Author: Comunicació

Familiar with your rights and obligations when it comes to registering a web domain?

Posted on by Comunicació

When we register a domain, we are signing a contract with a registration company. Contracts often make for heavy reading and on many occasions, we accept them without being fully aware of what we are giving our consent to. These agreements are based on ICANN terms and conditions, but the law and regulations in the country where we are registering the domain are also important.

First and foremost, as the holder of a licence for a domain name we have the exclusive right to use that name for the period of time established. These periods normally range from one to ten years. The longer we register the domain for, the lower the annual price.

Apart from this, when we register a domain, we have some obligations. The first is to provide our data correctly and reliably, without any negative effects for third parties. This includes our full name, postal address and email. This information must be updated when the registration company asks us.

At the same time, we have a very important obligation to registration companies, which must keep our data safe so that it cannot be used fraudulently. However, whenever the authorities request data, they must provide them.

A domain registration works very much like any other contract. There are agreements between the registration company and the domain purchaser, but above this is the current legislation in each territory where the domain is contracted. Because of this it is important to know where our registration is located, and which laws govern the domain contract. For instance, if we have a domain name dispute, it will be the courts in the country of registration who will decide.

The City and Science Biennial has its dot

Posted on by Comunicació

Barcelona is again set to become a broad space to bring science and knowledge closer to the general public, from 8 to 13 June. The second edition of the City and Science Biennial revolves around the idea of limits, questioning the current food system with an extensive programme of over 250 activities and 300 speakers.

Many of the activities in the City and Science Biennial are based around the limits of the planet, of society and of science itself, addressing what the consequences of overstepping them are for people, humanity and the environment.

Over 250 activities to bring science closer to the general public

This year’s event features over a hundred activities which have been put together by curators and various organisations, 120 activities as part of the Science Festival and 30 from the +Biennal section, as parallel activities organised by city facilities and entities.

The activities will be held in nearly forty different locations around all the city’s districts, with debates, round tables and talks; six open-air film sessions with debates; exhibitions; Science Night, on 11 June, and the Science Festival, which rounds off the second edition of the City and Science Biennial.

All the activities in the programme will comply with all safety measures. Locations will mainly be open, with limited attendance capacities and practically all events requiring bookings in advance on the website for the City and Science Biennial. Reservations can be made from 25 May.

Personalities and leading science figures

Leading figures from the realm of science and knowledge will be involved during the City and Science Biennial, such as the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ernest Kahan; the physicist and disseminator Sonia Fernández-Vidal; experts in biology such as Donna Haraway, Michael Levin and Ron Weiss; the curator Mónica Bello, the geographer Oriol Nel·lo and many others.

Other figures involved in the event include physicists, historians, astronauts, molecular biologists, chefs, mathematicians, philosophers, anthropologists, economists and disseminators.

Geo-specific URL shorteners

Posted on by Comunicació

A uniform resource locator, or URL, refers to a website address or another type of internet resource. The term is used because a URL is the specific address assigned to each of the resources available on the network, enabling them to be located and identified. By resources we understand websites, documents, attachments, files, folders etc.

We can’t begin to imagine how many thousands and millions of resources there are published on the internet, with new ones added every day. It’s an immense volume of information and each resource has its own exclusive URL. It’s perhaps no surprise then that most addresses consist of an endless combination of numbers and letters, which are often unpronounceable. One downside when it comes to sharing these addresses is the number of characters they occupy. That’s a problem if we want to share them in a post, or particularly in a tweet, where characters are limited. Long and seeming illogical addresses can also be a bit of an eyesore.

URL shorteners

Because of this, URL shorteners have been around for a few years now. These free pages enable us to paste in the address we want to share and automatically generate another much shorter and exportable link. This address has exactly the same function as the long version, redirecting the user to the original URL.

Another advantage with shorteners is that URLs can be personalised, meaning that after the shortener’s domain we can write the address we want to, making reference to the content of the site the link will take us to. This helps the person clicking on the link to know where they are being redirected to, and also allows for a freer and more creative use of text.

There are plenty of URL shorteners, most of which have generic domains, seeking internationalisation or a short name which is easy to remember. But if you’re looking for more personalised alternatives, there are some which have geoTLDs.

