IDN Liaison Monthly reports 2007
- Nathalie Peregrine
By Hong Xue, May 2007
I'm drafting an IDN WG working plan and sending it the list for comments.
1. WG Construction
Since the WG was formed in May, at-large community have showed strong interests in participation. Up to July 8, seven individuals from Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe have subscribed to WG's list at idn-wg@atlarge-lists.icann.org. Plus three volunteers from the ALAC, the WG has got the support of 10 people.
2. Communication Platform
The WG is now utilizing the wiki and mailing list as primary communication platform. As the first step, I'm making this wiki page an one-stop shop for all the useful information on IDNs. Ohters are welcome to post materials that fit this topic. To post a message to all the list members, send email to idn-wg@atlarge-lists.icann.org.
With the progress of the policy work, the WG may need further staff support to arrange conference calls or all other forms of online meetings.
3. Policy Priorities
The WG has prioritizes the status report regarding IDN ccTLDs associated with the ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes requested by the Board. The report should be completed before ICANN meeting in Los Angeles in October 2007.
The WG is also researching the new gtlds report by GNSO and assessing the impact of the proposed new gtld principles, guidelines and implementation rules on IDNs. The WG is considering whether a commentary should be submitted to the Board at LA meeting.
By Hong Xue, June 2007
General Briefing:
1) On May 2, 2007, ICANN published IDN Glossary, which is to ensure that discussions regarding IDNs take place in a consistent manner. The glossary terms can be used freely and is expected to be expanded over time.
2) On 11 May 2007, ICANN published the Draft IDN Guidelines (v.2.2) for Public Comments. This is the first version of the IDN Guidelines to make specific reference to IDN in top-level labels. It is anticipated to be amended and supplemented in subsequent drafts in preparation for the release of internationalized top-level labels in the production environmen
3) The Draft IDN Guidelines (v.2.2) was published in six languages. The Liaison, in coordination with the CDNC, translated the draft into Chinese.
ALAC IDN Policy Consideration
4) Language communities’ participation in the ICANN PDPs
5) Selection of IDN strings in top-level labels
6) Selection of IDN registries
ALAC IDN Policy Development Process:
7) Formation of the working group
8) Workshop on IDN policy in San Juan
9) Policy briefing at RALO meetings in San Juan
By Hong Xue, July 2007
IDN WG is now primarily working on the draft Comments on IDN ccTLDs. It's proceeding well according to the work plan. For details, please refer to the WG wiki page. WG four core members are commenting on each other's draft sections. From August 5, the draft will be open to any comments by all the users who subscribed to the WG list. The WG is also planning with ALAC and staffs for an IDN WS at IGF. Since ICANN IDN staffs have not confirmed on the proposed merging workshop, the plan may not be worked out.
By Hong Xue, September 11, 2007
On August 23, 2007, ICANN finalized the IDN .test Evaluation Plan and continued taking steps toward insertion of IDN strings in the root zone. Recent changes to the plan are based on comments received on the IDN public forum and also from consultations with ICANN Technical Advisory Committees. This last version was approved by the ICANN Board at their 14 August 2007 meeting. The resolution directs ICANN Staff to implement the IDN .test Evaluation Plan, and report back to the ICANN Board following the conclusion of the evaluation. Specifically, the Board approved the delegation of eleven evaluative top-level domains representing the term 'test' translated into: Arabic, Persian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil. Following this ICANN Board approval, the delegation request will now go through standard IANA procedures for insertion of top-level domains into the root zone. The technical evaluations of IDN TLDs and their usability in various applications will proceed following their delegation. See http://www.icann.org/announcem ents/announcement-2-19jun07 .htm.
ALAC IDN WG is now finalizing the draft answers to the IDN ccTLDs questions. Next round of public consultation in the global at-large community will commence from September.
By Hong Xue, October 9, 2007
The final outputs of the WG are now being presented on a new wiki page ALAC Statement for the ICANN Board Request for Responses. The WG is heartily appreciative for all the comments and suggestions from the users' community. New comments or revisions are still welcome. The public comment period is by October 13, 2007. After synchronizing all the inputs and finalizing the report, the WG will seek the approval of the ALAC for its submission to the Board at LA meeting.
By Hong Xue, December 7, 2007
At its meeting on 2 October 2007, the ccNSO Council launched a Policy Development Process (ccPDP) by requesting a PDP Issues Report and appointing an Issues Manager. This ccPDP has been launched to develop an overall approach, which includes finding solutions for the matters raised in the "Questions and Issues Paper", on which ALAC has submitted the comments. A Working Group has been established by ccNSO IDNC (IDNC WG), which is to develop and report on feasible methods, if any, that would enable the introduction, in a timely manner and in a manner that ensures the continued security and stability of the Internet, of a limited number of non-contentious IDN ccTLDs while the overall policy is being developed. At the end of November 2007, Cheryl Langdon-Orr and Hong Xue joined the WG from the ALAC. The two members shall report to the At-large community of any progress at WG in due course.