International Trade Lawmaking @ Beijing Normal University

All aspects related to the implementation of non-Latin scripts in the root servers of the worldwide DNS system are the subject of a number of working groups and processes throughout ICANN. The IDN Liaison for At-Large, Hong Xue, has participated in and follows all of them.

Hong stepped down from the role of ALAC IDN Liaison from Cairo Meeting in November 2008. Her extraordinary efforts and energy in this vital work benefit our community and specifically those millions of internet users whose online experience will be enhanced so much by the introduction of Doman Names in non‐ASCII scripts.

Hong finished successfully her term at the  Meeting of the ALAC on 6 November 2008 and the ALAC looks forward to her energy and enthusiasm that will bring to our work and activities forever.

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Draft Comments on IDN ccTLD Fast Track Draft Implementation Plan v.0.2 (4 November 2008)

As the ICANN President said at our meeting, it is important not only to voice our views but send in comments in writing. Since ALAC has always been active in the consultation and policy advice process on fast-track IDN ccTLDs, I suggest take the opportunity to send in our comments before 6 December 2008. To expedite drafting, I made the 0.2 version for your review. Thanks for the inputs of Izumi and Tina and the coordination of Nick.

The public consultation on the draft Implementation Plan is now open – details are available here: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-3-23oct08-en.htm.
Liaison Report to ALAC/ At-Large Policy and Planning OneDay #3* (22 June 2008)

ccNSO IDNC has arranged, by the end of June 21, 2008, three rounds of public consulatations, eight conference calls, one face-to-face meeting (at IGF Prep conf. at Geneva) plus calling in and one face-to-face meeting (in Paris). Two at-large representatives, Cheryl and Hong, attended all these activities actively.

The fast-track will be the first real IDN implementation for users. We fully cherish the great opportunity of such an unprecedanted experiment and support an open, speedy and uncontentious fast-track approach to implement IDN ccTLDs. We wish and work for an implementation that is genuinely supported and sincerely serving the interests of the local Internet community. On behalf of the user community, we particularly emphasize two issues:

a) Pressing demand of non-ASCII users

The fast-track should reflect the sailent value of speediness and non-contentiousness. Nothing should prevent fast-track implementation in the real ready ccTLD territories. We support the balance and thoughtful approach and methodology that would make a speed and smooth implementation happen. We oppose to have a complicated and contentious process that could cause any delay. We strongly oppose any attempt to delay the fast track implementation merely to keep pace with the new gTLD process. Any market competitive interests should not go before the users’ pressing demand for the IDNs. The fast track for ccTLDs is much simpler and less contraversial than IDN gTLDs and should take off as early as possible.

b) User participation

Delegation of an IDN ccTLD should only be possible in the Fast Track where the IDN ccTLD string is non-contentious within the territory and the designation of the selected delegate is non-contentious within the territory. It would be essential to present the evidenced support/endorsement of the relevant stakeholders in the territory for the selected string as a meaningful representation of the name of the territory and for the selected delegate.

Comments on Initial Draft Fast-Track Mechanism for Introduction of IDN ccTLDs (26/02/08)

by Hong Xue and Cheryl Langdon-Orr, ALAC Liaisons to the CCNSO IDNC WG

We believes the draft initial report be a positive step to move ahead
on fast-track introduction of the IDN ccTLDs. For purpose of avoidance
of public confusion and protection of individual users in specific
language communities, we hope the Initial Report would consider the
following suggestions.

**We suggest the IDN guidelines be specfically supplemented into the
requirements for selection of the IDN strings as listed in the Section
3(B)(i) of the Initial Report. Character tabling is very important to
prevent the equivalent character variants of the same or different
scripts from co-existing in the registration. A well-documented and
publicly available character table shall be the prerequisite for
introduction of an IDN TLD relevant to that character set.

***With respect to selection of IDN ccTLD managers under the Section 4
of the Initial Report, we hope that a manager have the sufficient
language capacity of providing the services per the script of an IDN
ccTLD.