One example is ja.cat, a URL shortener in Catalan which also allows addresses to be personalised. Similarly, i.gal shortens addresses with the Galician domain, and if you’re looking for a shortener in the Basque language then labur.eus is for you.

Other advantages to URL shorteners

Besides the two main advantages mentioned, of reducing the number of characters and personalising the URL, there are other advantages that are perhaps not so obvious.

Some shorteners allow for the extraction of data on interaction with links, meaning that an analysis can be made of the statistics for our sites and others. This data may show the number of clicks, their geographical origin and the number of shares.

Many shorteners also make things easier by offering the option of directly programming posts on social media. URL shorteners don’t affect SEO either as they simply re-path the original address, meaning all the work to position the resource stays intact.

New programme to digitalise the social and solidarity economy

Posted on by Comunicació

The MatchImpulsa programme has been conceived to promote the digitalisation of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) and the collaborative economy. The goal of the first programme by the Open Chair in Digital Economy, offered in collaboration with the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), is for organisations and businesses in this sphere to fully enter the digital economy at a time of change which has accelerated since the start of the pandemic.

The new programme follows the lines set out in the city’s 2030 SSE strategy, which identifies the challenge of digitalisation and the creation of digital platforms as one of its main goals. Along with these goals the idea is to include the feminist perspective, redress the increase in gender inequalities in digitalisation processes and speed up the adoption of equality measures in digital environments in companies.

The new Open Chair involves a cost of 701,500 euros between now and the end of the year, with the City Council to contribute 55% to fund SSE and collaborative economy projects, provide advice and mentoring, strengthen ties in specific sectors and foster collaboration between projects.

The programme is structured into three strategy areas:

  • Digitalisation of organisations and businesses, the creation and strengthening of digital platforms: three programmes to providing varying degrees of support for companies and organisations, to help develop their digital strategy, adapt their organisational and teleworking strategy and start working with digital platforms or create their own.
  • Boost for key SSE ecosystems in Barcelona: in particular, agro-ecology (in a year when Barcelona is the world sustainable food capital) and digital feminism, which aims to build an ecosystem of practices with feminist values in Barcelona’s digital economy and create a resource for empowering women and promoting alternative masculinities.
  • Groups of experts in technology, equality and university-business ties to offer resources for moving forward with digitalisation under the guidance of those who know most about it.

MatchImpulsa will run from 25 May to 31 December. Those wishing to participate should sign up on the website matchimpulsa.barcelona.

How can open data help small commerce?

Posted on by Comunicació

One of the winning pilot projects has been presented from the urban innovation grant call “The Proactive City: Data x Commerce”. The project should help small commerce use open data for decisions to improve their business and gauge customer behaviour better.

The project has been developed by the Barcelona Open Data Initiative Association, with support from the Sant Andreu Shopping Hub, the Mirall de Pedralbes Retailers’ Association and La Marina Retailers’ Association.

The pilot project allowed for the development of a new wesbite and a new app for interactive viewing of open data, easy to interpret and enabling establishments to analyse the situation and potential impact of action and bridge the digital divide in this sector. The tools will be tested until the end of July in three shopping areas which have supported the project. The final versions will then be presented with a view to rollout in other areas.

  • The mobile app displays data for a specific establishment in comparison with others in the area and generates graphics, basically transforming data into information and knowledge. Individual user areas mean each business can carry out personalised follow-up relating to:
    • their invoicing
    • their customers
    • perception of success
    • other parametres
  • The website features interactive viewing based on open data and providing structured information useful for local commerce. Specifically:
    • data on the economic structure of the neighbourhood
    • data on consumer habits
    • data on population
    • data on social dynamics and associations

The project is one of the winners from the urban innovation grant call ‘The Proactive City’, launched by the City Council and implemented in June by the municipal foundation BIT Habitat. The goal is to find solutions to the new challenges generated or accentuated by the crisis in the spheres of social inclusion, sustainability, urban resilience and the promotion of the local economy.

Got your .barcelona?

Posted on by Comunicació

The .barcelona domain is open to all individuals, organisations, businesses and administrations with links to the city. Domains are now available at a unique price of 15 euros for any new registration, renewal or automatic renewal using one of the registration companies taking part in the special offer.

Anybody interested in a domain should check its availability, make sure it complies with the conditions of use, that there are no negative effects for third parties and that it can support content in any language.

