The GeoTLD Group’s annual meeting was held in Cologne on 11 and 12 September. The meeting was also attended by the.cat, .bzh, .paris, .amsterdam, .nl, .eus, .gal, .wien, .hamburg, .berlin, .denic, .fsl and .alsace domains, to name a few, as well as the main registrars.
The meeting was organised by ECO.de, a German association representing several digital organisations and enterprises, to ensure a sustainable, responsible and safe digital transformation.
Roger Serra and Beatriz Guzmán, from the .cat Foundation, an Enterprise in charge of managing the .barcelona domain, was commissioned with sharing the main initiatives planned for the city’s domain. An opportunity to present the Elmeuclubesportiu.barcelona project to other city domains and invite them to create local-digitalisation projects.
Common strategies were also established during the GeoTLD meetring, on issues such as the NIS2 Directive and co-marketing, allowing us to discover experiences of other city domains which could be used as an inspiration for new initiatives for the .barcelona domain.
Category: News
La Mercè, festival of festivals
La Mercè 2023 is being held from 22 to 25 September and will once again see popular culture, street arts and music in all its forms take centre stage. The four-day festival brings hundreds of free activities for all types of audiences, all around the city. The writer Najat El Hachmi will be giving the opening speech on Friday, 22 September, at 7 pm, signalling the start of a festival which has Kyiv as this year’s guest city.
The full programme for La Mercè 2023 can be found on the website lamerce.barcelona. Here is a summary of some of the highlights:
Popular culture
The festival’s traditional side will play an important part again this year, with parading giants, traditional processions, early morning gralla pipers and stick dances, sardana dancing, tabalada drumming and havanera singing. Once the opening speech concludes, the Ministrils del Camí Ral figures will be kicking off the fun with the opening ceremony, or Toc d’Inici, where there will be a presentation of Olga and Volodímir, the giants tha Kyiv is gifting to Barcelona and which represent their prince saints. Highlights in the programme of popular culture activities include human towers displays on Saturday and Sunday in the morning, the fire festival, with a children’s fire run and the opening of Hell’s gate on Saturday evening, plus the music and fireworks spectacular which marks the 30 anniversary of the Sònar festival on the night of Monday 25 September.
Besides the activities in Pl. Sant Jaume and Passeig de Gràcia, the other main stages for popular culture during La Mercè 2023 will be Av. Catedral, with the traditional Cors de Clavé choral concert (Monday 25); El Born CCM, with an exhibition of dragon and fire beast figures; Pl. Mercè and the Basilica de la Mercè, with a concert by the Cobla Sant Jordi – Ciutat de Barcelona; La Rambla and the streets of Ciutat Vella, with the giant parade known as the Xambanga, and the Palau de la Virreina, with an exhibition of giant figures.
Mercè Arts de Carrer
The MAC street arts festival offers 61 shows this year, with over 300 functions providing a varied array of the best acts in circus, urban dance, theatre humour and more. The epicentre for this year’s MAC will be the Parc de l’Estació del Nord, offering an ongoing programme all through the day at the different stages. Another new space is the Oasi MAC, set out in the pedestrian area of Consell de Cent, where artists will look for pedestrians to offer them their creations in the street.
The other usual spaces being used again for this edition are the Palauet Albéniz, Montjuïc Castle, with the traditional selection of circus shows, the Parc de l’Aqúeducte, with a clowning programme from Pallassos Sense Fronteres, and the Parc de Joan Miró, for young children and with activities conceived specially for people with autistic spectrum disorders.
La Mercè is also joining in with the commemorations for Picasso Year, marking 50 years since the artist died. The Comparsa Visca Picasso returns, consisting of a set of eight figures that represent well-known elements of the painter’s artistic career, and there’s also a recreation of the house in Plaça de la Mercè where the artist lived for nine years.
Music for all tastes
Over a hundred artists and groups will be filling the city with music of all styles through the programme for the BAM, Acció Cultura Viva and Música Mercè. The best music on the local, national and international scenes will be performing at sixteen different public stages, with free admission. Besides the return of iconic spaces such as the Teatre Grec, Rambla del Raval, Jardins del Doctor Pla i Armengol and Av. Catedral, other spaces will be back and include the stages at the Bogatell beach, the Moll de la Fusta wharf, the Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm, Plaça Major de Nou Barris and the Nau Bostik, as well as new venues such as Pl. Can Fabra, Passeig dels Til·lers and the stage in C/ Menéndez y Pelayo. The classic stage in Plaça Reial also makes a return, marking the 30th anniversary of the BAM. Artists and groups taking to the stage for La Mercè include ZOO, Ginestà, Vicco and many more.
