Internationalized Domain Names: Overview of ICANN Activities Masanobu Katoh, Chair, IDN Committee Director, ICANN Board CDNC-CNSG-MINC IDN Joint Meeting Beijing, China October 19-20, 2001

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG2 IDN Working Group Formation: Melbourne meeting, resolution 1.39 Members: Auerbach, Campos, Cerf, Katoh Mission statement:

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG3 Mission Statement Working Group “sees its charter as limited to fact finding for the purpose of educating the board and the ICANN community so that ICANN can fulfill its mission of technical management of Internet domain names and IP numbers. The working group will not set technical standards for IDNs.”

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG4 Activities of IDN Working Group Consultations: MINC (Melbourne, 3/14/2001) AINC (Amman, 4/1/2001) Surveys: Technical Questions (Survey A) Policy Questions (Survey B) Current Services (Survey C)

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG5 Activities of IDN WG (con’t.) Status Report: Presented at Public Forum at ICANN Meeting in Stockholm Follow Up Questions to Surveys: 05jul01.htm 05jul01.htm Consultations: ChinaInet 2001 (Beijing 7/11/2001) Keidanren-JPNIC Workshop (Tokyo 7/13/2001) Montevideo Report (9/9/2001)

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG6 Survey A: Technical Questions Two basic approaches to IDN issue Server side approach Local Encodings (BG, BIG5, DJIS) or Unicode transformation format (UTF-8) sent directly over the internet. May require server reconfiguration, DNS redesign Client side approach Translate local encoding or Unicode into ASC II compatible encoding (ACE) on the user’s computer

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG7 Server Side Approach Advantages: No client side implementation required Disadvantages: May take long time Possible development of alternate roots Name equivalence

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG8 Client Side Approach Advantages: No server side implementation required, so faster Disadvantages: Requires user installation Difficulties in converting local character sets into Unicode, then into ASCII Limitations on the length of domain names Intellectual Property Issues

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG9 Hybrid Approach Example: RealNames Proprietary Approach- If a Microsoft browser determines that an IDN is not in ASCII, it forwards it to a RealNames server, which then converts it to ASCII so that it can be resolved.

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG10 Absence of Standard IETF hard at work developing standard No ideal solution - difficult problem with different stakeholders: system administrators/operators end users technologists IDNA (Internationalized Domain Names in Application) - client side approach

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG11 Adoption of Standard All respondents said they would adopt IETF standard Speed of implementation depends on approach Standard probably will not be interoperable with other approaches

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG12 Are “Test Beds” a Problem? No: Gaining important experience Yes: User confusion Perceived as attempts to force community to adopt certain technologies Lead to establishment of alternate namespaces

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG13 Big Picture Issues Short-term vs. Long Term Solution? Are We Asking Too Much of DNS? (Identifier vs. Identity)

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG14 Survey B: Policy Questions Strong support for IDN Increase Internet use by non-Latin script users May increase opportunities for cybersquatting

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG15 Cybersquatting Recognized as inevitable DRP, Sunrise periods, WHOIS database all invaluable tools

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG16 Top Level IDNs Global community expressing demand for top-level IDNs. ICANN will have to determine how to address the interests of diverse stakeholders.

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG17 Survey C: Current Services Some free registrations, others charge same as ASCII registration [IDN].[IDN] [IDN]. gTLD [IDN].ccTLD

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG18 Current Services Over 1,000,000 registrations (920,000 with Verisign GRS) Some systems are live Both client side and server side approaches are in use (Verisign GRS uses client side)

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG19 Why Are Registries/ Registrars Offering IDN Service? Perceive Large Demand Defensive measure

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG20 Why Are Registrants Registering IDNs? Useful communication tool Prevention of cybersquatting

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG21 IDN Working Group Recommendations ICANN Board Should: Encourage IETF to adopt standards as quickly as possible; Establish a committee to provide recommendations on non-technical policy issues, including interoperability, cybersquatting/dispute resolution, top level domains, consumer protection, and competition.

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG22 New IDN Committee At the September 10, 2001meeting in Montevideo, the ICANN Board passed a resolution establishing a new IDN Committee "to serve as a general coordination body for the work on policy issues identified in the IDN Working Group Report and such other policy issues that the IDN Committee shall identify."

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG23 IDN Committee Process "[T]he IDN Committee should seek to ensure that any recommendations are achieved through a bottom-up process, and that those recommendations reflect a wide range of expertise on the different aspects relevant to the issues"

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG24 IDN Committee Structure Chaired by Director Masanobu Katoh ICANN President Stuart Lynn, in consultation with the IDN Committee Chair,"shall propose, for approval by the Board, representatives to serve on the IDN Committee from the ICANN Board, the Supporting Organizations, the Governmental Advisory Committee, and such other individuals who in his judgment could meaningfully contribute to this effort"

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG25 Input to the IDN Committee "[T]he IDN Committee is encouraged to commission panels of volunteer experts from different countries with practical experience in the policy issues identified in the Final Report, and linguistic experts (including experts in non-ASCII character sets and languages not spoken by persons active in current discussions)"

October 19-20, 2001 IDN-IWG26 IDN Committee Work Plan The IDN Committee has been requested to present its initial work plan, schedule, and proposed budget for approval by the Board at the third ICANN annual meeting, to be held in Marina del Rey in November 2001.