Existing domains can be renewed at any time before the registration period ends, without having to wait until the renewal date. The registration company will give the option of automatic renewal and provide instructions on how to do so.

This promotion expires at 10 am on 31 May.

For any queries, please check the FAQs or contact domini.barcelona.

Why do they call it an address when it’s a domain?

Posted on by Comunicació

When we decide to create a website, whether personal or for business, we need to take various things into account. Just like when we set up a company, we need an office and an address for it. In the language of technology, this has its own concepts. People know them, but it’s always useful to clarify which is which.

Domain

In the comparison with a company, the domain would be the postcode. This is the name of your website, which users must type into their browser when they look for you. It needs to be as clear and as simple as possible, ideally with the name of your company or initiative and a familiar extension which helps identify your business. The extension is what comes after the “dot”. A clear example of an address would be www.latevaempresa.barcelona.

The .barcelona domain accepts a broad list of special characters. What does that mean? It means you can use letters with accents or the ç or the ñ when you create your domain. If your company name contains one of these letters, it’s better to use it so that you can be recognised more easily.

Thinking of a name for your .barcelona domain can be a complex task, which we spoke about in one of our articles. Perhaps it will help you!

Hosting

When we talk about hosting, we’re referring to where all our website information is housed. This would be our office. Once we’ve created the name, we need a space for all our material.

Hosting refers to the server where all our website information is housed, and so we need to choose our provider well. There are plenty of options to choose from and a wide range of prices, but we need to be sure our hosting is secure against internet attacks and that regular back-up copies are made. The information on your website is very valuable. It’s also important to have good technical support in case there’s an issue to resolve, which tends to happen more often than we think!

IP address

All websites have an IP address, but very often we don’t even see it. An IP consists of a set of unique numbers which identify our server. To go back to the comparison with a company, these would be the GPS coordinates to get there. We normally put the street name (domain) into our browser and not the coordinates, which are very complicated to remember. Yet what the browser really identifies is this specific IP.

ICANN70 first annual meeting

Posted on by Comunicació

The ICANN Community Virtual Forum was the first of the three annual meetings organised by the body which regulates the two basic technical infrastructures for the internet: the domains and IP addresses which enable users to find content housed on the internet.

This was the fourth of these meetings to adopt a virtual format, given the impossibility of congregating a large number of representatives from governments, associations and industry.

This first meeting of the year is used for planning the tasks of the various workgroups during the rest of the year. This year will see the groups centre on the development of mechanisms which allow domain owners to be contacted without their privacy being compromised, and on the improvement of efficiency in remote work carried out by the ICANN. The group which was analysing the impact of new internet domains has submitted its report and consideration is now being given on how to open up to new domains.

The meeting covered two subjects in depth which directly affect internet users, particularly in Europe: internet crime using domain names and the new European legal framework on the right to the internet.

Crimes with domain names

Recent years have seen surge in internet crime, particularly cases where domain names are used to deceive users by displaying pages which appear to be official, or where email addresses are used to send fraudulent messages.

Internet registers are a key element in identifying these crimes, and we are working on technical initiatives and regulations which will enable us to offer our users greater security.

New European legal framework

The European Commission has put together a series of new regulations which represent a greater degree of protection for European consumers and internet users. The regulations will establish stricter obligations for all companies operating on the internet, particularly large platforms such as Google and Facebook.

While the regulations are not due to be approved until early in 2023, we are studying them and giving our input to EU representatives to improve the aspects relating to domain name users.

GeoTLD general assembly

The GeoTLD group is an association which represents the interests of geographical, cultural and linguistic domains, of which .barcelona is a member. Its representatives work to give the communities they represent a more prominent role in the internet.

The main goal of the assembly was precisely this new European legal framework for the internet. Our goal as the representative for the .barcelona community with the internet’s governing bodies is to offer the citizens and internet users we represent the chance to express themselves and voice their concerns.

This annual assembly was also used to present the new design of the website geotld.group, which features a collaborative section for news items by all its members. Another highlight was the presentation of a new international promotional video to explain what geographical domains are and the main advantages to them.

Barcelona ReAct: dialogue to reactivate a more competitive and resilient city

Posted on by Comunicació

Over a hundred local, national and international voices come together from 13 to 16 April for Barcelona ReAct, a major event to rethink how to build a more resilient, competitive and sustainable city.