Local talent currently breaking out will be well represented at La Mercè 2023, with artists from the city’s higher music schools and new music projects such as the Sona 9 and the Brot. Música Mercè will be presenting fifty varied and festive acts, with something for everybody in a parity programme combining local artists, such as Rumba All Stars, Anna Colom with Ángeles Toledano and Marina Herlop, along with others from as many as eleven countries, including Pongo (Angola), Ile (Puerto Rico) and Bala Desejo (Brazil), plus the show Mil veus per a Víctor Jara, a concert marking fifty years since the coup in Chile and combining texts with songs performed by young Catalan and Chilean artists.
Symphonic music will be back to transform Pl. Major in Nou Barris into a large auditorium, offering the chance to enjoy music from the Barcelona Municipal band and Symphony Orchestra and the choir from the Gran Tearte del Liceu, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia and Vozes, the project for children’s and young people’s choirs and symphony orchestras for integration and social cohesion. This year’s programme includes longer hours on Sunday and Monday to present two new concerts when it’s time for that aperitif before lunch, with Latin American music. All stages in the Música Mercè programme feature some Ukrainian acts, with artists such as DakhaBrakha, Maryana Klochko, Daria Kolomiec, Poly Chain and Alyona Alyona.
Barcelona Acció Música reaches its 30th edition this year, presenting the current alternative music scene with 55 artists and 4 stages and notable acts including the likes of Baiuca, Mushkaa, EU.CLIDES, The Notwist, Remei de Ca la Fresca and Queen Asher & Rehema Tajiri. For its part, the Acció Cultura Viva sector turns seven with a programme based on an open call which attracted over 600 projects. For three days there will also be a space with participatory activities and workshops, a discussion about models for music festivals, the Independent Disc Fair, various food spaces, radio programmes and much more.
Kyiv as the guest city for La Mercè 2023
Ukrainian culture plays a significant part in the programme for La Mercè 2023. The Kyiv Academic Theater of Ukrainian Folklore Berehyni will be performing traditional Ukrainian dances for the Mercè Arts de Carrer, and also at midday on the final day of festivities in Pl. Sant Jaume. Elsewhere, the Parc de l’Estació del Nord will be exhibiting works by the Ukrainian artist Maria Primatxenko (1909-1997) and the most contemporary and feminist scene will be represented by Alina Sokuslka and Apache Crew. Maryana Klochko, the quartet DakhaBrakha and many other artists from Ukraine will combine with Ukrainian artists living in Barcelona, performing at the Ucraïna Fest at the Palauet Albéniz.
Another example of Ukrainian creativity is the film and video fair at the former building of the Editorial Gustavo Gil on the last two days of the festival, a collaborative initiative between La Mercè and the teams from the biennial art event Manifesta 15, which is being held in Barcelona next year.
Themed spaces
One of the festival’s traditional venues, the Parc de la Ciutadella, will once again be hosting activities this year. One is the Terra i Gust fair, a well-established sustainable food event combining gastronomy with the concert programme. The park will also be hosting Associa’t, a community event where city associations offer a programme brimming with popular culture, play-based activities, games and participatory workshops for people of all ages. This year’s Associa’t is being held in various spaces, with over fifty activities in the Parc de la Ciutadella on 23 and 24 September and music shows in Av. Catedral during the morning of 25 September.
New edition of Bizbarcelona
A new edition of Bizbarcelona is being held at the trade fair site in Montjuïc on 4 and 5 October. The event offers over 120 activities relating to the digital transformation, sustainability and business projects.
The fair will be placing special emphasis on the self-employed, local commerce, SMEs and micro companies, who will find tools, knowledge and resources for improving the competitiveness of their businesses, getting up to date and facing new challenges.
The fair gives visibility to the resources, programmes and support offered by various organisations working to strengthen businesses and the local business network.
The main new aspect of the fair is a village, where organisations, businesses and professionals will be exhibiting products and services for local SMEs.
You’ll find us at the Barcelona Activa stand, where we’ll be offering promotional material and two talks:
- 4 October, from 1.30 pm to 1.45 pm
- 5 October, from 3 pm to 3.15 pm
Ideas, tools and resources
The congress section of Bizbarcelona will be presenting successful solutions and cases offering inspiration and providing practical everyday management advice to respond to three main challenges: the digital transformation, sustainability and the identification and strengthening of business projects.
