WalesCymru.com

Welcome to WalesCymru.com and to our first blog entry.

I suppose we should begin at the beginning by introducing ourselves and setting out why we’re here.

WalesCymru.com is the product of 10 years of thinking and 4 months hard grind.

The idea for a Welsh portal (the forbear of the “social network”) pre-dates Google and most the Internet as we now know it. It originates in consultancy work carried out by Imaginet for ISPs in Ireland and Saudi Arabia in the mid ’90s. The concepts and principles advanced through this work were applied to the 1998 development of Total Cardiff - a website planned, designed and built for the Western Mail and Echo (the latest version of this site is ICWales WalesOnline, and is operated by a company that is now called Media Wales).

What we learnt in the ’90s was that local media companies have great content and a good relationship with the local advertising community; but are not always the best placed people to provide an effective community website. I suppose time, and the $240m recently invested by Microsoft in Facebook, will tell if this is really true.

So, who are we?

The Team behind WalesCymru.com are all based in Wales and each has over 10 years experience at the web’s coal face. They are:

• Greg Cannon
• Beanlogic
• Mark Boulton Design

Greg Cannon: Owner, founder and backer. Greg started his first Internet business in 1993, then founded Imaginet in 1995 (along with Dave Taylor & Nigel Roberts) while managing the WDA’s EDI Awareness Centre. In the intervening years he has developed web business and e-marketing strategies for over 200 organisations, including the DTI (BusinessLink), BT, Eircom, the Welsh Assembly Government (VisitWales, WDA) and The Royal Mail and has project managed over 450 web developments. Greg registered the domain WalesCymru.com in 1998; along with several others, including MediaWales.com which he still owns.

Beanlogic: These are the technical gurus behind this site, and include founders Keeran Hawoldar & Elwyn Malethan, both ex-Imaginet.

Mark Boulton Design: We have Mark to thank for his creative genius, his knowledge of web standards and his simple, beautiful designs. Greg and Mark share a previous employer; while Mark now shares offices with Beanlogic, with who he has had a long standing designer/developer relationship.

You: Where would we be without a user base and an audience? Now we’ve started it’s up to YOU to prove the concept.

What is WalesCymru.com?

In essence WalesCymru.com is a new business and social networking site for Wales. It is a social media site where the content and advertising is provided and managed by the people who know Wales best; namely the people who live, work, study, shop and play here. Well that’s our long term objective. Initially WalesCymru.com is a self managed directory, where every Welsh business can create and mange their own FREE listings, and a set of community features, based on the latest Web2.0 technologies, that include self managed user profiles, reviews, ratings, recommendations and notifications.

What now?

If like us you are passionate Wales please take a few minutes to review the site and the various features and opportunities that are now available to take part in this FREE online community.

Then when you’ve had a good look around, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, or would like to discuss how you can come on-board, please don’t hesitate to contact us - via this forum - we’d love to hear from you.

Greg Cannon