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'.cat' TLD is a generic domain. Its policy has been developed by ICANN and Fundació puntCAT. It was approved in September 2005. It is intended to be used to highlight Catalan language and culture.^[1]

Contents

History

Restrictions

Notes

External links

History

Before .cat was available, and given the reluctance of certain Spanish institutions, companies, and people to use .es, .fr, .it or .ad domains for their webpages, alternatives emerged. An example of this is the website for the city of Girona in Catalonia, which uses a .gi domain ("http://www.ajuntament.gi/", the word "ajuntament" meaning both "city council" and "town hall"), even though .gi is the country code for Gibraltar.
To solve this problem, in September 2005 the .cat TLD was approved for all webpages, etc., intending to serve the needs of the Catalan linguistic and
cultural community on the Internet. This community is made up of those who use the Catalan language for their online communications, and/or promote the different aspects of Catalan culture online. The initial registration period went from February 13th, 2006, to April 21st, 2006. The registry was open to everybody starting April 23rd, 2006.^[2]

Restrictions

The .cat domain is not territorial, but applies to the whole Catalan-speaking community, whether or not a site is based in Catalonia. In order to be granted a .cat domain, one needs to belong to the Catalan linguistic and cultural community on the Internet. A person, organization or company is considered to belong if they:²

★ already have contents in Catalan published online.

★ have access to a special code (sometimes called ENS), issued during special promotions or by agreements with certain institutions.

★ develop activities (in any language) to promote the Catalan culture and language.

★ are endorsed by 3 people or 1 institution already using a .cat domain name.

Notes

1. http://www.domini.cat/normativa/en_index.html
2. http://www.domini.cat/en_faq/

External links

★ Information and register process

★ Associació puntCAT

★ Cultural diversity in cyberspace: The Catalan campaign to win the new .cat top level domain