National and Regional Approaches to Multilingual Internet Names Asia Pacific Perspective Tan Tin Wee Retired Chairman Asia Pacific Networking Group (APNG)
Historical Origins of Multilingual Domain Names 1998 – APNG Chairmans Commission 1998 – National University of Singapore research project – proxy/UTF5 solution 1998 – Asia Pacific iDNS Testbed – at least five countries 1998 – APNG/NUS Presentation to INET98, Geneva – APNG/NUS Presentation to IFWP, Singapore – AP Task Force on iDNS 1999 – iDNS IPv6 research project funded by PanAsia Networking, IDRC Canada
Historical Origins of Multilingual Domain Names – II 2000 Formation of Multilingual Internet Names Consortium - MINC 2000 CDNC - Chinese 2000 International Forum for IT in Tamil (INFITT) – Tamil WG AINC – Arabic Internet Names Consortium 2001 JDNA – Japanese Domain Name Assn
Key Issues - I Multilingual Support in Internet Names is imperative 55% of content non-English Rapid Sustained Growth - China/HK/Taiwan, Japan, Korea Rapid growth in developing countries in the region – Thailand, India, Indonesia, Philippines Early phase – Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, etc
Key Issues - II Principle of Least Astonishment for Users Chinese Traditional/Simplified, Kanji/Hirigana/Katakana, Hanguel/Hanja Arabic/Farsi/Urdu/Jawi
Key Issues - III Autonomy Self Determination National Security for authorities
Key Issues - IV Interoperability across languages - Minority Ethnic Groups and Multi-racial societies Indian Languages IndoChinese languages Large minority groups in China – Mongolian, Tibetan etc.
Consequences of Delay Application/Vendor dependent domain names and keywords – already happened Keyword masquerade as domain names – 1 to 3 months National Intranets/Extranets with national language-specific roots imminent in 3 to 6 months Namespace collisions User confusion, dissatisfaction, disservice
Solutions? Demythologise the sacred root of IAB/IANA/IETF/ICANN Liberalisation of the Internet - Distributed Unique Root or multiple but singly coordinated roots? Controlled Economy or Market forces? Mutual respect of all languages and scripts Competence of authority Speed of service Proactive rather than reactive Devolution of responsibility
APNG APNG Commission 1998 gave birth to IDN APNG desires for Internet Digital Divide in our region to be bridged quickly APNG desires early resolution APNG wishes to help and cooperate with other regions APNG has provided technical directions and now hopes to contribute some ideas for future directions in politcal, governance and management
APNG APNG also working on IPv6 IDNs APNG will help and cooperate with MINC in new above DNS solutions such as multilingual multiscript keywords APNG will encourage more AP citizens to participate in Technical solutions in IETF
More Information Website: Info: MINC: AINC: CDNC: JDNA : INFITT: