl diweddaraf yn ddod o gwmni ON Broadcast. Oedden nhw'n ffilmio sesiwnau a cyfweliadau ar rhan cystadlaeth cerddoriaeth ar gyfer gemau Olympaidd yn Nghaerdydd pan syweddolon nhw fod o leiaf un ferch yn y cystadlaeth yn siarad Cymraeg.

Felly, penderfynon nhw I ffilmio hi a wneud cyfweliad a -bang- dyma'r canlyniad ar Heno -clic yma i wylio.

Iechyd Da i'r iaith - App newydd Cymraeg/ Welsh language in good health thanks to new App

Mae Llywodraeth Cymru wedi ychwanegu at rhestr o Apps Cymraeg gan lawnsio 'Dewis Doeth'.

App gan CIG yw hon, i helpu chi gwneud 'dewis doeth' am lefel driniaeth chi eisiau pan ydych chi'n sal neu mewn damwain. Chi'n gallu chwilio am feddygon, deintydd a optegydd achosaf ar map neu chwilio am gymorth arlein.

Mae rhan fwyaf o'r wybodaeth ar yr app ar gael yn Gymraeg, ond oherwydd methiant Google maps i deall enwau Cymraeg, os ti'm chwilio am dref neu dinas, rhaid i chi defnyddio enw Saesneg.

A dyw e ddim ar gael trwy Android eto, dim ond ar iPhone a iPad - mwy o manylion ar dudlen Siop App yma  . Ond mae fersiwn Android yn dod.

Da iawn i'r Llywodraeth a CIG am greu yr app. Dim lot o apps Gymraeg ar gael o sector Cyhoeddus ar hyd o bryd. Rydyn ni angen mwy ohonynt.

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The Welsh Government has today added to the growing list of mobile apps in the Welsh Language by launching 'Dewis Doeth'

The NHS app helps you decide who you should speak to when you are sick or in an accident. You can look for doctors, dentists and opticians on a map based or keyword search.

Most of the info on the app is in Welsh. But due to Google Maps' failure to recognise place names in Welsh, you can only keyword search for towns and cities through their English names.

And the app isn't available on Android yet - but it is coming, apparently. You can see the detail for the app in the iPhone and iPad App Store here 

Well done to the Government and NHS for creating this App. There aren't many Public Sector apps in the Welsh Language - there need to be more.

It's not hell to live in Hull, especially if you use broadband

If you live in a remote part of the UK and have broadband which moves at the speed of a slug.....look away now. Because I've just read a superb story in the Guardian about how some of the most remote villages near Hull are already wired up for 100MB super-fast broadband!

Yes, we are talking villages where there are more cows than people; villages where, if there was a flood, you wouldn't be able to get through on the tiny roads. Yet, somehow, Kingston Communications have delivered bit fat fibre-optic pipe to farms, remote homes and many other tiny locations which are deemed too financially unviable to be offered similar by rival telcos.

Please do read the whole article on the link above. But, just in case you are in a rush,  I have ripped out one section just to show you what I mean.

"Internet service providers that drove broadband take-up, such as TalkTalk and Sky, have never offered the service in Hull, arguing it was uneconomical to put their equipment in Kcom telephone exchanges. The result was a monopoly, in which only 50% of Hull homes had broadband a year ago, embarrassingly below the 68% national average then. But things are changing. Kcom has just eliminated every blackspot in its network, while in the rest of the UK 14% of broadband connections remain below the 2mbps minimum, with many more simply out of reach of a connection."

And now, here is the reason why it is happening in Hull and not everywhere else.

It is the only UK city not covered by BT's telephone network!

Yes, in the olden days, the once council-owned Kingston Communications used to be the only telecoms provider in  that part of east Yorkshire. This legacy has meant Kcom has been able to plough a faster furrow than BT in getting fast broadband to remote areas.

Truly a case, as the Housemartins put it, of London 0 Hull 4! (or Rural UK 0 Rural Hull 4).

However, the question must be asked, if a small once state-owned telephone company can afford to plant 100mb pipes in remote areas; why can't a much bigger once state-owned company do the same?

Maybe Kcom should take over rural broadband provision in the rest of the UK?

Why Wales must fight to keep it REAL

During the last Welsh Assembly election, politicians quite rightly complained that Wales was in danger of losing its voice because of the lack of local media and the reliance on London-based output.

Well, today we face a serious attack on the amount of local media we have which will cause us to lose at least one radio station with a commitment to output from Wales and about Wales - and we all have a duty to stop this from happening.

It has been announced today that London-based radio company, Global, has agreed to purchase GMG Radio - the owners of Real Radio for £70million. This move will decrease the amount of Welsh news, sport and other local content on our airwaves dramatically and will cause us to lose a major voice in the Welsh media.

Global already has form in lowering the amount of radio it produces in Wales and it has not hid its desire to affect more cost-cutting in the industry by looking to possibly network Real from London, save for breakfast and drive time.

