Wales on the Web
Press Release from the Institute of Welsh Affairs
EMBARGO: 1am Monday 23 May 2005
New IWA report published
Wales On The Web
A virtual Welsh embassy should be established on the World Wide Web
to attract overseas visitors, encourage inward investment, connect
with the Welsh Diaspora, and project Wales to a global audience. This
is a key recommendation in a new Institute of Welsh Affairs publication,
Wales on the Web, written by National Librarian Andrew Green.
“What is needed is what may be called a Welsh 'virtual embassy',
a place on the web where internet users abroad would congregate to
find out about Wales,” he says.
He argues that this is the aim of the National Assembly's 'Wales World
Nation’ website but says the site is small and “gives
no more than a taster of some of the more obvious characteristics
of the country as they might appeal to the interest or curiosity of
the 'average world citizen'.”
He recommends that messages from other agencies, such as the Welsh
Development Agency, the Wales Tourist Board, and the National Library
and Arts Council of Wales should be brought together in a more professional
and linked way.
“It is, of course, difficult to achieve a consensus about which
parts of contemporary Wales are significant or worth projecting to
an outside audience,” he says.
“The Wales Tourist Board, for understandable reasons, chooses
to accentuate aspects of Wales that would be regarded as anachronistic
and stereotypical to other agencies seeking to overturn what they
see as outdated and conventional national self-images.
“At the same time the Tourist Board’s ‘VisitWales’
site offers information and assistance to potential visitors, using
a computerised ‘destination management’ system. More could
be done to link its efforts to those of other agencies, for example
through its cultural tourism strategy. There is, for example, considerable
latent potential in exploiting family and community history resources
in the National Library and other archives to attract those of Welsh
extraction who live overseas. This would mirror successful attempts
by Irish agencies to exploit overseas markets, especially in the United
States.
Similarly, the Welsh Development Agency has a website designed to
interest potential overseas investors in Wales. Yet, few other national
public agencies have websites or sections of websites directed specifically
at those outside Wales. A great deal more could be done, amongst others
by the Assembly Government, to encourage better provision.”
“It is important to be clear about the nature of the global
audience,” Andrew Green adds. “Web users are not distributed
evenly across the globe but rather are concentrated in developed countries.
More than half of them are in the United States which, from a commercial
point of view, is not necessarily a disadvantage.”
Other recommendations in the Paper, published by the IWA in its Gregynog
series and supported by BT, include:
* The huge wealth of material stored in Welsh radio and television
archives should be opened up for wider public use.
* The National Assembly website is in need of urgent improvement in
terms of organisation and presentation.
* Local authorities should improve the provision of online information
and interactive services, following best practice in different parts
of Wales.
* Cross-sector partnerships should promote innovative web-based services
such as traffic management, procurement and geographical information
systems
* The Welsh Assembly Government should stimulate the production of
a ‘Digital Library of Wales’ and a ‘Digital Welsh
Newspaper Archive’.
* Funding is needed to negotiate national public licences to commercial
online content to ensure that the public enjoys free access to paid-for
online information, as it does now to paid-for printed information.
* More effort is required to promote the Welsh language in the online
universe, especially in stimulating the production of more online
learning resources to support the Curriculum Cymreig.
* Local and community groups would benefit from technical and organisational
support in making best use of Web opportunities
* More support is needed for Welsh businesses to make the best use
of online technologies.
THE AUTHOR
Andrew Green has been Librarian of the National Library of Wales
at Aberystwyth since October 1998, following a career within university
libraries: University College of Wales Aberystwyth (1973-74), University
College Cardiff (1975-89), University of Sheffield (1989-92), and
University of Wales Swansea (1992-98), the last as Director of Library
and Information Services, responsible for IT services and networking.
Note To Editors
Wales on the Web is available from the IWA, St Andrews House,
24 St Andrews Crescent, Cardiff, CF10 3DD at £7 99.
For more information contact: IWA Director, John Osmond on 029 2066
0865 or the author, Andrew Green on 01970 632805
back to top |
