Registrants of existing .com domain names are well positioned for coming release of IDN TLDs.

For years, domainers have been investing in Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) that use non-Latin characters. But these have all been IDN at the second level only, as there currently aren’t any top level domain names in non-Latin characters. So an internet user has to type the second level domain using one character set and then append “.com” to the end.

But that’s about to change, beginning with a select number of IDN country code domain names. Then, if everything goes as planned, entities will be able to apply for generic top level domain names in different scripts as part of the new gTLD process.

So what does this mean for people who bought idn.com domain names? They were banking on .com registry VeriSign getting the rights to “.com equivalents” in other scripts and languages and offering those to the existing registrants of IDN.com. As of right now, that looks like a good bet.

“Nothing is in concrete yet,” said Chuck Gomes, Vice President of Policy and Compliance for VeriSign Information Services. “But I think it’s a pretty well agreed-to plan.”

Essentially, if you have a second level .com domain name, then you’ll get the right to “activate” that second level domain in any of the .com-equivalent IDNs that VeriSign gets. The same goes for .net.

“We want the .com name to be a unique experience for .com regardless of what script you do it in,” said Gomes.

Gomes said it’s too early to tell how many IDN equivalents of .com and .net VeriSign might apply for. “We can’t predict what ICANN will do in terms of the application process,” Gomes explained. “I can say that the business unit is considering applying for ’several’ IDN versions of .com in some of the scripts that are available.”

Owners of a .com that want to activate a .com-equivalent-IDN may need to pay a fee to do so. “The way I understand it right now, if you want to activate andrew.chinese-version-of-.com, there will be a fee, although that hasn’t been determined,” said Gomes.

However, domain registrants won’t be required to activate IDN TLDs just to keep them out of the hands of other people. The .com equivalent IDNs will always be reserved for whomever has the second level domain. This also means that, once IDN TLDs are released, if someone registers keyword.com-equivalent-IDN, no one else can register keyword.com.

The management of these activated IDN domain names will take place at the registrar. It likely won’t be possible to transfer ownership of one .com-equivalent IDN to another person while a registrant still has another .com-equivalent-IDN or .com of the same second level domain.

VeriSign’s current plan is that an activated IDN will work much like any other domain name, giving registrants full control such as nameservers. “If you want to create a web site around that [Chinese IDN TLD] you can, or you can point the Chinese version to your existing web site,” explained Gomes.

The idea of IDN equivalents of existing top level domain names could create some interesting situations, however. Although they have the presumptive right of renewal, registries such as VeriSign and Public Interest Registry merely have a contract to manage domain names such as .com and .org. If these registries get the IDN equivalents of these top level domain names and then lose the main contract, that would result in two different registries controlling what are essentially equivalent TLDs.

“How would that all happen, I don’t know that I know the answer to that, or if that would ever happen,” Gomes said, referring to the potential conflict. “It creates some complications that I don’t think anybody would want.”

source: http://domainnamewire.com

One area of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process about which questions have arisen is community support for the IDN ccTLD and how such support can be demonstrated. I have provided some clarification here that I hope is helpful to present and future IDN ccTLD Fast Track participants.

None of this information replaces or changes the information available and defined in the Final Implementation Plan for the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process. It is merely an elaboration of that published information.

First, note that community support for a string is different and specifies different requirements than community support for the IDN ccTLD sponsoring organization.

• Support for the string is required in the String Evaluation step of the Fast Track Process.
• Support for the sponsoring organization is required later, during the String Delegation step of the Fast Track Process.
This separation in process means:

1. Evaluation of the desired string is completely separate and distinct from evaluation of the appropriate sponsoring organization for an IDN ccTLD.

2. The sponsoring organization does not need to be identified until the String Delegation step begins.

3. Only rarely would the same documentation be appropriate to demonstrate support for both a string and its sponsoring organization, as two different types of support are being required and evaluated.

• While the letters requesting string selection and support involve a requester stating preferences for a string, the letters involved in the delegation process are used to corroborate a selection process and a community consensus-building process for the proposed operator.

