20 Years of .cat: A Look Toward 2046

Last September 9, the Maritime Museum of Barcelona hosted the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the .cat domain: two decades of history for a domain linked to the Catalan language and culture that today has become a natural part of our digital landscape.

The .cat domain has surpassed 118,000 registrations after two decades as a domain associated with the Catalan language and culture. This figure reflects how, over these 20 years, having a website in Catalan and using a .cat domain has become something normal, everyday and practically natural.

The celebration began with music by Suu, who delighted the audience with a song at the opening of the event and returned to perform at the end, providing the musical finishing touch to the day.

Next, poet Josep Pedrals opened the event with a speech reflecting on these 20 years of .cat, offering his own perspective on the language, the domain and everything that has been built over these two decades.

This was followed by contributions from different voices who took part in a discussion about the present and future of Catalan in the digital environment.

Teresa Cabré, from the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, brought the perspective of language, knowledge and linguistic evolution.

Elena Fort, from FC Barcelona, addressed the social and global dimension that a language can achieve through major institutions and communities.

Núria Ribas, from Amical Wikimedia, spoke about open knowledge and the importance of creating and sharing content in Catalan.

And Rosa Romà, from 3Cat, brought the perspective of the world of communication and the media, at a time when the way we access information and consume content is undergoing profound change.

Finally, Francesc Xavier Vila, Minister for Language Policy, spoke about the importance of ensuring the presence and future of Catalan in every area of our society, including, naturally, the digital world.

What will .cat look like in 2046?

After hearing these different perspectives, it was inevitable to look ahead and ask ourselves a question:

What will .cat be like in another 20 years?

Today, it seems completely normal to find websites in Catalan using a .cat domain. There are institutional, educational, cultural, business and personal websites that use the domain to promote, preserve and help the Catalan language grow on the Internet.

But .cat can also have more creative and everyday uses. One example is educadordegats.cat, where the term “cat” also plays on its meaning in English: cat.

This sense of normality is, in itself, one of the great achievements of these 20 years.

The challenge now is a different one.

The future will be shaped by artificial intelligence and algorithms

One of the major concerns for the future also emerged during the event: artificial intelligence.

Catalan may have thousands of websites and an active community, but that does not guarantee that algorithms and new AI tools will give it the same visibility as other languages.

Algorithms do not always direct us towards content in Catalan. And in a future where more and more people will access information through artificial intelligence assistants, search engines and recommendation systems, it will be essential for our language to be present in these new spaces.

The need to build a more mature digital society was also highlighted.

We live at a time when we receive an enormous amount of information and, especially among younger generations, what we consume is not always sufficiently checked or cross-referenced.

What will happen when an increasing proportion of that information is also generated by artificial intelligence?

The ability to cross-check, verify and understand information will probably be one of the most important skills in the society of the future.

That is why talking about .cat in 2046 is not simply about talking about a domain.

It is about language, technology, knowledge, education, culture and community.

The future of Catalan on the Internet will depend on our continuing to create content, generate knowledge and use our language in new digital spaces.

It will also depend on Catalan being present in the data that feeds artificial intelligence, in algorithms and in the platforms that determine what information we see.

Twenty years ago, the challenge was to create a space of its own for Catalan on the Internet.

Today, that space exists.

The challenge now is to ensure that this space remains visible and relevant on the Internet of 2046.

20 years to celebrate. 20 years to keep building.

At the end of the event, a more informal space was opened up to share impressions and encourage attendees to connect with one another. It was an opportunity to meet, talk, exchange ideas and create new connections between people linked to language, culture and the digital world.

The day ended with a beer toast and a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere, allowing the celebration to close not only by looking back at 20 years of .cat history, but also by sharing the ideas and challenges that will shape its future.

Because behind a domain there is much more than technology.

There are people, projects, knowledge and, above all, a community that uses a language and wants it to remain alive in the digital world as well.

20 years of .cat.

20 years of making normal what, two decades ago, seemed extraordinary.

And now, looking ahead to 2046, the challenge is extraordinary once again:

to ensure that Catalan continues to have a voice, a presence and a future on the Internet.

The future is not something we wait for.

It is something we build.

And .cat has been building it with us for 20 years.