Website for future of Welsh language

[Harold Schiffman]

Website for future of Welsh language
Feb 7 2008 by Tomos Livingstone, Western Mail

A UNIQUE online attempt to take the debate on a new Welsh Language Act
away from "anoraks" was launched at Westminster yesterday. A website,
wikideddfu.com, is based on the hugely successful Wikipedia, a cyber
encyclopedia that anyone can edit or amend. Wiki Deddfu is the
brainchild of Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams, who hopes the new format
will encourage discussion of an issue – language legislation – that
has too often been the preserve of academic experts and pressure
groups. Anyone will be able to edit the entries on various aspects of
language policy, with the hope that, over time, a consensual picture
will emerge.

"I don't want it to be a site for anoraks, I want some direct opinions
from people who are interested," said Mr Williams. "I don't think
there has been anything like this before; most legislators think in
terms of getting the experts to tell them what to do. This is the
other way around, and I would claim it fits our little country better
than the expert model." The launch comes as the Assembly Government
prepares to ask Westminster to hand over a large chunk of language
policy. The move is the most contentious of the requests from Cardiff
Bay under the new bit-by-bit transfer of powers introduced in the
Government of Wales Act.

The formal request is due in spring, with the powers – provided MPs
vote in favour – handed over later in the year. Ministers in Cardiff
Bay would then have a relatively free hand to introduce changes to the
law. Current legislation only obliges the public sector to provide
services within the medium of Welsh, and there are constant complaints
that the 15-year-old Act is now out of date. But small businesses in
particular are resistant to the idea of extending it to the private
sector.

The new website will have Welsh-language and English-language versions
running side by side, and Caernarfon MP Mr Williams said he was
prepared for the possibility that the two sites may end up having very
different content. He said, "I want to see contributions from English
speakers, they don't seem to be particularly involved in the debate at
the moment. It will be interesting to have the debate in English; at
the moment it goes from 'nobody speaks Welsh around here' to 'will it
cost twice as much?'"

The site is also a recognition that many Welsh speakers are now "young
and urban", he added, and may have fewer opportunities to use and
discuss the language than those living in the rural north and west.
Earlier this week a report commissioned by Mr Williams suggested the
creation of a Language Commission with the power to take cases to
court if language legislation is contravened.
The website will be open for three months, and could be adapted to
encompass other policy areas a later date. The web address – "deddfu"
is Welsh for "to legislate" – is deliberately wide-ranging for that
reason.

Wikipedia, the model on which the site is based, has proved hugely
successful since it was launched in 2001. It now has more than 9m
articles on an enormous range of topics, and still allows anyone to
contribute – although it now has an army of checkers as it tries to
secure a reputation for accuracy. The name comes from the Hawaiian
work "wiki wiki", which means "quick". The Wiki Deddfu site is the
latest effort by politicians to use the internet to provoke policy
debate. Labour MP for Rhondda, Chris Bryant, has set up interactive
sites to discuss teenage pregnancy and at least five MPs have their
own blogs.

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/politics-news/2008/02/07/website-for-future-of-welsh-language-91466-20444670/

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