The community string support requirement specifically ensures that the Internet community takes part in the decision for a string.

This requirement is part of the Linguistic Process Validation in the Final Implementation Plan, as stated here:

That the received documentation of community support for the string(s) is satisfactory.
• This should be demonstrated in a similar manner as required for delegation requests, see Module 5, Appendix 2 for guiding information.

The nature of community support can, and is expected to, vary from country to country and between territories. Differences in cultures mean different ways of consulting Internet users, and hence different ways of gathering the necessary supporting material. Signed form letters are not considered adequate for participants to express their support.

Despite the difference in the approach taken, the selection of a string to represent a country or territory must be in the interests of the Internet user community of the country or territory. Thus, there should be dialogue in the country or territory about what string(s) should be selected to best support the local Internet community.

The following are examples of questions a requester may be asked. They enable staff to successfully complete the Linguistic Process validation.

In particular we are looking for information such as:

1. What kind of dialogue, outreach, survey or other types of events has taken place to select the string requested?

2. How was consensus reached on the requested string during such activities?

3. What alternative strings were considered and why were they rejected?

4. Was any opposition to the requested string received? If yes, which?

In evaluating these information elements, staff will put weight on a process that:

• Allows for people that do not have the same view to participate;

• Is open and consultative; and

• Allows differing points of view to be expressed.

In addition, it is helpful for a requester to provide a chronology or narrative of the process (not just the final decision), and at least a general description of who had access to, or was involved in, the event(s) at which the decision was reached.

source: blog.icann.org

Dhaka Feb 21 (bdnews24.com) — Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has filed a formal application to the global internet body to include Bangla in Country Code Top Level Domain or ccTLD for a greater recognition of the language in the world community.

Watched by a minister and senior civil servants at her Hare Road home on Sunday, Hasina went online to file the application on behalf of Bangladesh.

For 300 million Bangla-speaking people in the world — more than half in Bangladesh — this will facilitate web browsing in their mother tongue, the BTRC said in a statement.

The bid, which may take 6-9 months to materialise, was launched exactly 58 years after students laid down their lives on the streets of Dhaka to retain their rights to speak Bangla as state language.

The government decided to use ‘.বাংলা’ as primary string and ‘.বাংলাদেশ’, ‘.বং’, ‘.বঙ্গ’, ‘.বিডি’ as variant strings.

So far, 17 countries have applied to ICANN, the global custodian for domain names and systems, with Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia and UAE getting their applications approved on Jan 21.

“This will help expedite the inclusion of Bangla as one of the official languages of the UN,” the BTRC said.

Officials say Bangla domain names will also make search engines more efficient for content in the language.

They say getting domain names of choice will be a lot easier and that protection of content copyright for local websites will be possible.

Click here for the story in Bangla

Source: http://bdnews24.com

IDN TLDs: pre-registrations, declined requests, and other misconceptions
Recent statements and speculations have been made concerning the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process and related issues. People seem to be most concerned about:

• ICANN denying some countries/territories access to the Fast Track Process
• ICANN approving IDN ccTLDs
• The notion of pre-registrations in new TLDs

This blog post is intended to set the record straight on these matters.

Is ICANN denying access to the Fast Track Process?
Let me be very clear: The Fast Track Process for submitting requests for IDN ccTLD strings is available to all eligible countries and territories. Statements like ICANN has refused IDN ccTLDs to some countries are incorrect. ICANN encourages eligible countries and territories to participate in the process and submit their IDN ccTLD requests.

This is an exciting new opportunity for Internet users around the world, and we would like to see as many users being served by these new initiatives as possible and as are deemed useful.

ICANN also has a support function in place at idncctldrequest@icann.org for interested parties.

So far, ICANN has received 17 requests encompassing 10 languages. These numbers will be updated from time to time at http://icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/.

To comply with the confidentiality requirements of the process, ICANN cannot disclose any additional information. We cannot state whether a particular request has been received, or how far along the process a request is. We understand that the public has a great deal of interest in potential future IDN ccTLDs, and therefore some requesting entities have elected to publicly disclose information about their requests.