It is something they have already done in both north and south Wales. One of the UK's most famous local radio stations, Red Dragon Radio, was turned into Capital FM overnight and 75% of its output comes from a computer in Leicester Square. The same has happened to the once mighty Marcher Group of stations in the north; with an even tougher effect of wiping out both English and Welsh language local programming.

Aside from the Global group having no heritage in local programming, they also have no heritage in sports output. So it would be safe to say that the Real Sports Phone-In would be toast in Global's hands. This show, remember, is the only other challenge to the BBC Radio Wales monopoly on sports talk in the country, and is widely respected too.

Even if you don't subscribe to my view of the way Global works with local output, there is genuine evidence that this deal is anti-competitive. If Global are allowed to keep Real and the Capital/Heart stations, they will have the monopoly on ALL independent local radio choice in north Wales, and an excessive audience share of the local radio market in south east Wales.

Now, that isn't just bad for listeners, it's bad for a free market. It means they have a substantial chunk of the airtime sales market throughout Wales - it would be harder to find a bigger monopoly in UK radio.

So, people of Wales, it is time to act to save us losing another rare larynx of Welsh opinion. Please write to OFCOM, your AM/MP and the Competition Commission to stop this purchase from going ahead. If Real is for sale, it needs to be put in the hands of a company which has a track record of promoting local output on a local station. Or, it needs to be put in the hands of a Welsh business or people from Wales who understand what this audience deserves.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying Real Radio is perfect. I know it has been criticised for its lack of Welsh Language output and also criticised at times for actually not being Welsh enough. But, their news bulletins are from Wales, produced in Wales with a high percentage of Welsh news.

They have a sports phone-in about Wales and most of the staff there are either from Wales or have lived here long enough to know more about this country than someone based in London.

If you are willing for a key part of our media to be run by a pre-programmed robot in Leicester Square, then please do ignore this blog. If you believe Wales deserves as many media outlets as possible run from Wales by the people of Wales, then please stop Global owning Real.

Thanks/ diolch

New TV ad for first Welsh Language magazine to launch on iPad

I'm so Appy - I've got my own TV ad! Well, ad for the first Welsh Language magazine on iPad, ApGolwg, is running on S4C. Take a peek and download the app yourself. If you want to know more, or would like help getting your own app, then send me a message!

Dyma'r hysbyseb teledu ar gyfer ApGolwg sy'n darlledu ar S4C ar hyn o bryd.

You can park your language over there mate, next to the Porsche and Estonian!

Many people have written blogs on the recent Western Mail editorial about the '£400k cost' to translate certain Assembly sessions into Welsh (ranging from the BBC's Betsan Powys to the Independent's Rob Williams)that I had no intention of even trying to compete with that sort of cerebral might!

However, I have been compelled to pen a few words about one aspect of the argument -the constant theme that we can put Welsh translation or the use of Welsh on hold whilst we battle through these austere times.

It came up today in Paul Murphy MP's response to the Western Mail article and last week, when the BMA pretty much suggested the same. They all seem to be using the word 'park'. That we should 'park' the spend on democratic documents in Welsh until austerity is over. Or that we should 'park' the growth of the use of Welsh in the NHS until we're feeling a bit more flush.

It all sounds like a car park attendant shuffling motors in the rush hour. 'Yeah, that's it, park your Welsh over there mate, next to German and Swedish -don't be leaving scratches on that German now.'

Truth is, you can't park a language. It is a living thing with an engine that wants to go forward and it doesn't like staying in one place.

Thankfully (at the moment) Welsh is not a language in reverse, it is in at least 3rd gear. If we stop public documents being written in the language, we restrict the growth of the language. New words will not be logged, there will be no records of debates in our democracy, people will not be able to be entertained/supported etc.

What's the point in learning a language if you are told that the amount of content you can use in that language is restricted?

What happened if we stopped publishing everything in English tomorrow - I mean everything from The Beano to Hansard (aren't they the same thing?!). Eventually, English would die as a living language. Not tomorrow, not even in 50 years -but eventually.

It would become as useful as Latin -great for grammar lessons, but precious little application in modern life.

So, in short -all of the hard work everyone in Wales (and beyond) has done to make Welsh an everyday language again would be lost if we restricted the amount of material in the language under the lame excuse of austerity.

Also, I have seen many examples where the Welsh Language has CREATED jobs in Wales, not lost them. Why wouldn't we want to add to that?

Yes, these are bloody hard times for many living below the poverty line in Wales. And, yes, I have never experienced poverty like that..so who the hell am I to say these things? But, we are being told a lot by Labour MPs in Westminster that to get us out of these tough times, we need to spend - and not cut. This is an example of exactly that.

Let's all keep the car on the motorway (or the A55 for my friends in the North), not park it up in some lay-by to gather rust.

PS - Note to the Western Mail. If you had just suggested finding ways of lowering the £400k cost and not suggested scrapping the service altogether, you would have won over far more friends (including me). But, as a Radio Wales phone-in caller named Richard from Bridgend said, you knew exactly what you were doing when you phrased it the way you did...it was a direct desire to get more attention. The cheapest marketing campaign Trinity Mirror has run in years!

Here endeth the lesson