ICANN negotiating with .cat?

[AdoptableDomains]

I'm surprised to see that ICANN is actually negotiating with the proposers of the .cat sTLD, along with .post and .mobi. I had little doubt that .post would be approved being backed by the worlds post offices, or .mobi (dumb extension) being backed the the major wireless providers. However, I really thought the .cat was the most off-the-wall and least likely to be noticed extention proposed.

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-08apr05.htm

As the process for selecting new sponsored Top Level Domain (sTLDs) continues from a pool of ten applications, ICANN has already entered into commercial and technical negotiations with the following additional candidate registries, .CAT, .POST & .MOBI. Discussions continue among ICANN Board and Staff regarding the evaluation of five additional proposed sponsored Top Level Domains (sTLDs): .ASIA, .MAIL, .TEL, .TEL, & .XXX.

I had never even heard of a "Catalan Linguistic and Cultural Community" before. Could there really be a shortage of Catalan language domains in the .com and .net TLD space?

I'm beginning to think all of the proposed sTLD's will be approved it they are actually negotiating with this one.

 

[armstrong]

I agree - its really odd that .cat would be seriously considered, as there aren't a lot of sites dedicated to it, certainly not in the same scale as travel or mobile comm, nor that of any other major language.

Even the concept of Catalan as a linguistic solution is off-the-wall. To solve the problem of lingusitic difference, they created an artificial language which EVERYONE will need to learn. With the global reach of the internet, English has become the default international language, for both personal and business communication, rendering the purpose of Catalan obsolete.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

...and I'm assuming as a sTLD,I won't be able to register tom.cat or calico.cat either. :D

It would be better to save that TLD for CATalog, in my opinion. I predict it will be a CATatonic domain if approved.

 

[armstrong]

Maybe they could go the way of .pro, and exploit a contractual loophole to start marketing .cat as a mail-order/catalog namespace for manufacturers and retailers to sell their wares. As such, IMO it would stand some chance of success. Maybe that's the real plan, eh? Catalan would just be an excuse.

 

[viciouscircle]

ill save my money for .xxx

 

[zaros64]

ill stick with the main ones eh.. I don't see much value in them stupid extensions

 

[Werpon]

Catalan is not an artificial language; it's an old language, which is spoken in Catalonia, a Spanish region; it derived from Latin and has many things in common with Spanish and French. The whole .cat thing comes from the fact that some of them want to be independent from Spain and since they won't be assigned an ISO country code, this a way of claiming a "de facto" independence.

 

[octobus]

LOL! You guys are mixing Catalan with Esperanto. The language has +7 million speakers in the region around Barcelona, it's the official language in the tiny nation of Andorra and its also spoken in the Balearic Islands as well. Despite of this strong base, the language has no offficial status in the EU. Although there are many national languages with alot less users ( e.g Maltese - few 100 000s or Estonian - about 1 million).

 

[armstrong]

Catalan is not an artificial language; it's an old language, which is spoken in Catalonia, a Spanish region; it derived from Latin and has many things in common with Spanish and French. The whole .cat thing comes from the fact that some of them want to be independent from Spain and since they won't be assigned an ISO country code, this a way of claiming a "de facto" independence.

:red: you got me, guys - my apologies. Esperanto != Catalan! I guess I'll never forget either ever again. :red:

 

[GJ]

I don't think .cat sounds right, .co.uk and .com sound the best to me.