ALAC Statement on Draft Final Report on Policy Aspects Regarding Introduction of Single Character IDN TLDs
On 10th Dec 2010, the joint ccNSO and GNSO IDN Working Group (JIG) published the Draft Final Report on the policy aspects of introducing Single Character IDN TLDs for public comment.
After reviewing the report, the ALAC is pleased to submit the following comments:
On May 10th, 2010, ALAC submitted the ALAC Statement on IDN Issues. In our May statement, we expressed our belief that "every culture and language is unique" and "IDN are complex issues that varies from language to language, culture to culture".
There are various community whereby the majority of its character is a word, for example Chinese. Therefore, we support the recommendation that Single Character and Two Characters IDN at the Top Level and Second Level should not be restricted in general and be reviewed on a case by case basis.
We believe that an IDN Evaluation Panel could be established to review applications for Single Character or Two Characters IDN. The IDN Evaluation Panelists should compose of relevant individual experts and community representatives. The IDN Evaluation Panel could also assist with the review of contentious IDN ccTLD, for example, Bulgarian .бг request.
ALAC, with our network of XXX ("whats the current number?") At-Large Structure across the world, would be please to contributes community representatives to the IDN Evaluation Panel.
Furthermore, we noted that the JIG is working on IDN TLD Variants. As stated in our May Statement, we encourage ICANN to "Act Global, Be Local" in the handling of IDN Issues. We believe IDN TLD Variants are of utmost importance to certain community around the world and we encourage JIG to completes its work as soon as possible.
James Seng
member of the ALAC
12th Dec 2010
