2026-04-23 APRALO Policy Forum Webinar Series on A Multilingual Internet: Webinar #3: Universal Acceptance of All Domain Names and Email Addresses

Date: Thursday, 23 April 2026

Time: 06:00 - 07:15 UTC (for the time in various time zones click here)

Zoom Registration: https://icann.zoom.us/meeting/register/WXIrgP-1SDyAgFG6xtFH-A

(After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.)

Zoom Recording: EN

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Following the first two webinars in the Multilingual Internet Series, the APRALO Policy Forum is delighted to present the third and final webinar to introduce ICANN’s goal for a “Multilingual Internet” and its engagement of relevant stakeholders to deliver this goal.

The APRALO Policy Forum Webinar Series on A Multilingual Internet is aimed at Internet policymakers —including governments, tech companies, civil society, the technical community— and the general Internet community, to communicate the significance of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and Universal Acceptance (UA) for ‘a digitally inclusive Internet. In particular the series will explore the key technical aspects of IDNs, the connection to UA, and to offer suggestions for how to get involved.

You are invited to Webinar #3: Universal Acceptance of All Domain Names and Email Addresses on 23 April 2026 at 06:00 UTC for 75 minutes, where Edmon Chung will host Sarmad Hussain, Senior Director, IDN & UA Programs, ICANN in an an introduction to Universal Acceptance (UA), current issues and how these are being addressed in collaboration with the community.

This session also covers how the community can contribute to promote UA adoption, so, please join us!

Don't forget to pre-register your participation! And if you have any, please let us have your questions on this topic by posting them as comments to this wiki page below; or if you prefer,submit them by emailing staff at staff@atlarge.icann.org

Agenda:

Staff introduction - Staff (2 mins)
Welcome and introduction - Edmon Chung (2 mins)
1. Brief recap on Webinar #1: Multilingual Domain Names
2. Brief recap on Webinar #2: IDN Policies and Implementation
Session content - Sarmad Hussain (60 mins)
1. What is UA and why is it important
2. What are the current UA issues and challenges
3. Efforts to develop UA awareness and capacity
4. Efforts towards UA adoption
  1. Fixing open source software
  2. Updating the big tech applications
5. What’s next?
  1. Implementing UA Expert Working Group guidelines
6. How to get involved
  1. Role of stakeholders

Q&A / Discussion - moderated by Edmon Chung (10 mins)
Poll (may run concurrently with Q&A) - Staff
Wrap up - Edmon Chung (1 min)

SPEAKER & MODERATOR PROFILES

Sarmad Hussain has been with ICANN since 2014. He is currently involved with Internationalized Domain Names and Universal Acceptance initiatives at ICANN. He has a background in research and development of local language technology, including localization and specifically speech and language processing. He has been a professor of Computer Science before joining ICANN.

Edmon Chung is serving as the CEO for DotAsia Organisation. He also participates extensively in global and regional Internet related groups and contributes his time and expertise to Internet Governance related issues.

Since 2002, Edmon played a leadership role in the region-wide ‘.Asia’ domain extension initiative. He championed DotAsia Organisation as a not-for-profit organization and its mandate to promote Internet development and adoption in Asia. Since the launch of ‘.Asia’ web presence in 2008, DotAsia has contributed significantly to a variety of community projects in Asia, including for example: Go.Asia, http://ISIF.Asia , http://NetMission.Asia , http://MaD.Asia among others.

Edmon is also an inventor of patents underlying technologies for internationalized domain names (IDN) and was involved in making it possible for the introduction of multilingual domain names and email addresses on the Internet. In 2000, Edmon was selected by Canada’s most prestigious and influential news journal, The Globe and Mail, as one of its ‘Young Canadian Leaders’. In 2001, he won the ‘Most Innovative Award’ in the Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurship Award. Between 2006 and 2010, Edmon served as an elected member on the ICANN GNSO Council and after that he served as an elected member on the ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) from the Asia Pacific Region. Between 2006 and 2011, Edmon also served as an elected member of the Elections Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the Information Technology Subsector.