Press releases

The Fundació .cat, private entity that owns the .cat domain, and the Federació d’Ateneus de Catalunya, which has 182 federated socio-cultural associations, have today signed a collaboration agreement that commits them to undertake joint actions to promote use of Catalan on the Internet among entities affiliated to the Federation.

The signing, which took place at the headquarters of the Fundació .cat, brought together the two presidents of the entities, Genís Roca, of the Fundació .cat, and Pep Morella, of the Federació d’Ateneus de Catalunya, to consider the work of .cat as essential for the development and digital training of the Catalan-speaking internet and a valuable asset for the entities of the territory.

With this agreement, the Fundació .cat wants to continue deepening its mission of promoting Catalan on the Internet, linking up through the associative network and helping Catalan civil society entities to go digital.

Roger Serra has been appointed new General Manager of the Fundació .cat, replacing Dr. Francesc Giralt who has held the position since February 2018.

The decision has been unanimously presided over by the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, after a public process of free concurrence with the collaboration of Dr. Giralt.

Roger Serra (43 years old), has developed his professional career between Europe and Asia, first working at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) as an associate professor of Institutional Relations, to later working in research and investigation tasks in China and other Asian countries. He has lately focused his activities in managing an app and web development business of which he is also co-founder.

The election of Roger Serra want to continue the steps of Dr. Francesc Giralt in which the organization has moved forward in terms of results, leaving it in a very good place. The goals of this new era are to continue maintaining .cat as the most important cultural domain in the world, as well as start new alliances, activities and foundational projects that allow the Foundation to continue supporting the digital transition of the territories of Catalan language and its position as an active and pioneering digital cultural community.

Fundació .cat appreciates the commitment and dedication that Dr. Francesc Giralt has provided to the entity since he took over the role and wishes him the best of luck this new stage.

The Fundació .cat presents the Annual Observatory of the .cat domain, an infographic analysis of the most relevant data of the domain during the last year that allows to compare the evolution of the .cat since 2005, the year of its creation. This year, the fifteenth anniversary of the .cat domain has coincided with a year of pandemic, but despite this, .cat has shown its strength and has continued its growth.

Currently, the .cat domain exceeds the 110,000 barrier, reaching the figure of 110,802 domains. This represents an increase of 1.55% over the previous year. “We are very happy to present these results just this year as the .cat domain celebrates its 15th anniversary. These data show the work and effort of the Board and the .cat team to reach all corners of the Catalan-speaking territory, both through our founding projects and through the alliances and partnerships we have launched this 2020”, comments the president of the Fundació .cat, Carles Salvadó.

The Fundació .cat presents the jo .cat project, a program in digital identity. In collaboration with the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) and with the support of the Department of Digital Policies and Public Administration of the Generalitat de Catalunya, jo .cat has born with the aim of strengthening the digital skills of people in situations unemployed. They need to have an ACTIC certificate (Accreditation of Competences in Information and Communication Technologies) from the Generalitat de Catalunya.

This 40-hour, 100% online training aims to provide tools and skills for participants to create their own digital identity.

Two of the key entities in the territory, the Fundació .cat and the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce have signed a collaboration agreement that commits them to study and work together to develop activities to digitally enhance the country’s business. This signature is becoming more relevant than ever at a time when it is very important that companies are digitally prepared to carry out their activities.

The signing, which has taken place virtually, brought together the two presidents of the entities, Joan Canadell, of the Chamber of Commerce, and Carles Salvadó, of the Fundació .cat. Both parties have considered the .cat domain to be an essential digital tool for the multisectoral development of the Catalan-speaking Internet and a valuable asset for the territory.

The .cat Internet domain has celebrated 15th years and celebrates them with an event in the Palau Robert Garden in front of the entities, governments and people who promoted and have supported .cat in recent years.

On September 16, 2005, the approval of .cat as a recognized domain on the Internet was officially announced, and thus became the first top-level domain of a language and culture in the world.

Every year, the .cat Foundation organises wapps .cat, the contest for the creation of websites and apps in Catalan aimed at students of 5th- and 6th-grade primary school, secondary and higher education, as well as intermediate and upper vocational training. This year, the contest is in its 10th year and it’s celebrating in a very special way. The award ceremony is to be broadcast live tomorrow at 4 p.m. on the programme Popap escolar by Mariola Dinarès on Catalunya Ràdio.

Wapps .cat has broken its record for participation this year. 3,321 students (2,330 boys and 840 girls) from 118 schools scattered around the Catalan-speaking region took part in the contest. A total of 1,183 work groups were created. Of these, 470 projects reached the final stage of the contest.

The URV and the .cat Foundation are joining forces to help improve the digital skills of teachers in the Catalan-speaking regions. On one hand, the URV, a trustee of the .cat Foundation, the UDL and the UdA are promoting the Observ@COMDID, an observatory for the development of digital teaching skills for teachers already working and those still being trained. On the other, the .cat Foundation, a private non-profit organisation committed to improving digital skills in the field of education since it was established, is promoting the competition for the creation of websites in Catalan wapps .cat and teacher training.

Internet consumer habits have suddenly changed in light of the situation generated by the coronovirus pandemic and the declared state of emergency with the subsequent confinement of the population. This has meant that network connectivity infrastructures have had to deal with a much more intense, widespread and extensive demand than usual. The .cat Foundation has reached a partnership agreement with Ookla, one of the leading companies worldwide in connectivity verification and performance data analysis, to have access to connectivity data in the Catalan-speaking regions with the highest population.

The puntCAT Foundation has announced today at a press conference that it has appeared before the National Court in order to find out the reasons that caused/triggered the adoption of the injunction issued on 18 October 2019 by the Central Court of Instruction No. 6, which ordered the operators to block access to the Tsunamidemocratic.cat website from IP addresses located in Spain.

Fundació .cat defends freedom of expression and fights for the right to decide as the only way to ensure the maintenance and future of our language and culture in the wake of the global political and technological threats that surround us. Language, Culture and the Internet are our DNA.