About Dysgwyr

Dysgwyr.co.uk is a (side) project of Chris Sully of Propona.

Chris is a Welsh learner and a software developer and Dysgwyr was created with the aim of developing both skillsets. The two main drivers for the development of 'Dysgwyr' were:

• Several years ago Propona tendered for a Welsh Government project which, amongst other elements, involved the development of a database of resources for Welsh learners. This seemed like a good idea given that while there are many useful resources for learners out there, they can be difficult to find. What happened to the project I hear you cry? Well a *lot* of digging suggests http://www.cronfacio.co.uk was the result, though it is certainly not search engine optimised to find easily! One aim of Dysgwyr is to create in some ways a similar resource repository but to add a 'crowdsourcing' angle to it's development, but we'll see have to see how this idea of YOU populating the content goes when we've put the basic infrastrutcure in place!
• Chris wanted to get more into developing apps for mobile devices/ Windows 8. He'd been searching for an English-Welsh dictionary data source for a while (surprisingly difficult to find - the powers that be aren't big on the 'open source' concept) and eventually found eurfa and its helpful creator. So dictionary app(s) are also in the pipeline. Quite when they might emerge from the pipeline depends on several factors, primarily in which directions I decide to allocate resources (currently my free time!) A simpler windows phone 8 app is already in the store.

If you would like to help with the site, with the obvious angles being either helping coding or with sponsorship so more coding can be done and more quickly, please do get in touch.

Finally, to answer a couple of questions that might come up:

• Why isn't all the content in Welsh? This is on the 'ToDo' list but is not deemed high priority due to this site being for Welsh learners of all levels whose first language is English.
• The content is a bit Cardiff/ South Wales centric isn't it? It is likely to be given we are based in Cardiff and it will continue to be until geograophically disparate volunteers join the content team.