Good point! Perhaps sending them an email, with an incentive to open it in the subject line (prize or something), with an easy multiple choice question, ‘why didn’t you continue’ could work.
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We’ve got that tucked away in the code somewhere - you’re right that there are comparatively small starter things we could do - the context, though, is that Ifan is facing a mountain of work to get the SSiBorg ready to go for the next round of languages - he’s currently in the middle of a huge rewrite of the codebase so that it tests fully, to help us solve two final key issues before we can move to the next round of testing.
It’s a huge challenge, and is putting him in a position where he has a bunch of new stuff to learn, so one of my most important tasks right now is to shield him, as far as possible, from anything that dilutes his attention to this particular job.
In two or three months, we might be in an easier situation, where it will be less distracting to add some extra items to the work-flow - but for now, I think we need to start with projects that aren’t going to call for any extra coding from Ifan… 
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Totally understandable. I’m glad you’ve pointed this out, it’s good to know where the constraints lie. This info might also help us when it comes to selecting projects to take forward.
Possibly the best projects will be those that do not require a centralised resource. Projects that many, distributed supporters can contribute to, are likely to be more viable than projects that rely on a fixed resource. By involving more people, those involved take more ownership, making a project even more successful. At the same, central resource is freed up to help coordinate.
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Yes, I think that’s the real key here.
We’ll support everything we can as much as we can, as a company, and we hope that support will grow over the years - but right now, this is about figuring out distributed teamwork…
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My suggestion is that we should target people who are not so well served by Welsh for Adults classes. This would include people:
- who work - days/evenings/shifts
- who can’t commit to classes on a regular basis
- who don’t want to sit in classrooms for a variety of reasons
- who don’t want to do exams (not that you are forced to, but it concerns people that they may be expected to)
- who had a bad experience learning Welsh/other languages in school
- who want to be able to speak Welsh, and quickly
This is a very large general group of people and we would need to target particular subgroups. I think that would play to SSiW strengths - its convenience, that you can do it at your own pace,
it’s about speaking, you can pick it back up without a problem (you don’t have to go back to a set point), etc, etc.
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Like an open university cymru?!
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Like an open university cymru?!
… from which I’m delighted to say that my son has just graduated in the Millennium Centre (to the tearful appreciation of his proud parents). The presentation of all the candidates was bilingual which is how I learned the Welsh for “Master of Science in Network Security”. (It was something like “Meistr Gwyddoniaeth mewn Diogelwch Rhwydwaith” ond sai’n siwr. 
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Llongyfarchiad mawr
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But maybe without the assessments and monthly assignments - bobsleigh runs instead and triple speed listening exercises would be fun!
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Maybe suggest he looks at “You Speak German”. Has a very similar approach to SSi, but is a little more grammar heavy. (I did mention this once before on the Forum, and I think Aran said it was ok to mention it (at least until SSiG (SSiD?) starts… 
). Not many free lessons though.
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I think some people like to go to classes for social reasons and (in theory at least) they should offer the opportunity to speak with other learners in person, plus one expert speaker (the tutor, who may be a first-language speaker). The fact that traditional classes often don’t work all that well doesn’t deter some people. They go year after year. (Usually it’s fee hoiks that eventually puts those people off … I’m talking about language classes in general. Don’t know if WFA is subsidised and not too expensive).
Also some people simply like having the security of having a book-based course.
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We’d never want to try and prevent anyone from talking about other courses/approaches/methods…
YouSpeakGerman used to have a note on its front page crediting SSiW as the model for the approach - it’s a pity that’s not there any more.
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Children who went to “English medium with significant Welsh” are another target area … English medium is basically taking kids from almost no confidence sadly