Tŵt is a Twitter-like Web and mobile platform with the intent of creating an open source, bilingual social network for Wales and the Welsh, at home and abroad.

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With Facebook and Twitter suffering from abusive users and data collection horror stories, and with a contemporary Wales very much on the rise, I thought it might be time to try building something for Wales with a strong emphasis on having both languages used side by side.

Having been involved in Web communities since the 1990s, I miss the old days of group-moderated content, a welcoming Web, a real sense of community. People who know me know I am not personally a fan of modern social media platforms, so I thought maybe I should build something I could feel good about using.

I think now is a great time for Wales to put its best Web foot forward and show the world how a country and a people renowned for hospitality can demonstrate the same online. And with the vision of a million Welsh speakers, I’m hoping a truly bilingual platform can help further the goal of increasing the use of Welsh across the country and the Internet.

If you’d like to join us the address is https://toot.wales – please create an account, play around, try to break it, and let me know your thoughts! The site works as a native app on any smart phone (Welsh and English versions), but companion apps are also available including Welsh versions, see this list for more information.

Diolch yn fawr iawn,

Jaz

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Some technical details: the open source network project “Mastodon” has now been entirely translated into Welsh. To operate in a Welsh environment, you can set your language of choice in the preferences settings (if your OS environment is Welsh the site should appear in Welsh automagically).

Tŵt is envisioned as a community-owned, non-commercial entity, funding is currently founder-based and the project is funded for at least two years. Eventually we imagine moving to a crowd-funded/Patreon model or similar.

Please feel free to direct message me on Tŵt.