There’s also a larger range of practical workshops for developing new skills and acquiring knowledge to bring businesses up to date, strengthen and improve their performance and make them more competitive and profitable. The personalised advice section also allows visitors to address specific queries and request specialist advice from over fifty experts in different spheres of business.
Admission to Bizbarcelona is free, with online registration on the event website.
Bizbarcelona will once again be held on the same dates as the Employment Fair (Saló de l’Ocupació), which offers specific spaces and activities for orientation, job-search preparation and the identification of openings, career changes and new working opportunities. Over 12,000 people visited these two events last year.
“We want to reduce the digital divide in the city’s sports sector”
We spoke about the project elmeuclubesportiu.barcelona with Verònica Sanz, a leading figure in the .barcelona domain from Barcelona City Council, and Manuela Becerra, country manager for Nominalia.
Elmeuclubesportiu.barcelona is a digitalisation project to provide professional websites for sports organisations and clubs in the city which still haven’t got a website or have one which is obsolete.
“At the .barcelona domain we reinvest part of the profits in social impact projects with the goal of digitalising specific sectors in the city where we know there is a digital divide”, notes Verònica Sanz.
So far the focus has been on local commerce with the project elmeucomerç.barcelona, which offered a fast and free process for small shops and businesses to get a professional website with a .barcelona domain.
This project is possible thanks to the collaboration of the domain registration company Nominalia. Their country manager, Manuela Becessa, explains that: “Helping others go digital is in our DNA, it’s what we try to do every day. But it’s very important to work with the City Council, which has the possibility of reaching sectors that by themselves might not ever contact a registration company to register a domain”.
The application period for sports clubs and organizations without a website to take part in the project elmeuclubesportiu.barcelona and get a professional website with a .barcelona domain ends on 31 December 2023.
More information on this project can be found on the information page.
How did local domains come about?
A few weeks back, the domains of .barcelona, .cat, .gal and .eus had a meeting with our registration companies to explain our projects to them, but also to exchange opinions and experiences and develop a closer relationship with them.
All four domains form part of the geoTLD.group. an international non-profit association representing the interests of top-level geographical domains that identify a city, a region, a language or a culture.
The .cat domain appeared in 2005 and was the first domain in the world to represent a language or a culture. Its appearance was possible thanks to a successful campaign and mobilisation which strengthened the Catalan-speaking civil society. Since then, the domain has been managed by the Fundació .cat and its regulations explain that its use is for websites with content in Catalan, regardless of whether they contain content in other languages or not.
The creation of the .cat domain provided the model for the approval of the .eus domain in 2008, representing Basque language and culture. This domain is managed by the PuntuEus foundation.
Five years later, in 2013, the ICANN approved a new domain representing one of the languages and cultures in the Spanish state. In this case, .gal is the domain for Galician language and culture and is managed by PuntoGal.
The .barcelona domain came into service in 2016 and was the first city domain in the Spanish state, managed by Barcelona City Council. Nearly four thousand domains were registered when it was launched, and now any individual, company or organisation identifying with the city’s values can register.
Besides identifying users with a local or linguistic community, all of these domains are managed by organisations which devote part of their income to projects that promote digitalisation in their regions.
17 July: World Emoji Day
World Emoji Day is an annual celebration held on 17 July, reminding us of the importance and impact of these little icons that have changed the way we communicate. Since they were created, emojis have become an integral part of our digital communication, enabling us to express emotions, ideas and reactions in a visual and universal way.
The first emoji was created at the start of the 90s by the Japanese programmer Shigetaka Kurita. The first set of 176 emojis, designed for messaging purposes by the company NTT DoCoMo, included elements such as emoticons, images of animals, foods, objects and other visual symbols. Since then, emojis have evolved and grown, with an ever broader and more diverse range of graphic representations.
There are currently thousands of emojis available, covering a wide variety of topics, such as emotions, activities, animals, foods, places, objects and much more. They are used on a global scale and have become a shared visual language that goes beyond linguistic and cultural barriers.
Here are some tips on using emojis when you communicate:
· Contextualisation: Make sure the emoji you choose relates to the message you want to convey. Use the emoji to highlight or strengthen the meaning of your words.
· Avoid excessive use: Use emojis in moderation. Using too many or overloading your message with them can make it difficult to understand. Choose the most relevant and significant emojis to communicate your point of view.
