‘Soul. 15 years of the Fundació.cat’ is the traveling exhibition that can be visited at different locations of the Catalan-speaking region between 2020 and 2021 to learn more about the success story of Fundació .cat.

We want to celebrate with you that, for 15 years, we have been fostering, promoting and encouraging the use of Catalan on the Internet as a language standardisation tool and an essential element to further strengthen our culture. We achieve all this by managing the .cat domain and the tens of thousands of .cat domains that are registered on the Internet, as well as through foundational projects that encourage the digitisation of education, social entities and small enterprises.

There are things that unite all Catalan speakers. We can’t touch them, but we can feel them. Our language and our culture, our history, our future. Everything we share as a people connects us to each other and creates an intangible connection, a collective soul, that identifies us.

At Fundació .cat, we have worked since day one to ensure the digital soul of Catalan becomes increasingly stronger on the Internet and to enable us to also communicate and share our ideas, our feelings and our dreams in this digital world. We are optimists by nature. We believe in the present, in the future, and in all the possibilities that technology has to offer. And we will continue to use them as we have been doing until now, to ensure the soul of Catalan continues to grow and evolve, enhanced by new times, and becoming a powerful, living language on the Internet. Because a .cat is much more than just a domain: it’s a feeling of belonging, a declaration of intent. The .cat domain has been the voice of our language on the Internet for 15 years, and it will continue to be so in the future starting today.

The history of the Fundació .cat is a constant and collective defense of the rights of our language and of our culture. Thanks to the efforts of many, not only it is a success story, but also an unprecedented achievement: .cat was the first Internet domain that existed in the world to represent a linguistic and cultural community, in this case the Catalan-speaking community. The .cat domain is a generic domain like .com and .org, but specifically targeting the Internet-based Catalan linguistic and cultural community.

Nowadays, other domains such as .gal or .eus accompany .cat as flagships of cultural and linguistic diversity.

Catalan is a language with over one thousand years of history; the Fundació .cat only has fifteen. But these fifteen years have been intense and useful. We now want to celebrate this: we want to celebrate that we have a history full of successes and a whole future ahead of us. And we’re relying on you to get there.

A language that is not spoken in all areas of life is not a fully standardised language. It is therefore essential for Catalan to remain increasingly strong in the Catalan-speaking regions and also on the Internet. We are working with primary and secondary schools, high schools and vocational training centers to help students develop all the digital skills.

We work with students and with teachers and offer them the knowledge and tools required to learn how to design websites and apps, and to provide them with further knowledge of the new technologies that are transforming our every-day lives and configuring our future.

Wapps .cat
A 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 centers. The competition aims to promote the knowledge of new technologies, the creativity of participants and the normalization of Catalan in the digital environment.

Teacher training

This free teacher training program is organized together with the Rovira i Virgili University to develop digital skills relating to the Internet and to new technologies.

During these 15 years, the Catalan-speaking community has established itself in the digital world thanks to the generous efforts and work of a large number of individuals and organisations over the years.

Fundació .cat is extremely involved in social projects and in those that foster innovation and the use of our language on the Internet. We want to be instrumental in ensuring that Catalan is even stronger and more present on the Internet.

esTICenllaçat
The project aims to improve access to and training in ICTs for Catalan NGOs. With the collaboration of CTecno and migranodearena Foundation, we organize training workshops in WordPress so that organizations from the third sector without their own websites can develop them with a .cat domain and in Catalan, and learn how to maintain them independently.

Calls open for grants for projects
We fund any digital projects by non-profit organizations that provide value – either cultural, social or technological – to the Catalan-speaking regions.

We are a land of entrepreneurs, of people with innovative ideas and projects for the future. However, it must be possible for all these initiatives to be put into practice. The Fundació .cat therefore accompanies small enterprises on their digital adventure. We do so with on-site training sessions (mobile classroom) or distance learning, designed so that the micro-economy is aware of and applies the necessary digital tools to become visible and financially active on the Internet. Furthermore, in this same aim of supporting the economic network of the Catalan-speaking regions, we encourage entrepreneurship with grants and flat rates for new businesses and start-ups.

Each project, each business, each institution, each company and each entrepreneur can have their own .cat custom-made to suit their personality and needs. The Fundació .cat also offers all the facilities through our on-line advisory and support service to ensure each new initiative becomes established and to ensure the growing Internet presence of Catalan. There are already over 109,000 .cat domains. Try having your own digital identity, your own .cat!

Elteunegoci .cat
A digital training program for small businesses wishing to get a website in Catalan and learn the basic notions of WordPress to maintain it. This program is also aimed at any council wishing to adopt it to support local trade in its municipality.

How many Catalan speakers are there worldwide? Where is Catalan spoken? What is the state of health of our language on the Internet? How many entries does Viquipèdia have? Does Google Maps speak Catalan?

All these answers and more are within reach. Click and find out for yourself.

The Internet is, undoubtedly, the cultural transfer tool with the highest global impact since the invention of the printing press. You can do almost anything on the Internet: comment on photos of your friends holidays on the Costa dels Tarongers, learn step by step how to make the perfect stew, discover the best corners of Ceret, find renowned experts in “salsa balandra” (thick sauce for fish) and, of course, watch countless cat videos (like it or not, you know that sooner or later this will happen).

For a cultural community like ours, it is essential to be present in all Internet areas.

What about you, are you already part of this community? Fill the Web with colour! Research, enjoy, search (cats included)… You are all invited. We need good stuff: clear and in Catalan!
Be part of .cat on elteucorreu.cat

With the .cat domain you help us spread Catalan and make sure our community becomes stronger and stronger.

If you also want Catalan to be a living language, get moving: connect in Catalan.

16.09.20 – 12.10.20 Palau Robert (Barcelona)

18.09.20 – 30.10.20 Palau Oliver de Boteller (Tortosa)

15.10.20 – 30.11.20 Espai Santa Caterina (Girona)

18.03.21 – 12.04.21 Menador espai cultural (Castelló)

November 2021 CentreBit (Menorca)

December 2021 Centre Cultural La Misericòrdia – Consell de Mallorca (Palma de Mallorca)