However, the only time ICANN can make information available about a request is after it successfully passes the String Evaluation step.

What strings are ‘approved’ and what does it mean?
Four IDN ccTLD strings were recently announced as successfully completing the String Evaluation step of the Fast Track Process. These requests are associated with Egypt, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The full announcement is here: http://icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-21jan10-en.htm.

However, passing the String Evaluation step is not the same as saying that ICANN approved these TLDs. These four entities must go through the final step in the Fast Track Process – String Delegation. The String Delegation step must be initiated by the respective country or territory, and that can only be done with requests that have successfully met the String Evaluation criteria. String Delegation follows the same ICANN IANA process that is used for ASCII-based ccTLDs, and thus String Delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management.

Only after String Delegation takes place will these TLDs be in the DNS root zone, and only then can resolutions requests against them be performed. In other words, this is when domains can be registered and used.

Has ICANN authorized pre-registration of TLD domain names?
ICANN has not authorized pre-registration of domain names in any potential future TLDs.

The reason is simple: There is no way to be sure that a certain string will become a TLD and hence available for domain name registration until all steps in the associated evaluation and delegation processes are successfully completed.

ICANN has previously posted warnings concerning speculative pre-registrations, and those warnings are still informative. You can review them at http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/icann-pr29sep00.htm

As of February 1st 2010 registration of domain names with special characters in them, like for example a letter with an accent, called Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) .lu will be possible. Acceptable special caracters are those communly used in Luxembourgish, German and French languages.

There will be a two months sunrise period between February 1^st 2010 and March 31^st 2010. During this sunrise period owners of registered .lu names will be able to register the identical names with special caracters. After this sunrise period beginning April 1^st 2010 IDN registrations will be open for everybody and performed on a “first-come, first-served basis”.

The allowed character for IDN will be those necessary for Luxemburgish, French or German. Besides the currently accepted caracters (a-z, 0-9, – (hyphen)) these are:

• U+00E4 Latin small letter a with diaeresis (ä)
• U+00F6 Latin small letter o with diaeresis (ö)
• U+00FC Latin small letter u with diaeresis (ü)
• U+00E0 Latin small letter a with grave (à)
• U+00E2 Latin small letter a with circumflex (â)
• U+00E6 Latin small letter ae (æ)
• U+00E7 Latin small letter c with cedilla (ç)
• U+00E8 Latin small letter e with grave (è)
• U+00E9 Latin small letter e with acute (é)
• U+00EA Latin small letter e with circumflex (ê)
• U+00EB Latin small letter e with diaeresis (ë)
• U+00EE Latin small letter i with circumflex (î)
• U+00EF Latin small letter i with diaeresis (ï)
• U+00F4 Latin small letter o with circumflex (ô)
• U+00F9 Latin small letter u with grave (ù)
• U+00FB Latin small letter u with circumflex (û)
• U+0153 Latin small ligature oe (œ)

The domain names eligible during the sunrise period are those derived from an existing domain name by replacing one or more characters with the same base character with a diacritic, or by applying the general replacement convention (e.g. ü=ue).

Mapping table:

• a: à, â, ä
• c: ç
• e: é, è, ê, ë
• i: î, ï
• o: ô, ö
• u: ù, û, ü
• ae: æ, ä
• oe: œ, ö
• ue: ü

An IDN must be registered to the same holder (same name, same address) as the similar ASCII domain name. The registrar does not have to be the same for both names. Trade of IDNs registered during the sunrise period will be blocked until the end of the sunrise (March 31^st).

Removal of the obligation of the administrative contact to be established in Luxembourg

As of February 1^st 2010 domain name holders which are established outside Luxembourg are not no longer obliged to give valid power of attorney to an agent established in Luxembourg for the registration and the management of their domain name.

