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View Full Version : Kurt Pritz of ICANN discusses IDNs at Nairobi Meeting


DomainNameWire
8th March 2010, 07:30 PM
From the transcript:

IDNs. So one exciting thing that's occurred, and we have come to this
realization and plan quite some time ago, is that IDNs are going to be
introduced -- are going to be available as part of the new gTLD
program just at the same time the program is introduced.

I think we kind of take that as a given now, but not too many months
ago we were wondering about that.

So I think that's really good.

There's been two issues in particular that needed to be solved before
IDNs could be introduced as part of the new gTLD program. One was the
three-character restriction that gTLDs, as presently governed, require
at least three characters. So they are not confusable with ccTLDs.

There are certain languages -- Chinese, Japanese, Korean come to mind,
other languages -- where single characters represent whole words. And
so it's been brought up in public fora such as these as to whether the
restriction, the requirement to have at least three characters, would
really hobble the introduction of IDNs and new gTLDs.

So a working group was formed to undertake this study. And the result
of that group's work has led to a model in the applicant guidebook
that, for new gTLDs in scripts that are not confusable with ASCII
scripts, that two-character names will be allowed. So they are not
single character names being allowed yet, but two-character names will
be allowed right away. And this group asked our policy-making bodies,
the ccNSO and GNSO, to undertake further study to develop a mechanism
where, for certain scripts or certain languages, single-character
names could be introduced, too.

So it's another area where we think we can draw a box around and call
it done.

The other issue having to do with IDNs are variants. Variant TLDs,
variant characters -- jeez, I don't believe I started talking about
this, but variant characters are representations, two different
representations of the same character in a language script or even a
cross script, and a top-level -- a variant top-level domain has these
variant characters in it that often look almost exactly the same or do
look exactly the same, but when typed into your browser will resolve
to two different places. It's a very complex issue. A permanent
solution is not in place but a temporary solution is in place for the
applicant guidebook so it's not a bar to launching the process whereby
an entity requesting variant strings will be delegated one. The other
will be reserved pending the technical resolution of those issues.

sbe18
8th March 2010, 07:54 PM
Andrew,
thanks for posting this.

I am very happy for the RTL language communities.
arabic,urdu,farsi, and hebrew....

I think the arabic IDN cctld's are likely for market surprises in 2011 + when verisign actually implements BNAME for this.


steve

bwhhisc
8th March 2010, 08:04 PM
QUOTE: "So a working group was formed to undertake this study. And the result of that group's work has led to a model in the applicant guidebook that, for new gTLDs in scripts that are not confusable with ASCII scripts, that two-character names will be allowed. So they are not single character names being allowed yet, but two-character names will be allowed right away." END QUOTE

Nice to see after many months of hand-wringing they finally approved this no-brainer. ;)

Rubber Duck
8th March 2010, 09:50 PM
QUOTE: "So a working group was formed to undertake this study. And the result of that group's work has led to a model in the applicant guidebook that, for new gTLDs in scripts that are not confusable with ASCII scripts, that two-character names will be allowed. So they are not single character names being allowed yet, but two-character names will be allowed right away." END QUOTE

Nice to see after many months of hand-wringing they finally approved this no-brainer. ;)

Yes, they are eminently qualified to make these kinds of decision. :rolleyes:

bumblebee man
8th March 2010, 10:31 PM
So it's another area where we think we can draw a box around and call
it done.

:eek:

Rubber Duck
9th March 2010, 05:05 AM
Yes, the Keywords "Organise", "Piss-up" and "Brewery" spring to mind. :(