Web Campaigns Boost, 03-07-2008 (A-EL)

Penygroes, Thursday, 03 July 2008 by Huw Jones

The possibility of seeing the letters '.cym', '.bzh' and '.gal' on Welsh, Breton and Galician websites has been discussed recently in a conference organised by ICANN - the international body that regulates the world wide web.

Campaigns have been underway in several linguistic communities for the right to use their own letters and are boosted by the considerable demand for more letters such as '.sport', '.ny '(New York) and '.xxx' (for pornography) from various businesses around the world.  UNESCO have also made calls for lesser used languages to be developed on the web.

The letters '.cat' are already used on over 24,000 sites and millions of web pages since the Catalans won the right for its use on sites in their own language two years ago. The puntCat organisation was one of the sponsors of the ICANN conference and one of its leaders, Amadeu Abril, has made strenuous efforts to support the campaigns in other smaller countries.

The ICANN conference, held in Paris, decided that more time was required to consider as there are also applications to use Chinese and Arabic scripts in addresses. The next ICANN conference will be held in Mexico early next year and it is possible that new applications will be invited then.

The campaigns in Brittany, Galiza and Wales have all succeeded, not only in gaining considerable support, but also in their aims of being non-party political and inclusive. All three have avoided the controversy which often occurs when countries who do not have their own state attempt to gain forms of independent status.

Nearly 17,000 signatures have been collected by the Breton '.bzh' campaign and Nicolas Sarkozy has come out in favour. Whilst in Galiza the Partido Popular (The Spanish Conservative Party) have lent their support to '.gal'. Although the campaigns have been voluntary the applications will not succeed if there is opposition from governments.

According to Sion Jobbins of the Welsh dotCym campaign, "It is possible that the door will open in three to six months. There is much work to do in preparing the application, including negotiations with companies that will be responsible for the technology." (Eurolang 2008)

Catalunya: www.puntcat.cat
Brittany: www.pointbzh.com
Wales: www.dot cym.org
Galiza: www.puntogal.org
International Internet Organisation: www.icann.org

Boarne: Eurolang (dig.), 03-07-2008

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