Removal of the reservation of domain names of Luxembourg municipality and village names on behalf of local authorities

As of January 1^st 2011 domain names containing the name of any Luxembourg municipality or village name will become available to any interested party independent of its nationality and residence. Domain names belonging to this category remain reserved for local administration until January 1^st 2011.

Opening of registration of Temporary blocked domain names

Domain names which have been rejected under former registration policies and which have been identified as Temporary blocked domain names, will become available for registration during 2010. Details of the registration process, as well as the date of release will be published in due time.

Luxembourg .lu domain names rank amongst the most secure in the world

The .lu domain is one of the world’s securest top-level domains (TLD). That is the conclusion of an annual survey by US security software company McAfee. Luxembourg ranks on the 2nd position among the 27 EU countries, just behind Ireland. Luxembourg domain is 4th among worldwide country domains tested, where Japan (.jp) is the safest country domain globally, Ireland’s .ie domain came second, followed by Croatia (.hr) and Luxembourg (.lu). McAfee checked out more than 5.750 .lu websites to arrive at the rating. Cameroon (cm) is the least secure domain worldwide. The risk of being infected by a computer virus when surfing is 69,7 percent when visiting a website from Cameroon (.cm). In Luxembourg, by contrast, it is only 0,3 percent. Of all the websites tested worldwide, 5.8 percent are rated as insecure.

“It is reassuring to see .lu in the upper part of the worldwide security level”, said Antoine Barthel, managing director of RESTENA Foundation which operates the .lu registry DNS-LU. “McAfee’s findings confirm that our continuous efforts and investments to make the .lu domain one of the most secure produce outstanding performances”.

You can download McAfee’s document (at McAfee)

The first four IDN ccTLD requests has just been announced as having completed the String Evaulation portion of the Fast Track Process.

These are associated with: Egypt, the Russian Federation, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

See the full announcement here: http://icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-21jan10-en.htm

So what does that mean?

It means that these may now initiate the String Delegation process, which is the last step before the strings are actually in the DNS root zone and hence available for use.

The remaining 12 requests are still being processed and at ICANN we are very much looking forward to completing more requests as well as receiving additional new requests

Overall, the Fast Track Process has three main steps:

1) Preparation (by the requester in the country / territory). Community consensus is built for which IDN ccTLD to apply for, how it is run, and which organization will be running it, along with preparing and gathering all the required supporting documentation.

2) String Evaluation: incoming requests to ICANN in accordance with the criteria described above: the technical and linguistic requirements for the IDN ccTLD string(s). Applications are received through an online system available together with additional material supporting the process at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

3) String Delegation: requests successfully meeting string evaluation criteria are eligible to apply for delegation following the same ICANN IANA process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs. String delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management.

The IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process was launched on 16 November 2009. As of that date eligible countries and territories were able to request their respective IDN ccTLD(s) through the process.

The process entails three steps: (i) Preparations in country/territory (ii) String Evaluation, and (iii) String Delegation.

All steps are described in detail in the Final Implementation Plan [PDF, 498K].

The IDN ccTLDs and associated details listed in the below table represent those IDN ccTLD requests that have successfully completed Step 2: String Evaluation.

• The primary string(s) represent the string that the requester now may seek for IDN ccTLD delegation.
• The desired variant string(s) are strings allocated to the requester. This does not mean that they will be delegated in the DNS root zone. They will be allocated to the requester in order to be reserved to the entitled manager for potential future delegation in the DNS root zone. Read the rest of this entry »

ICANN is pleased to announce the successful completion of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track String Evaluation for four (4) proposed IDN ccTLDs. The requests are associated with: Egypt, the Russian Federation, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. Details of the successful evaluations are provided here.

The IDN (Internationalised Domain Name) ccTLD Fast Track Process was approved by the ICANN Board at its annual meeting in Seoul, South Korea on 30 October 2009. First requests were received starting 16 November 2009. The process enables countries and territories to submit requests to ICANN for IDN ccTLDs, representing their respective country or territory names in scripts other than Latin. IDN ccTLD requesters must fulfil a number of requirements:

• the script used to represent the IDN ccTLDs must be non-Latin;
• the languages used to express the IDN ccTLDs must be official in the corresponding country or territory; and
• a specific set of technical requirements must be met (as evaluated by an external DNS Stability Panel comprised of DNS and IDN experts).