ALAC Presentation on IDNs to the Board (February 14, 2008)

Individual user community reiterates the pressing need to timely implement internationalized domain names in both gTLD and ccTLD name space. The fast track approach to implement the IDN ccTLDs is indeed welcomed as a positive step moving forward. No challenge or difficulty shall prevent the fast track implementation, which is characteristic
of non-contentiousness, from going ahead really fast, as far as it genuinely reflects the local user community’s demand on native-script domain names in the specific ccTLD territory, and takes into account the stability, consistency and continuation of the registration service and the harmony with the long-term solution of IDN ccTLDs for the protection of the legitimate interests of the registrants (particularlyindividual registrants).
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ALAC & RALO Meeting with the Board* (October 30, 2007)

Discussions on IDNs

We emphasize the pressing need from the user community for IDNs. We support a balanced and effective fast-track approach for implementation of IDN ccTLD. We welcome the new PDP proposal from the ccNSO and reiterate our strong commitment to bring the users’ voices to this policy-making process. Per the Board resolution at the San Juan meeting, we hereby submit the status report on IDN ccTLDs issues to the Board. The report contains our recommendations on the principles, policies and implementation of IDN ccTLDs. We primarily recommend that implementation of IDN ccTLDs comply with all the technical standards to ensure the interoperability and security and selection and accreditation of any IDN ccTLD be subject to sufficient, transparent and effective consultations in the pertinent ccTLD user community.

Given that the IDN test is going on and the IDN protocols are being reviewed, we are keen to know whether there is a timeline for implementation of IDN gTLDs under the auspices of new gTLD process.

Finally, there will be an IDN workshop from the users’ prospective, which is in coordination with the ccNSO, GAC and ICANN Staffs, at the IGF.

ALAC Statement on IDNs at ICANN Public Forum, San Juan, June 28, 2007

ALAC welcomes the new technical and policy developments on IDN. ALAC supports a balanced and reasonable fast-tracking approach on the IDN implementation, and we call for a more effective and formal consultant mechanism with the Internet user community in all the IDN process.
ALAC also made proposal for IDN Workshop at IGF.

At-Large Policy Priorities Workshop (San Juan, June 28, 2007)

28 june 2007 ws

RESOLUTION OF THE AT-LARGE COMMUNITY ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERNATIONALISED DOMAIN NAMES (IDNS) FOR THE BENEFIT OF INDIVIDUAL INTERNET USERS WORLDWIDE

al 2007 r 3

At-Large Internet Users Workshop -Internationalized Domain Names (Wellington, 28 March 2006)

http://icann.org/meetings/wellington/agenda-idn-28mar06.htm

At-Large Participation at the IGF Hydeabad

Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Hong Xue led a few workshops related to IDN and other issues and were panel speakers in a few other workshops.

Cheryl Langdon-Orr, V C Vivekandandan and Sivasubramanian Muthusamy were speakcers at ” Lessons Learned from the Engagement and Facilitation of Internet Users into Policy Development and Processes within ICANN via the ICANN Board’s At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) .”

Cheryl was one of the panelist at the ICANN open forum.

(Cheryl and Hong Xue participated in a number of workshops, the precise deails of the theme, co-speakers and presentation links are to be obtained from Hong and Cheryl and to be unploaded in the wiki.

ALAC & Yale ISP Joint Workshop on IDNs at IGF

The participation of the local Internet user community is considered necessary in the successful implementation of IDNs. This session will look at the experiences of several early adopter TLDs who may have involved the local community in the process of implementation of IDNs, to different extents, as well as users who have participated in those trials. Best practices and lessons learnt will be presented, and the discussion will focus on the practical implementation of these IDNs with the full participation of end-users.

The workshop has been successfully held on Monday November 12, 2007. The Speakers talked about new IDN technical developments that will greatly benefit the users, particularly the IDN application in email system. Email and whois are the two ASCII-only fortresses against the tide of IDNs. IDN email application will significantly liberate the IDN users from the chains of ASCII. The Speakers also presents the different implementation models and polices developed by the local user communities, such as Japanese-speaking and Polish-speaking communities. It sufficiently proves that only the local language communities can and should determine how to implement the IDNs. Hong from ALAC presented a couple of policy considerations on the IDNs. She strongly argued that failure to implement the IDNs and continuous delay have become a breach of the principle of freedome of expression of non-ASCII script users. The workshop was warmly applauded by all the audience, including scores of governmental officials from 27 countries and the representatives from business sectors, civil society and academics.

ALAC Statement for the ICANN Board Request for Responses

The IDN Working Group are drafting the proposed statement and a timeline for At-Large consultations and amendments is as follows:

I. Drafting the response by ALAC IDN Liaison and Members (Siavash, Hong, Veronica, Mohammed) by July 22, 2007
II. Completion of the draft answers by August 5
III. Public consultation through IDN-WG list by August 17
IV. Revsion of the answers, August 31
V. Public Consultation through RALOs, September 28
VI. Revision and completion of draft report, October 13
VII. Public Comments , October 20
VIII. Completion of final report, October 2
IDNs IN THE NEWS
IDN DOCUMENTS

Other Reference Materials and Further Reading on the IDN Reference Shelf
ALAC IDN Working Group