Here is a summary of the main points raised on this question from the meeting on 09 January 2014:
The PDP WG noted that this is a key question to be considered along with the issue of costs. In order to consider why to provide translation and/or transliteration of contact information the PDP WG could consider the following:
- The users of WHOIS
- Customer trust issues (part of the ICANN AoC)
- Legal and marketing needs for clear information – allowing a better answer in problematic cases; PDP WG could consider an approach to have the local script be the default script and the translation/transliteration would then be into Latin script/ASCII.
Volunteers to work on the legal aspect are: Vinay Kumar Singh and Petter Rindforth
Benefits
In Linda Corugedo Steneberg's e-mail, 10 Feb. 2014, the following benefits were suggested:
What exactly the benefits to the community are of translating and/or transliterating contact information, especially in light of the costs that may be connected to translation and/or transliteration? // it facilitates registration for those Registrants who do not speak a common language or use a common script, while at the same time it makes easier the consultation of such data by parties (like Law Enforcement) who require a common language or who may face difficulties while dealing with non-Latin scripts. Registrants would have full rights when it comes to respect for multilingualism and Registrant data can be consulted/searched in a more homogeneous manner thanks to translation to a common language or script.
What are the relationships between the benefits?
Are there trade-offs?
Scenarios
See the purposes for data on p.12-14 of the Initial report from the EWG on gTLD Directory Services.
Features
6 March, 2014
Dear Chris,
Dear all,
When looking into the document Status update EWG, only page 53 and 80 mention the word „translation”. In annex A (page 61) I don’t see any indication of fields allowing the storage of translated or transliterated contact information. Perhaps this is something we should emphasize a bit more in our discussions. If none is preparing a protocol / storage for translated/transliterated information our whole process does not have any effect. I know this looks quite pessimistic but it is a fact in none of the actual documents I’ve seen any hint on this.
...
Rudi Vansnick
