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Green light for Culturenet Cymru
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Minister for Culture, Sport and the Welsh Language, Jenny Randerson today gave the go-ahead for a consortium of cultural and other organisations to deliver Culturenet Cymru - an all-Wales, bilingual, cultural ICT network.
An ICT Working Group, chaired by Andrew Green of the National Library and set up by the Minister's Cymru'n Creu Forum, have been working on plans on
strategy for the initiative and how it should be delivered. Cymru'n Creu, who met today at the WDA offices in Penllergaer Swansea, are being kept
fully updated of developments.
"I have agreed the plan drawn up by the ICT Working Group of Cymru'n Creu to deliver Culturenet Cymru and I have allocated £1.5 million to support the initiative over a three year period," said the Minister. "Excellent progress is being made to create an effective national online presence for Welsh culture in its broadest sense."
Culturenet Cymru is likely to consist of two elements: a central staff unit of experts, to plan and co-ordinate activities; and specific services or projects commissioned from, or contracted out to, other organisations.
Key aims of the initiative are to give Cymru'n Creu members the ability to offer online services and to create and retain more digital content amongst cultural organisations.
"The benefits of Culturenet Cymru will be threefold: social, educational, and economic," said Jenny Randerson. "Culturenet Cymru will improve access to culture, increase participation in it, and provide more information about it. The initiative will create high-quality digital cultural material for use anywhere, any time, by learners in formal or informal contexts; and it will accelerate growth in online cultural activity throughout Wales and improve knowledge and appreciation of Welsh culture outside Wales."
The Minister added that the initiative illustrates the benefits to be gained from constructive collaboration. "An incredible amount of hard work has gone into the preparation of a robust strategy and action plan for Culturenet Cymru. It would not have been achieved without genuine partnership working amongst the different organisations concerned. I am confident that the next stage of the initiative - the establishment of Cuturenet Cymru in practice - will enjoy the same spirit of co-operation.
"I am also delighted that Culturenet Cymru will be located within Cymru Ar-lein, the Assembly Government's overall focus for the development of online technology in Wales. This will maximise the initiative's visibility and importance".
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The Assembly Government's national cultural strategy, Creative Future- Cymru Greadigol, underlines the need to maximise opportunities for promoting Welsh cultural life in order to support social and economic development and to reach out to an international audience. The strategy recognises that the imaginative use of information and communication technology is crucial to realising this goal.
The Culture Minister set up Cymru'n Creu - a representative forum for key public and private sector agencies - to enable the cultural sector to collaborate in the successful delivery of Creative Future.
The Working Group drew up a strategy and action plan for the development of the initiative, which has been agreed by the Culture Minister.
Culturenet Cymru will have four key objectives : building capacity among Cymru'n Creu members to enable them to exploit online technologies in the services and facilities they offer; reaching new audiences of users by converting latent into active use; stimulating the creation and maintenance of digital content; and demonstrating economies of scale through effective partnership working.
During the first three year period, Culturenet Cymru will concentrate on delivering: a limited number of projects aimed at creating cultural content for online access; a well-designed public gateway or portal; collaboration with other relevant programmes; and support for Cymru'n Creu members to enable them to build their capacity for offering online services. |
National Assembly Government
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Thursday, October 24, 2002 |
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