Es gibt mehrere Emojis für Autos 🚗 🚙 🚘 und sogar eins für Roller 🛴. Aber bisher gibt es kein offizielles Emoji für Lastenräder 😧! David Majarich will das ändern.
Im aktuellen Magazin des International Cargo Bike Festival gibt David Majarich aus Newcastle ein Update über seinen Antrag beim internationalen Unicode-Konsortium für ein offizielles Lastenrad-Emoji. Wir dokumentieren unten Davids leicht gekürzten Text inklusive Nachfragen zum nächsten Antrag, der im April 2023 ansteht.
Apropos International Cargo Bike Festival: Das ICBF findet am 27.-29. Oktober auf der Messe World of eMobility bei Amsterdam statt. cargobike.jetzt hält am 28. Oktober einen Beitrag über den cargobike.guide und Cargo Bike Sharing Europe. See you?!
Dokumentation aus dem International Cargo Bike Festival Magazine 2022
The cargo bike emoji: An Update
By David Majarich
Emojis enhance, simplify and enrich our digital messages, filling the gaps where words don’t hit the mark. They supplement our language in online spaces in which tone of voice is often difficult to get across. There is, however, no cargo bike emoji – and I think that’s a problem.
First official emoji proposal in 2021
In last year’s ICBF Magazine, I outlined some of the social, logistical, environmental, economic and practical reasons why a cargo bike emoji would be a good thing. The short version; it would enable and facilitate online conversations about the cargo bike – conversations I believe would eventually make a real-world difference.
In April 2021, following a lot of detailed research and development, I submitted an official proposal for a cargo bike emoji to the Unicode Consortium. That’s the organisation that governs which emojis are approved for development by platforms such as Apple, Google, Twitter or Samsung.
😧 I’d love to have been able to tell you that the proposal had been taken forward into the next round of development and consideration. Alas, it was not to be. In October 2021, I heard that it had been rejected. Unicode didn’t provide any direct feedback on the proposal – and with over 140 other proposals to consider, they have not committed to doing so.
Down, but not out…
But that’s not the end of the story. I think there is much work to do in representing adequate and appropriate diversity within the ‘transport-ground’ emoji set. That’s why I – or rather we – are going to try again. Rejected proposals need to wait two years before they can be resubmitted, so in April 2023 we’ll submit version 2.0.
And when I say we – I’m including all of you. But what can you do to assist?
- Ride cargo bikes! At work, for the household, or on your commute. Activity in the real world drives content online. Both raise awareness.
- Generate and consume online content around cargo bikes – this means more search results. News stories, posts, blogs, videos, GIFs, memes, articles, interviews, DIY videos, shopping – it all adds up, and demonstrates that this emoji is needed.
- Use hashtags such as #CargoBike, #DecadeoftheCargoBike and #CargoBikeEmoji on social media.
Hopefully we will see success in the next round. For now, we will have to make do with the combination of 🚲 and 📦 to convey our message. But who knows – perhaps in a couple of years we will be using a cargo bike emoji with our messages. 🤞
Nachgefragt: Welche Unterstützung ist hilfreich?
Hilft die Unterstützung durch Initiativen und Verbänden bei einem neuen Emoji-Antrag im April 2023? David weist auf den folgenden Auszug aus den Unicode-Richtlinien für Emoji-Anträge hin:
Wird er den bisherigen Emoji-Designentwurf im April 2023 erneut einbringen oder kann es auch ein anderer Designentwurf sein? David ist offen für Vorschläge und kann sich auch einen Wettbewerb mit internationaler Jury vorstellen. Wir werden von ihm hören!
Kontakt zu David Majarich via Linkedin oder Twitter.