A year after the start of the pandemic, Barcelona ReAct sees the city bring together a wide range of stakeholders representing trends and social movements the city wants to develop ties with and share the economic recovery project of the next few years.

Goals for Barcelona ReAct

The main goal of Barcelona ReAct is to explain the new economic agenda for Barcelona for the next decade, the Barcelona Green Deal. This roadmap sets out the vision for competitive and sustainable economic promotion, including projects such as the future of the 22@, the transformation of the Olympic Port, the urgent and much-needed economic relaunch of the city centre, making it more balanced and resilient, and projects linked to the consolidation of the city’s role as a global capital.

The event will also be used to share the agenda for the economic transformation with the public, with international experts and the main global operators, reaffirming Barcelona as a global city for investment, the development of life projects, professional careers, research and the creation of international talent.

Rethinking the city from all spheres

The meeting entails an exchange of projects and an analysis of the impact and evolution of major sectors in the economic recovery, such as:

  • Technology and innovation
  • New mobility
  • Green economy
  • Digital health and science initiatives
  • Blue economy (sustainable and linked to water and the sea)
  • Industry 4.0
  • Creative industries
  • Visitor economy
  • Smart food revolution

Other cities’ experiences will also be shared with the aim of developing a network of resilient metropolises. Barcelona ReAct will conclude with a manifesto setting out ten key points for reactivating the city, a guide for the city’s economic future.

Voices of reflection

Notable speakers at the event include the sociologist and creator of the concept of the global city, Saskia Sassen; the urban planner and advisor to cities around the world, Greg Clark; the director of the ISE, the world’s largest audio-visual fair, Michael Blackman: the expert in climate action and founding member of Greenpeace, Remi Parmentier; the CEO of EIT Urban Mobility, Maria Tsavachidis, and the UN special envoy for the ocean, Peter Thomson.

Sessions forming part of the programme for Barcelona ReAct adopt a hybrid format (on-site and online), with notable socio-economic and cultural stakeholders participating.

Cyberattacks up during the pandemic

Posted on by Comunicació

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a digital transformation in all spheres: schools found themselves having to conduct classes and all interaction with pupils via internet, while a large number of companies introduced teleworking between their teams and continue to work remotely or combine this with on-site activity at their offices.

But it doesn’t stop there. A study confirms that the creation of new domains in Europe is up by 20% because of the pandemic, an increase most likely stemming from the fact that most businesses have had to undergo a transformation and get online to be able to keep offering customers their products and services.

Yet the digital transformation has its downside too, with cyberattacks mushrooming in 2020 and half of them attributable to the increase in teleworking caused by the pandemic: “Over half of organisations weren’t ready for the digitalisation needed to implement teleworking”, affirms a study by ACCIÓ and the Cybersecurity Agency of Catalonia.

The same study states that “on a global scale estimates put the rate of cyberattacks in 2021 at one every eleven seconds. This figure has risen considerably in recent years: in 2016 the average was 40 seconds”.

One of the most common forms of IT attack is ransomware, with malicious software or a virus encrypting the whole content of a computer and demanding a ransom to decrypt it. Another is phishing, involving the fraudulent supplanting of identity and aimed at businesses and individuals alike: recipients get an email or mobile phone message requesting data or passwords. One of the most common scenarios is where a bank is imitated, with the recipient getting a message asking them to confirm a user ID and password which are then used to access the account.

How to spot internet fraud?

A quick check of the domain the message is trying to direct us to is one way to detect this. With both ransomware and phishing, it’s likely they’re trying to supplant the identity of recognised organisations to either get us to download a virus or to get access to our user data. But one important datum they can’t supplant is the domain of the real organisation.

Carrying on with the bank as an example, imagine you’re contacted by your bank, “Bank Segur”, and you know their website is bancsegur.barcelona. If you get a message from the bank asking you to access a page with the domain bancsegur.xxxxx.barcelona, here’s your clue that this is a fraud. Why? Because in this case the domain is xxxxx.barcelona, and bancsegur.xxxxx.barcelona is a subdomain. In other words, we should always look at what comes just before .barcelona (or .cat, .com, .es etc.).

If you’re still unsure, the best thing to do is not to reply to the message and to contact the organisation another way, via their customer service phone line, social media or the email address on the website you usually use.