ICANN MEETING EXPLORES TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF INDIAN LANGUAGE DOMAIN NAMES

[DavyBUK]

At its 31st Public meeting currently underway in New Delhi, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is exploring the possibility of introducing top level domain names in the local language and local scripts. At present while India has introduced domain names at the secondary level in the local language, the top-level domain names are still in the American ASCII code. In a special session on Internationalized Domain names (IDNs), the ICANN experts currently meeting in New Delhi held detailed discussions on the possibility. The Indian experts in charge of language development in the Ministry of IT as well as Programme Head of CDAC, Mr Mahesh Kulkarni shared India’s experience in developing a primer on how the 22 Indian languages can be categorized and what scripts and script families are. Development of language tables, policy issues for Indic scripts also figured in the discussions. Senior experts from ICANN debated on the complexities involved in non-English languages. Alternate spellings pose a problem. In conclusion, Indian experts explained that only homographs are being considered and CDAC has achieved Unicode character set finalization for inclusion in IDN.

The public meeting on ICANN, which began on 11th February, draws to a close on 15th February. Speaking on the meeting, ICANN’s Board Chairman, Mr Peter Dengate Thrush said “India and Asia are at the heart of the Internet’s future – a future that ICANN is working on. Internet penetration in India is at just over five percent and growing fast – considering that one per cent is 11 million people coming online. ICANN’s work on Internationalized Domain Names and new top-level domains has the potential to reach out to rest of India and begin remaking the Internet as people connect in their own languages and scripts.”

ICANN’s IDN program is making about close to 100,000 characters from the languages of the world available at the top level – the part after the dot -- so users can benefit from a domain name in fully localized language or script,” said Tina Dam, ICANN’s IDN Program Director. “India has 22 official languages and has done a great deal of foundation work on how languages and scripts – or the collection of characters used in a language – can be categorized and used. There are a lot of lessons for the world coming out of the work being done in India.”

“As ICANN moves forward to making the scripts and languages of the world available in all levels of domain names, the work being done in India, and the lessons learnt, will make an immeasurable contribution to the people of the world being able to get their name in their language for their Internet,” Dam said.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=35402

[DavyBUK]

No big decisions in non-English domain talks

Weeklong talks in India about the creation of online domain names entirely in languages other than English led to greater understanding but no major decisions, the chief executive of the Internet's key oversight agency said Friday. At issue is a proposed "fast-track" mechanism for specific countries to get non-English suffixes -- the ".com" part of Internet addresses. For example, many Internet users in China would like to see a Chinese-character equivalent of the ".cn" suffix.Under one scenario, each country would be entitled to one non-English suffix while work continues on resolving broader challenges, such as how to make sure a domain in one language isn't inadvertently offensive in another.

Paul Twomey, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the U.S. group tasked with overseeing domain name issues, said a working group may make recommendations by ICANN's next major meeting in Paris in June.

http://www.charlotte.com/business/story/495972.html

[Rubber Duck]

Yes, this will almost certainly ensure the adoption of IDN.com.

One of the critical things for the successful launch of any product is getting it to the market on time. ICANN have ensure that won't happen. The field is now left to IDN.com. The thing that has been holding everything up is IE6. That is now no longer an issue. Overt the coming weeks and months, more and more companies will promote themselves with IDN domains, and the signature of choice is going to be IDN.com.

[261275]

Was the below discussed:


>> Why are you ducking the question?
>>KURT PRITZ: I think it's a good answer. I think if the IDN fast track is implemented, that would essentially take away any reason for not having IDNs be part of the gTLD round.
>>KHALED FATTAL: (inaudible).
>>KURT PRITZ: I think the scribes need the microphone. I know you don't.
>>KHALED FATTAL: Assuming that the fast tracking does actually fast track it, would that imply that the recommendations that are being sought to be implemented would apply for IDNs as well?
>>KURT PRITZ: Can you ask that question again, exactly the same.
>>KHALED FATTAL: You didn't hear it? I'm sorry.
One more time.
Assuming these recommendations are accepted and based on the question that was asked just now, and assuming also that the fast tracking does deliver the promised land so fast -- you can quote me on that in the teleprompting -- would that imply that the current recommendations would apply to IDNs, yes or no?
>> (Inaudible).
>>KHALED FATTAL: To future IDN applications. Assuming we can fast-track them.
>>KURT PRITZ: I think it would apply to all gTLD applications, you know, whether they're ASCII or IDN.
>>KHALED FATTAL: You can go on the record for that one?
>>KURT PRITZ: No. Adrienne asked my opinion.
>>KHALED FATTAL: I'm asking. Is this -- would you say this is a position from ICANN, our official position from ICANN one thing being recommended will be applied on IDN gTLDs as well.
>>KURT PRITZ: Yes.
>>KHALED FATTAL: That's a "yes." That answers the question.

From: https://delhi.icann.org/files/Delhi-GNSO-WS-9Feb08.txt

[Rubber Duck]

I think what we can conclude is that there are not going to be any IDN.IDN in use until early 2009. It seems clear that IDN ccTLD and IDN gTLD are not necessarily linked but will probably arrive together. I really don't think it matters too much except for Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi and Urdu, which are going to struggle to find acceptance without an IDN.IDN solution. The way things have been left is that, the whole ICANN process is going to become increasingly irrelevant to what happens on the ground. They are bureaucrats, they clearly understand nothing about marketing. The thing that has been holding everything back is the delay in the roll-out of IE7. If they wanted their product to be successful, it had to start gain traction in the first half of this year. That ain't going to happen, so the field is left largely clear for IDN.com.

[zfreud]

Duck, I am in complete agreement with your assessment. I still suspect that China is slightly more powerful than Verisign, and that we'll see and IDN.cn TLD sooner than any IDN gTLD...but it may well be late 2009. And by that stage, idn.cn and idn.com will have a lot of wind behind them. we're already seeing that in advertising in china today as more and more IDN.cn and IDN.com (more .com) are being branded and advertised.

[mulligan]

Originally Posted by 261275

>> Why are you ducking the question?

>>KHALED FATTAL: Assuming that the fast tracking does actually fast track it,

My favorite bits ...

[Rubber Duck]

I am not sure that Verisign are not deliberately encouraging ICANN to move at a snail's pace.

Originally Posted by zfreud

Duck, I am in complete agreement with your assessment. I still suspect that China is slightly more powerful than Verisign, and that we'll see and IDN.cn TLD sooner than any IDN gTLD...but it may well be late 2009. And by that stage, idn.cn and idn.com will have a lot of wind behind them. we're already seeing that in advertising in china today as more and more IDN.cn and IDN.com (more .com) are being branded and advertised.

[touchring]

Originally Posted by Rubber Duck

I am not sure that Verisign are not deliberately encouraging ICANN to move at a snail's pace.

Y are we still discussing this? Haven't we concluded that the bureacracy will screw up any new idn gltd or aliasing? We should spend more time talking about IE7.