The request and evaluation processes entail three steps:

1. Preparation (by the requester in the country / territory). Community consensus is built for which IDN ccTLD to apply for, how it is run, and which organization will be running it, along with preparing and gathering all the required supporting documentation.
2. String Evaluation: incoming requests to ICANN in accordance with the criteria described above: the technical and linguistic requirements for the IDN ccTLD string(s). Applications are received through an online system available together with additional material supporting the process at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/
3. String Delegation: requests successfully meeting string evaluation criteria are eligible to apply for delegation following the same ICANN IANA process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs. String delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management.

At this time ICANN has received a total of 16 requests for and IDN ccTLD through the String Evaluation process, representing eight languages. Four of these have now successfully passed through the String Evaluation and are hence ready for the requesting country or territory to initiate the application for String Delegation.

ICANN is looking forward to the String Delegation function for these four requests, as well as finalizing the remaining received requests in String Evaluation, and receiving additional new requests in the Fast Track Process. A staff support function is available to help all countries and territories interested in participating in the Fast Track Process. Please email idncctldrequests@icann.org for any inquiries for participation.

Updates about received numbers of applications and the number of completions will continue to be provided on the Fast Track Process web page at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

Press Release: http://www.icann.org/en/news/releases/release-21jan10-en.pdf [PDF, 36K]

HKIRC announced that ‘.香港’ registrations will be offered free to all ‘.hk’ customers in the second half of 2010 with the aim of helping them develop their sites with full Chinese domain names.  This is to increase the popularity of Chinese domain names and to maximize benefits to the Internet community, and ultimately to sustain the status of Hong Kong as a digital city.
HKIRC has rigorously planned and submitted an application to administer ‘.香港’ since the approval of the Internationalized Domain Name Country Code Top Level Domains (IDNccTLDs), at a meeting held by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Seoul.

Mr Jonathan Shea, CEO of HKIRC said: “The objective of HKIRC is to provide ‘.hk’ registration services and promote usage of the Internet.  Through the timely introduction of ‘.香港’ domain, Chinese and English domain names will become complementary to each other, fostering the growth of the Internet community as well as leveraging on the market potential of the huge Chinese-speaking population of one billion-plus.  The introduction can also cater for the demands of the local users who prefer to use their own dialect.

According to a survey conducted by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), over 60% of netizens feel that domains in local dialects can help people to search sites, and are useful for promotion.  Moreover, over 55% of domain users said localized domains could help to extend the influence of mainland brands on the Internet.  Since a number of Chinese netizens expressed support for the opening of IDN registrations, it is estimated that the majority of the current 180,000 ‘.hk’ users will register a Chinese ‘.香港’ domain in the future.

The local community is keenly anticipating and supporting the introduction of ccTLD ‘.香港’. A number of enquiries have been received from corporations, organisations, small-and-medium enterprises, and reputable brands such as Sino Group, Lung Wah (龍華乳鴿), and the creative online exchange platform Anyidea.hk, which are looking forward to using ‘.香港’ domain to showcase the quality and creative branding of Hong Kong to explore further business opportunities.

Speedy Group, one of HKIRC’s industry partners, also welcomes the release of ‘.香港’. Speedy Group has said that the new measures will change the domain name market dominated by English, and that ‘.香港’ will eliminate language obstacles and help explore new market potential.

”After the ‘.香港’ introduction, existing English or Chinese ‘.hk’ domain name holders will soon be able to use full Chinese characters in web names.  It is expected that most of the applications will be submitted by corporate brands, government departments, not-for-profit organisations and small-and-medium enterprises, as well as for generic domain names like flower shop, food and garment.  We look forward to accelerating and promoting Internet adoption and development, ultimately solidifying the status of Hong Kong as a leading digital city,” added Mr. Shea.