(this page is to be updated with more general and background information pertaining to IDN Policy Development)
IDN Policy Development
Internationalized Domain Names
Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names represented by local language characters. Such domain names could contain letters or characters from non-ASCII scripts (for example, Arabic or Chinese). Many efforts are ongoing in the Internet community to make domain names available in character sets other than ASCII.
These "internationalized domain name" (IDN) efforts were the subject of a 25 September 2000 resolution by the ICANN Board of Directors, which recognized "that it is important that the Internet evolve to be more accessible to those who do not use the ASCII character set," and also stressed that "the internationalization of the Internet's domain name system must be accomplished through standards that are open, non-proprietary, and fully compatible with the Internet's existing end-to-end model and that preserve globally unique naming in a universally resolvable public name space."
Background Information
One of the most significant innovations for the Internet since its inception will be the introduction of top level Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs). These will offer many new opportunities and benefits for Internet users around the world by allowing them to establish and use domains in their native languages and scripts.
IDNs have been discussed in the ICANN community for many years. Initially, development focused on enabling the introduction of IDNs as registrations under existing top-level domains (TLDs), but in the past year especially focus has shifted to be on broadening the character repertoire available for use in top level strings.
Over the past years the introduction of IDN gTLDs was discussed in the context and as part of the new gTLD program.
Draft Implementation Plan for the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process
The consultation and discussion on the introduction of IDN ccTLDs was initiated by the ICANN Board at its meeting in São Paulo (December 2006). The Country Code Name Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) were requested to collaborate, in consultation with the relevant technical community, to produce an issues paper on the selection of IDN ccTLDs associated with the two-letter codes described in the ISO 3166-1 standard.
The ccNSO and GAC formed a joint IDN working group, which published and submitted to the ICANN Board a list of issues relating to the introduction of IDN ccTLDs in June 2007.
Consultations and discussions of the IDN working group made it clear that several countries and territories have a pressing need for IDN ccTLDs. This realization initiated a discussion of the provisions needed for an interim approach to IDN ccTLDs to meet near-term demands and to gain experience with mechanisms for selecting and authorizing such TLDs that can inform a policy development process. The ICANN Board requested the ICANN community, including the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), ccNSO, GAC, and the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), to collaboratively explore both an interim and an overall approach to IDN ccTLDs and recommend a course of action to the Board (ICANN meeting, San Juan, June 2007).
Following a ccNSO Council recommendation and broad support of the ICANN community, including the GAC, GNSO and ALAC, the ICANN Board asked the ALAC, ccNSO, GAC and GNSO chairs to set up an IDNC working group appoint its members and begin work in accordance with its Charter as soon as possible.
The IDNC WG was tasked to recommend mechanisms to introduce a limited number of non-contentious IDN ccTLDs, associated with the ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes, to meet near-term demand while the overall policy is being developed.
At the ICANN meeting in Paris (June 2008) the IDNC WG submitted its Final Report to the Board, including GAC and ccNSO statements on the proposed methodology. At its meeting in Paris the Board resolved:
_Resolved (2008.06.26.04), the Board thanks the members of the IDNC WG for completing their chartered tasks in a timely manner.
Resolved (2008.06.26.05), the Board directs staff to: (1) post the IDNC WG final report for public comments; (2) commence work on implementation issues in consultation with relevant stakeholders; and (3) submit a detailed implementation report including a list of any outstanding issues to the Board in advance of the ICANN Cairo meeting in November 2008. 4_
Draft Implementation Plan for the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process
ICANN then posted the IDNC WG Final Report for public comments and began implementation as directed. Following the public comment period, ICANN posted a consolidated overview of the comments received and a document containing staff considerations of the comments received. During implementation, ICANN also submitted letters to relevant public authorities and ccTLD managers to seek information on their interest in participating in the Fast Track process.
This is the second revision of the Draft Implementation Plan. The two previous versions were posted right before and immediately following the ICANN meeting in Cairo, Egypt, 1–7 November 2008.
In preparing this revised Plan, ICANN took into consideration the comments received on the previous two versions; in particular public comments and input received through meetings, such as the ICANN meeting in Cairo on November 3–7, 2008. An analysis of these comments was released in a separate document together with this paper.
This revised plan, presents a Fast Track process that allows for IDN ccTLDs to be implemented. However, as outlined in the previous versions some open issues require further community collaboration. To attempt to resolve these issues, additional information have been included in this revised plan and two papers serving as proposed solutions on these open issues have been released.
• Documentation of Responsibility between ICANN and prospective IDN ccTLD Managers
• Development and use of IDN tables and character variants for second and top level strings
All this material is being released to seek further community collaboration, in particular before and during the ICANN meeting in Mexico City on March 1–6, 2009. A public comment period for these papers will enable and document such community discussions. Comments received will be used to revise the plan in preparation of a Final Implementation Plan.
A full overview of activities and links to the materials related to the IDN ccTLD Fast Track process and its implementation can be viewed at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/
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IDN gTLDs
The GNSO has considered IDN TLD issues as part of its New gTLD policy development deliberations, including modalities for including internationalized top-level domains as part of the future new gTLD application process.
The core issues considered by the GNSO IDN working group in relation to the new non-IDN gTLDs are:
- IDN aspects on Geo-Political Details
- Aspects relating to existing gTLD strings and existing IDN SLDs
- Aspects relating to existing SLD Domain Name Holders
- Specific Techno-Policy Details relating to IDN gTLDs
There is ongoing consultations between the GNSO, ccNSO and the GAC on IDN policy development.
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