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The most beautiful Lithuanian domain name was presented in Biržai

The winner of the most beautiful Lithuanian domain name 2020 – the holder of the domain sukįkaimą.lt – Association “Suk į Kaimą” – was honoured in Biržai. The website presents the rural businesses of Biržai, Pasvalys and Rokiškis regions, helps to find the required services or products provided by the local farmers and craftsmen.

The quarantine prompted businesses to move online

The Mayor of Biržai Vytas Jareckas participated in the event to honour the competition winners. According to him, an online catalogue of rural businesses at sukįkaimą.lt could be useful for the presentation of the routes of regional tourism.

While speaking about the opportunities provided by the internet, the mayor notes that the creation of a high-quality website or e-shop requires knowledge and competence.

“Our regional small entrepreneurs lack knowledge on creation and development of e-shops and websites. However, some successful entrepreneurs of Biržai District use the internet for the presentation and sales of their products. The quarantine prompted the regional catering companies to move online and start taking orders for food delivery.

Many people are using smartphones; therefore, they have the convenience of buying and ordering services online at any time. I think that having a .lt domain name, using an email and other online tools for business is becoming a necessity”, - emphasised the Mayor of Biržai V. Jareckas.

The Head of the Internet Service Centre DOMREG at Kaunas University of Technology Daiva Tamulionienė notes that entrepreneurs are hesitant to create websites.

“Even though most of us are used to using the internet, we still lack knowledge that it is possible to create your domain – a name or address for email, website, blog or e-shop. The mistakes during the registration of a domain name, the lack of knowledge and the misleadingly attractive option of social networks often deters and disappoints those who want to have a successful website or e-shop. We organise educational events to contribute to the growth of business and the entire online community, dispel fears and demonstrate the possibility to create your website without any knowledge of programming.

It is gratifying that the internet becomes more and more popular in the regions further away from the big cities and the rural communities that use .lt domain names with specific Lithuanian letters (internationalized domain name, IDN)”, – states D. Tamulionienė.

According to her, the creation of .lt domain names for e-shops and websites has grown particularly during the period of quarantine. The limit of 200 000 registered .lt domains has been reached this year; 122 local and foreign accredited registrars provide services for domain creation and renewal.

Rural communities cooperate

The Chairman for the Local Action Group at Biržai District Steponas Staškevičius remembered how the idea of the website sukįkaimą.lt was born.

“In 2012, we wanted to receive the EU support and were looking for an idea that would enable the cooperation of rural communities in the project implementation. That is how the website sukįkaimą.lt was born; its goal was a partnership among three districts – Biržai, Pasvalys and Rokiškis – encouraging the economic independence of its residents and facilitating the users’ access to the rural producers. We tried to help the small rural entrepreneurs and farmers to reach the market; therefore, the format of a notice board enabled a grandmother who has a small garden to be present online and a local restaurant to acquire fresh vegetables from that grandmother”, – tells S. Staškevičius.

Now, the umbrella of the website sukįkaimą.lt envelops the produce of the farmers, the products created by the rural craftsmen and various services provided by small entrepreneurs. The website is maintained by the cooperating local action groups at Biržai, Pasvalys and Rokiškis with their partners. The activities of sukįkaimą.lt unite more than 170 partners – rural communities, libraries and elderships.

According to the Chairwoman of the Association “Suk į Kaimą” and the Local Action Group at Rokiškis District Raimonda Stankevičiūtė-Vilimienė, the project was implemented more than five years ago when not all rural areas had the internet connection and the rural residents lacked possibilities of their presence online.

“We have created a convenient catalogue – database providing the products and services of the farmers and entrepreneurs of our districts. It is a tool for rural residents that they actively use for their presence online. The small farmers and craftsmen usually do not have their own websites; therefore, a mobile telephone number if the only contact.

To increase the number of visitors on the website, we consider providing the possibility to introduce the small businesses of Biržai, Pasvalys and Rokiškis towns. There is still the need for this free notice board because the ads in the media are always too expensive for rural businesses”, – says R. Stankevičiūtė-Vilimienė.

Domain increases the visibility

It was not easy to create a unique trademark and a domain name for a website. The authors of this idea remember how they were working on this project for several days in the rural tourism homestead. They created a domain name even before the establishment of an association.

“We all agreed on the Lithuanian name “Suk į Kaimą” (“Turn to the village”) without any discussions; we wanted to be visible, easy to remember and clearly associated with rural areas. In the beginning, we created an incorrectly spelled domain name sukikaima.lt. Later, at the suggestion of our colleagues from Biržai, we also registered a domain name using specific Lithuanian letters (internationalized domain name, IDN) sukįkaimą.lt .

Using both, the incorrectly spelled name and the one with Lithuanian letters (internationalized domain name, IDN), we give our users a chance to follow us conveniently. It is a huge advantage, because the number of the users who enter the websites address using correct Lithuanian language is increasing, while the others are surprised that it is possible to use a correct language”, – notes R. Stankevičiūtė-Vilimienė.

Marketing and Communication Specialist of the Internet Service Centre DOMREG at Kaunas University of Technology, Expert at the Localisation Section of the Lithuanian Computer Society Vaidotas Jakuška lists the most common mistakes and advice on how to avoid them.

“While choosing a domain, it is important to consider the target market of your product or service; therefore, you should choose the national domain of the country of your activities. For example, if you open a café in Biržai and plan to invite not only Lithuanians but also your neighbours from Latvia, it is better to register the .lv domain name for the Latvian version of your website. For all the Lithuanian websites, it is better to choose the .lt domain because the visitors will remember this name better and will enter the Lithuanian part of the name – .lt – by force of habit”, – claims V. Jakuška.

A good domain name has to be short and easy to remember, unique and related to your activities. It is better if a domain name matches the trademark or the name of the enterprise or organisation. The domain names often use the abbreviations of the first letters and the keywords.

If a domain name has unique Lithuanian letters ą, č, ę, ė, į, š, ų, ū, ž, you should create a domain using these letters (for example, gražus-vardas.lt) as well as using Latin letters (for example, grazus-vardas.lt). If you have both options – a correct one (internationalized domain name, IDN) and an incorrectly spelled one – it is convenient to use them for a website, an e-shop or an email without losing the flow of visitors who enter the website addresses using the correct language.

The most beautiful Lithuanian domain names

At the initiative of the Lithuanian Computer Society, the election of the most beautiful Lithuanian domain name is organised each year aiming to promote the use of the correct Lithuanian language online, change the users’ habit of writing incorrectly, and draw attention to technical possibilities of the use of the native language in domain names.

The idea of the most beautiful Lithuanian domain name was born in 2014 when Lithuanian Computer Society celebrated the tenth anniversary of the occurrence of the domain names adapted for a multilingual environment. The idea was supported by Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), the Commission of the Lithuanian Language (VLKK) and the Information and Communication Technology Industry Association INFOBALT.

Last year, most of the internet users’ votes were given to the website of the small town’s community užventis.lt and the website of the Communications Regulatory Authority nebūkberyšio.lt . This year, the winners of the most beautiful Lithuanian domain names are the website of the rural communities of Biržai, Pasvalys and Rokiškis regions sukįkaimą.lt and the website of the Samogitian Language Institute žemaitėjė.lt .

Published 2020-07-15