CLF for the Internet - Official Languages

Rationale

Just as most government telephone numbers across the country are easily recognized by the '9' at the front of the NNX prefix, this initiative to adopt a domain name convention seeks to establish a similar identifier for GoC on the Internet. Domain names are vital to end-users for two reasons. First, the domain name is the specific reference to an individual site. If they know the exact domain name, users can effectively 'direct dial' to the information and services they want. Second, as the domain name appears in both Web addresses and in E-mail addresses, it increases user awareness that individuals they contact via e-mail are representatives of a GoC institution. In addition to acting as gateways to information and services and public service employees, Web sites and E-mail addresses are common elements of marketing, promotional and information materials. A common domain name convention will further enhance federal identity, presence and visibility. Bringing all GoC sites into a single domain will improve public recognition and make it easier for individuals to remember domain names they use on a regular basis. The standardization will also increase their chances of finding a site they have not previously visited. Informal surveys suggest Canadians are beginning to associate the gc.ca domain with the GoC.

At present, GoC institutions apply a wide range of approaches to indicating their identity within the gc.ca domain name: bilingual hyphenated acronyms, unilingual acronyms, selected keyword(s) from a title, truncated keyword, etc. While no solution is likely to meet the needs of all GoC institutions and provide an intuitive, memorable way for Canadians to locate individual sites in the language of their choice, there is a need for greater consistency in institution identification. The following options are available, all of which have been developed to meet the Official Languages Act requirements.

This Standard also has Navigation and Format implications.

Interpretation

If option (b) is adopted, the order of the two official languages is dictated by the location of the office providing the service through the site in question, i.e., English on the left for offices located outside of Quebec and French on the left for offices located inside Quebec. An example would be hrdc-drhc.gc.ca for offices located outside of Quebec and drhc-hrdc.gc.ca for offices located inside Quebec.

• Institutions may also register equivalent unilingual English and French versions of a name, or the acronym thereof, to be used as an alias as a means to facilitate faster access by the public to their sites when they are undertaking a promotional initiative for a given program.  These short forms could be used within announcements published in English and French magazines or on English and French television, or on the cover of equivalent unilingual versions in English and French of government brochures or appearing in alternation on the two sides of a bilingual brochure.

See following examples that illustrate the above principles.

For publications:

• See example below left to illustrate the English cover of a bilingual brochure: www.cfc.gc.ca
• See example below right to illustrate the French cover of a bilingual brochure: www.ccaf.gc.ca

English cover		French cover

• These unilingual versions of the domain name must be treated as short forms of the domain name for use within the context described above.  They would be of interest particularly to an institution whose hyphenated bilingual domain name contains several letters and the possibility of using the short forms in the contexts noted above will contribute to eliciting a better response by the public to a given initiative. They must, when either is selected by the user, lead back to the Welcome page, where the domain name will appear as in option (b).

• Should an institution wish to use the hyphenated bilingual version instead of the short form, the order conventions for the two official languages together would then have to be respected on the two sides of a brochure and in unilingual media.

• The unilingual English and French versions of the domain name may also be used on corresponding English and French content pages of the site, see below:

English content page		French content page

If geographic names are included as part of the domain name, the following principles apply:

• In the case of locations outside Canada, if a geographic name has different versions in English and French usage, both of these versions should be used (e.g. london-londres).
• In some cases, the English and French versions are identical (e.g. hongkong).
• In other cases, the name used is the same as the one within the country where the place in question is located and there is no established version in English or French.
• If Canadian place names need to be used, their use must conform to the principles of the Geographical Names Board of Canada (formerly known as the Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names), see http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca.

Vanity names as domain names

Many departments are registering so-called vanity or program specific names as sub-domains of gc.ca. These programs are often multi-departmental in nature and do not bear any FIP identity. For example, KidsCanSave.gc.ca, CanadaSavingsBonds.gc.ca, ConnectingCanadians.gc.ca. These are subject to the same rules described above under options (a) and (b) of Standard 7.1.

7.1 Best Practices

• URLs (August 2002)
• Domain Names (July 2000)

URLs (August 2002)

Another important issue related to CLF Standard 7.1 is the naming of folders and files that appear in URLs, and the language of the querystrings that may appear in URLs that are dynamically generated by such applications as ASP (Active Server Pages), e.g. http://www.goc-gdc.gc.ca/govscripts/docs/wn-qn_f.asp?who-qui=/abc-cba/forum/.

According to CLF Standard 7.1, the domain name portion of the URL, e.g. everything to the left of gc.ca, must be bilingual to comply with CLF Standard 7.1.

As a best practice, the names of folders and files, e.g. /govscripts/docs/wn-qn_f.asp, that appear in the full path should also comply with CLF Standard 7.1. This could be achieved in several ways such as naming with both official languages (links-liens), acronyms (faq_f.htm), one word spelled the same in both official languages (documents_e.htm), numbers (123_f.htm), alpha characters (abc_e.htm), etc.

It is acknowledged that the query language portion seen in some URL paths that are dynamically generated would require significant programming effort to comply with CLF Standard 7.1 but where it is feasible, this portion should also be bilingual (e.g. who-qui=/abc-cba/forum/), or should use parameter / value pairs that are not unilingual dictionary words (e.g. w=/abc-cba/forum and lang=fr).

Domain Names (July 2000)

The character string .ca is a top level domain name, and gc.ca is a sub-domain or "child" of the "parent" .ca. A name placed before the gc.ca references a sub-domain of the domain gc.ca. A "/name" after the dept.gc.ca references a directory within that domain. For example, canada.justice.gc.ca is a departmental domain name. justice.gc.ca/publications references the directory "publications" within the justice.gc.ca domain.

The network architecture selected by the department will dictate the format of specific sub-domain names and directories.

If a department advertises a host name or sub-domain within their domain for Web purposes, they must also show it as a bilingual name or acronym. For example, abc-eac.inac-ainc.gc.ca illustrates the bilingual acronym for the Aboriginal Canada sub-domain under the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada domain.

GTIS/PWGSC is responsible for registering all GoC sub-domain names under gc.ca but it does not register subdomains within a department. They are the responsibility of the department that has authority over its own departmental domain.

You can register on-line at http://registry.srv.gc.ca for a Domain Name under the gc.ca root, update an existing registered domain name (e.g., change contact information) and check the status of a new application, (e.g., received, pending approval, approved). This service is provided by the GoC DNS registry at GTIS/PWGSC.

GTIS/PWGSC also maintains a repository of institutional domain names registered under .ca, .com, .net and .org at http://registry.srv.gc.ca for your reference.