.cat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Introduced | 2005 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Sponsored top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | Associació puntCAT |
| Sponsoring organization | Fundació puntCAT |
| Intended use | Catalan linguistic and cultural community |
| Actual use | 15,000 domains and about 3 million web pages (As of July 2006) |
| Registration restrictions | Screening is done both before and after registration to ensure registrants are part of applicable community |
| Structure | Direct second-level registrations are allowed |
| Documents | ICANN New sTLD RFP Application |
| Dispute policies | UDRP, Charter Eligibility Dispute Resolution Procedure (CEDRP), Compliance Reconsideration Policy (CRP) |
| Web site | puntCAT |
.cat TLD is a generic domain, that is, not defined in terms of a territory like the ccTLDs. 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]
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[edit] History
Before .cat was available, and given the reluctancy of certain Catalan institutions, companies and people to use .es, .fr, .it or .ad domains for their webpages, alternatives (sometimes strange or ironic) 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"). This country code actually indicates Gibraltar and this usage could be of embarrassment to the Spanish Government which seeks sovereignty over Gibraltar. A Spanish town using a Gibraltar domain might be seen as an endorsement of the status quo. Oddly enough, this was done with the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya in office, an ally to Partido Socialista Obrero Español, which firmly opposes both Catalan independence and Gibraltar's British sovereignty.
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 to April 21st 2006. The registry was open to everybody starting April 23rd 2006.[2]
[edit] 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.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- (Catalan) Information and register process
- (Catalan) Associació puntCAT
- Cultural diversity in cyberspace: The Catalan campaign to win the new .cat top level domain
| Generic top-level domains | ||
|---|---|---|
| Unsponsored | .biz .com .edu .gov .info .int .mil .name .net .org | |
| Sponsored | .aero .cat .coop .jobs .mobi .museum .pro .travel | |
| Infrastructure | .arpa .root | |
| Startup phase | .asia .tel | |
| Proposed | .berlin .bzh .cym .gal .geo .kid .kids .mail .nyc .post .sco .web .xxx | |
| Deleted/retired | .nato | |
| Reserved | .example .invalid .localhost .test | |
| Pseudo-domains | .bitnet .csnet .local .onion .uucp | |
| Unofficial | see Alternative DNS roots | |
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See also: Country code top-level domains |
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