This Public Forum invites comments on the draft final Report from Whois review team internationalized registration data expert working group. The Report proposes internationalization requirements for twelve categories of data elements currently outputted by the various gTLD registration data directory services.

As part of the broader effort to implement the recommendations from the ICANN Whois review team, the internationalized registration expert working group is formed to recommend the requirements for internationalized registration data (IRD) and produce a data model for the IRD that matches the requirements.

Following the input from the community on the initial report, the working group completed its deliberation on the data requirements and produced a draft final report for public comment.

Much of the currently accessible domain name registration data1 (DNRD) is encoded free form in US-ASCII. This legacy condition is convenient for WHOIS service users who are sufficiently familiar with languages that can be submitted and displayed in US-ASCII to be able to use US-ASCII script to submit DNRD and make and receive WHOISqueries using that script. However, these data are less useful to the WHOIS service users who are only familiar with languages that require character set support other than US-ASCII for correct submission or display.

The WHOIS Policy review team, in its final report, highlights the needs to define requirements, data models and evaluate solutions for internationalized registration data (recommendations 12-14). The ICANN Board adopted an Action Plan in response to theWHOIS Review Team's Final Report that instructs Staff to implement these recommendations.

Subsequently a set of related efforts are formed to implement the WHOIS review team recommendations. These are:

1. An expert working group to determine the requirements for internationalized registration data.
2. A commissioned study to evaluate available solutions for internationalized registration data.
3. A Policy Development Process (PDP) to determine whether translation or transliterations of contact information are needed. If so, specify who should bear the burden.

This report is the draft final report of the first effort.

1 Domain Name Registration Data (DNRD) refers to the information that individuals or organizations ("registrants") submit when they register a domain name. Domain name registrars or registry operators collect these data, and some of the data is made available for public display or for use by applications.

Draft Final Report from the Expert Working Group on Internationalized Registration Data

Expert Working Group Wiki:https://community.icann.org/display/whoisird/WHOIS+RT+IRD+WG+Home