· Universal meaning: Bear in mind that emojis can be interpreted differently depending on culture and context. To avoid misunderstandings, make sure you know the common meaning of an emoji before using it.
· Experiment: Don’t be afraid to explore new emojis and use them to express yourself. Creative use of emojis can add a fun and exciting dimension to your digital conversations.
Have a good World Emoji Day! 😉 🎉
Meeting between .barcelona, .cat, .gal, .eus and registration companies in Barcelona
The domains of .barcelona, .cat, .gal and .eus shared our plans and outlook with registration companies in a working session on 8 June, explaining our future projects, forecasts for the evolution of the market and internet trends.
The session began with a round table with Josep Maria Ganyet and Marc Argemí, moderated by Albert Cuesta, about the impact of artificial intelligence for the use of the internet and its influence on the domains market, as well as its relevance for online security and identity.
In the second part of the meeting, the domains explained our current projects, as well as the action planned for the coming months and our outlook moving forward.
The meeting provided an opportunity to share the attributes of the .barcelona domain, at the service of companies, organisations and individuals with established links to the city or looking to associate their project with the city’s values. We were also able to introduce registration companies to the projects being carried out by .barcelona to reduce the digital divide.
Sessions such as this one help us to share experiences and opinions, enabling us to work together with other domains and registration companies to improve user experience.
WordCamp: connecting with the WordPress community
WordCamp Barcelona, the event bringing together professionals and fans of WordPress – the most widely used open-source content management platform in the world–, was held in the city on 5 and 6 May. The team from the .barcelona domain had the chance to take part, connecting the WordPress community with our city.
We had plenty of visitors to our stand in the exhibition space at the fair, where we were able to share detailed information on the singularities and unique advantages of the .barcelona domain and resolve doubts on how to register a .barcelona domain, personalise it and take advantage of it to increase the online visibility of projects linked to the city.
We also spoke to various .barcelona users, who highlighted how a domain linked to the city has helped them to position their business or organisation on the internet. Among those attending, we met the team from Web Empresa, who talked to us about the solidarity project glaucomacongenito-luah.barcelona to help Luah, a girl with a degenerative visual illness who has had an operation in the city.
We also had the chance to attend various talks and sessions where digital marketing experts and local web developers shared their experiences, offering the chance to get to know the local WordPress community close-up.
Taking part in WordCamp Barcelona was a great opportunity to get to know the local WordPress community and connect individuals and companies with the digital identity and values of Barcelona. See you at the next WordCamp!
.barcelona to take part in the upcoming WordCamp Barcelona
WordCamp Barcelona is back on 5 and 6 May after nearly five years. The event focuses on WordPress, which turns twenty as the most widely used open-source content management system in the world.
WordCamp Barcelona is organised for members of the various active WordPress communities in Catalonia and we will be there with the .barcelona domain.
The event is divided into two parts. Community Day is being held in the auditorium at the Cotxeres de Sants community centre on Friday, 5 May, while a day of talks is being held at the Ciutadella Campus of the UPF on Saturday, 6 May.The event offers the chance to meet other professionals and members of the WordPress community and attend talks, lectures and workshops on a wide array of topics for users of all levels. More information and tickets here.
The .barcelona domain connects with the city’s digital sector
We had the chance to take part in the E-Show Barcelona on 7 and 8 March, one of the biggest and most important fairs for the digital and tech sector, held every year in the city. We were there with the .barcelona domain and the registration company DonDominio, the perfect occasion for us to advise visitors on registering domains for their businesses.
At the E-Show we were able to connect with other professionals and companies in this sector, discover new trends and innovation and present the .barcelona domain to visitors at the fair. It was an enriching and exciting experience, where we had the chance to share ideas and exchange knowledge with experts in this sector.
Various companies and entrepreneurs in the city took advantage of the presence of the .barcelona domain at the E-Show to ask for advice and register their domain. All of them pointed to the importance of linking their activity with the city, in terms of sharing values and the importance of having a domain that puts them on the map. In this respect, we identified plenty of interest in the domain from international professionals active in the city.
It was a unique opportunity for us to demonstrate our commitment to the city’s digital and tech sector and the development of innovative products. In short, our participation at the E-Show Barcelona was a very positive and enriching experience which allowed us to connect with other professionals in this sector, discover new trends and innovation and introduce the .barcelona domain to a broader audience.