Date: Tuesday, 27 July 2021
Time: 08:00 - 09:30 UTC For the time in various time zones click here
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Web conference tool: Zoom
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Guest Speakers: Emily Taylor, Sarmad Hussain, Justine Chew
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Action Items: EN
Audio Recording: EN, CN
Zoom Recording: EN
Transcript: EN
Zoom Chat: EN
Description:
The GNSO Council had in June 2021 initiated the Expedited Policy Development Process on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs) to provide it with policy recommendations in 2 areas:
- The definition of all generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and the management of variant labels; and
- How the IDN Implementation Guidelines, which require compliance by the Contracted Parties, should be updated in the future.
Given the particular importance of Internationalized Domain Names for the Asia-Pacific region, considering its linguistic and cultural diversity, the APRALO Policy Forum has, in association with the At-Large Capacity Building Working Group (CBWG), organised this Webinar on IDNs to assist in building the capacity of our RALO members and other interested At-Large members to engage meaningfully in the work of the EPDP on IDNs. Among other things, the webinar speakers will broadly address the following:
- When IDNs were introduced to the Root Zone
- The landscape of IDNs in the APAC region
- The existing policies and procedures on IDNs including the Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGRs) in addressing security/confusability in IDNs
- An overview on IDN Variant TLD management (in context of the ICANN Board's 2010 resolution on need for variant management solution to be in place prior to next round of New gTLDs)
- An overview on the GNSO Subsequent Procedures policy recommendations for the next round of IDN New gTLD applications
- Background to the EPDP on IDNs
Moderator & Speakers:
Moderator: Satish Babu, Chair, APRALO
Speakers:
Emily Taylor, CEO, Oxford Information Labs
Sarmad Hussain, Sr Director, ICANN UA & IDN Programs
Justine Chew, ALAC Member & At-Large liaison for Subsequent Procedures
Agenda:
1. Staff introduction - Staff (2 mins)
Satish Babu (3 mins)
2. Welcome and introduction to agenda
Emily Taylor (20 min)
3. What are Internationalized Domain Names at the Top Level (TL) and Second Level (SL)
- APAC examples of IDN TLDs and IDN SLDs
4. The landscape of IDNs from 2011-2019 (IDN World Report 2010 data)
- Diversity in languages and scripts within APAC
- Number/trend of IDNs in APAC (both TLDs and SLDs)
- Cursory insight into barriers to expansion of IDNs
Sarmad Hussain (30 mins)
5. When IDNs were introduced to the Root Zone and what are the existing ICANN policies and procedures governing IDNs
- Brief history of IDN policy development in ICANN via GNSO
- Development and status of the IDN Implementation Guidelines 4.0
6. How are IDN Variant TLDs to be handled
- Reference to the ICANN Board's 2010 resolution on need for variant management solution to be in place prior to next round of New gTLDs
- Origin of RZ-LGR Procedures and how that works to address security/confusability in IDNs
- Which scripts are already covered and which are in progress or not yet addressed
7. What led to the EPDP on IDNs
- Scope of this EPDP (charter)
- Participation in this EPDP (PDP model)
8. Using IDNs: the Universal Acceptance Challenge
- Interdependence with Universal Acceptance (UA) and Email Address Internationalization (EAI) as enabling elements to expansion of IDNs
Justine Chew (10 mins)
9. Subsequent Procedures policy recommendations for the next round of IDN new gTLD applications
Satish Babu (25 mins)
10. Q & A
11. Close
Moderator & Speaker Profiles:
Satish Babu is a Free Software activist, early Internet advocate, and development professional based out of Kerala, India. He is the founding Director of the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), an autonomous academic/research institution of the Government of Kerala, India, where he worked from 2011 to 2015. He was earlier the CEO of SIFFS, an NGO of small-scale artisanal fishers of south India; a co-founder and President of InApp Information Technologies; and is associated with international and national professional societies such as IEEE, Internet Society (ISOC), ICANN, and the Computer Society of India (CSI). Satish has been active in Internet Governance since the 2009 IGF. He was a Fellow of the 2012 European Summer School in Internet Governance (EuroSSIG). He is associated with ICANN since 2012 and with ISOC as a member since 2009. He was appointed the Interim Chair of the Asian, Australasian and Pacific Islands Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO) of ICANN in Sep 2016, elected as Chair in Nov 2016, re-elected in May 2018, and again in May 2020 for a further term of two years.
Emily Taylor is CEO of Oxford Information Labs. A lawyer by training, Emily has worked in the Internet governance and cybersecurity environment for more than 20 years. She is lead author of the long-standing EURid UNESCO World Report on Internationalised Domain Names. Emily is an associate fellow at Chatham House and editor of the Journal of Cyber Policy; a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute and an affiliate professor at the Dirpolis Institute, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa. Emily writes a weekly column for World Politics Review has written for the Guardian, Wired, Ars Technica, the New Statesman and the Slate, and is a regular commentator on technology issues in news and broadcast media including the BBC and Sky News. Emily is a graduate of Cambridge University, and has an MBA from Open University. Follow her on Twitter @etaylaw.
Sarmad Hussain is with ICANN’s Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and Universal Acceptance (UA) Programs. Earlier, Sarmad was a professor of Computer Science and held the IDRC Chair in Multilingual Computing. His research has focused on developing computing solutions for Asian languages, including research in linguistics, localization, speech processing and computational linguistics. He has been an active member of the ICANN community, engaged in IDN ccTLD application for Pakistan and as a member of ICANN’s Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC), before joining ICANN.
Justine Chew is the member of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) selected by the Nominating Committee to represent the Asian, Australasian and Pacific Islands Region for the 2019-2021 term. From 2016 to 2021, she was an active member of the now concluded New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP Working Group, where she also served as the At-Large liaison from 2018. As part of that liaison role, Justine spearheaded a small team which led the consensus building efforts of the At-Large Consolidated Policy Working Group (CPWG) to produce ALAC statements on the Subsequent Procedures PDP Working Group reports, as well as ALAC Advice to the ICANN Board on Subsequent Procedures. She was also a panelist for the ICANN68 At-Large Policy Session on "New gTLD Applicants: Expanding the Circle". Justine is an Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya and continues to practise law in Malaysia while pursuing policy-related work in ICANN, among other interests.
