All the tools to live digitally in Catalan

BarcelonaWe urgently need to edit a PDF and we open our phone's app store. We want to plan a vacation route and we search our browser for "best map apps." We need to organize a get-together with old school friends and we download the first app we find, without even looking to see if it's in Catalan. Everyday situations that illustrate a paradox of our time: while we demand to be able to live fully in Catalan, when it comes to digital tools we often accept any language and settle for closed platforms that limit our autonomy.

The new Galaxia catalog, promoted by Accent Obert (formerly Fundació.cat) and Softcatalà (the volunteer group recently awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi for its work promoting Catalan in ICTs), is here to remedy these two common mistakes. It is an open and living repository of digital tools in Catalan that aims to enable digital life in our language in all areas, from personal to professional.

A growing universe of 250 tools

The catalogue, which the ARA has been able to see for the first time although it will be open to the public (at the address https://galaxia.cat) next Thursday, is born with almost 250 tools from the category; education; from SVG images from Wikimedia.

The goal is for the constellation to grow with community contributions. operating at the behest of half a dozen white men, who we don't even like," Josep Maria Ganyet, head of the Galaxia project as an ambassador for Accent Obert, explains to ARA. In this sense, Galaxia functions like the Yahoo! of its early days: a content catalog supervised by humans. ~BK_SLT_L~

Not all tools available in Catalan have a place in Galaxia. The project has adopted the so-called "galactic criteria," six requirements that guarantee the quality of the catalog. The main one is full availability in Catalan: the tool must be functional and understandable in our language, although the presence of other languages is not excluded.

The second criterion, the most admirable for its promoting the open web, is the preference for web applications over those specific to certain operating systems. This facilitates access to digital tools in Catalan from any device and without the need to install anything.

The third is respect for privacy. Galaxia is committed to an ethical and secure digital environment and therefore values tools that respect user privacy, minimizing unnecessary tracking. The fourth criterion is quality: tools that meet quality standards are prioritized, regardless of their popularity.

Free access is the fifth criterion. Tools that offer a free option are positively valued. freemium, although paid tools are not rejected if they offer a free version or basic features. Finally, tools with regular maintenance and updates are preferred.

Beyond the catalog

The catalog includes both local creations and services with a global reach that meet the aforementioned galactic criteria. We find everything from ChatGPT, Spotify, Telegram, and Google Docs to tools created here that have reached global reach, such as the route planner Wikiloc and the document editor ILovePDF.

Each tool's file contains a functional description, screenshots, the service's access link, and links to its social media profiles. Similar tools from the catalog are also displayed, along with the creator's other tools: Google—which has always focused on web applications—has 17 titles, Microsoft 6, Softcatalà 7, and Accent Obert 5.

To facilitate discovery, Galaxia also offers thematic collections. These collections are created with editorial criteria, similar to what Filmin does in the video-on-demand sector in response to the indiscriminate flood of content, for example, from Netflix. There are currently four active collections: Learn Catalan; Routes and trips; for boys and girls; and, of course, artificial intelligence (AI).

Infrastructure for developers here

Galaxia is not just a catalog. It also aims to be an infrastructure—"a hinge," says Ganyet—that connects local talent with market needs. The project aims to promote university creations, for example, as a reference for final degree projects or hackathonsIn this sense, Galaxia can help companies identify services of interest that don't exist and, once created, promote them. It can also help independent service developers reach their market.

Democratizing digital creation

The joint project between Accent Obert and Softcatalà isn't content with cataloging existing tools. It also aims to democratize the creation of digital tools in Catalan.

"If you're missing a digital tool in Catalan, now you can make it a reality," the promoters assure. The concept of "developer" has expanded to include other profiles, apart from those who are dedicated professionally. To demonstrate this, as a presentation of Galaxia, they have organized a practical workshop, "From Idea to Prototype in Catalan (without Code)", with the aim of enabling anyone to, based on their own idea or need, create a functional prototype in Catalan without programming knowledge, with the support of Galaxia's own tools and AI.

Collective response

In a context of digital saturation in English and the dominance of global platforms, Galaxia represents a proactive response. It's not about waiting for solutions to arrive from elsewhere, but about taking action by creating a common and open infrastructure to make living digitally in Catalan possible.

The project is a resource open to everyone: teachers, activists, creators, technicians, students... with a call to add new tools, use existing ones, and share knowledge. Galaxia aims to be the catalyst for an environment of tools in Catalan that facilitates the presence and digital use of our language in all possible areas of personal and professional life.