IDN ccTLD Fast Track
As of 19th Dec 2009, ICANN has received 12 IDN ccTLD Fast Track requests in 6 different languages/scripts. (link)
ICANN has not officially reveal who has applied for the IDN ccTLD Fast Track at this moment but unofficially, China, Taiwan, Egypt, United Arabic Emirates and Russia has publicly announced they have applied for the respective IDN ccTLD strings.
The Fast Track is expected to take at least 3 months so it is likely we will only see approval of the new IDN ccTLD delegation after Nairobi.
ALAC Statement on Draft Topic Paper for Policy on the Introduction of IDN ccTLD
On 22nd Nov 2009, I was asked to prepare an ALAC Statement in respond to the Draft Topic Paper for Policy on Introduction of IDN ccTLD.
A draft was circulated on the ALAC mailing list on the 25th Nov followed by single topic conference call on 4th Dec.
The final draft was submitted to ccNSO PDP WG1 on 5th Dec with a note that the document is undergoing the ALAC ratification process. It was ratification with a vote on 9th Dec.
IETF IDNAbis Working Group
Between 28 September to 15 December 2009, the IETF IDNAbis Working Group has completed the last call for 6 Internet Drafts: draft-ietf-idnabis-protocol, draft-ietf-idnabis-tables, draft-ietf-idnabis-mappings, draft-ietf-idnabis-defs, draft-ietf-idnabis-bidi and draft-ietf-idnabis-rationale. All 6 I-Ds is waiting for the Area Director for go-ahead.
There are some residue debate on the mailing list on some edge cases, particularly handling of Eszett (sharp-S) and Final Sigma and discussion are leading towards a transition plan.
IDNgTLD Constituency petition
There is an IDNgTLD Constituency petition dated 18th April 2009 (link).
The ICANN Board discussed the petition on the 7th Dec 2009 conference call and it is resolved as follows
The IDNgTLD Constituency petition, as presently formulated does not appear to be focused enough to be eligible for any single Stakeholder Group, is not comprised solely of non-governmental entities, and apparently is not focused on gTLD policies beyond non-Latin script IDNs. The Board acknowledges and thanks the IDNgTLD Constituency petitioners for their interest and effort, and welcomes further input on the structural and membership concerns raised. |
Current Work in Progress
- On 3rd Dec 2009, the Final Report on Three-Character Requirement and Variant Management is available for public comment. I will prepare a draft for ready for submission by 8th Jan 2010.
- With assistance from Matthias Langenegger, I have revamping the [At Large IDN Policy] mainpage.
James Seng
19 Dec 2009
