[council] NC IDN TF update - 3 Oct 2002

[Elisabeth Porteneuve <Elisabeth.Porteneuve@cetp.ipsl.fr>]

Since the Summer 2000, when the issue of Internationalized
Domain Names became a public subject, each IETF meeting was 
expected to bring the answer and the day of implementation.
We have been listening many people saying (and I think believing) 
"very soon now".

The NC IDN TF has been set up in July 2001
http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/nc-idn/Arc00/
and has been quite active until February 2002 in gathering 
informations and listening on extremely complex and difficult 
subject, from every perspective, technical, linguistical, 
legal, security, and policy.

In Autoumn 2001 the ICANN IDN Committee has been put in place,
and I have been nominated there by the Names Council.
The ICANN IDN Committee, international and comprised of eminent 
experts in languages and name servers techniques, and led
by Masanobu Katoh from Japan, has been given the task
to analyse the IDN related issues in depth, with essential
collaboration from Asian collegues, and with dedicated staff support.

The ICANN IDN Committee published its Final Report in Bucharest
http://www.icann.org/committees/idn/final-report-27jun02.htm

Due to efforts from every side the Internet communities
perceive today how complex and potentially-problematic
the IDN issues are.

We know today that if the IDN solution proposed in the IETF 
will end up being a standard (which is not clear yet), it will
take a long time to implement it, as it is not only related
to the domain names stricto sensu.

My perception is that in 2002 the IDN issue became much more mature
and well understood. The role of the NC IDN TF could be
to watch the developpment of IDN matters at IETF and elswhere,
be in contact with ICANN IDN Committee, and to advice the NC of
any issues arising.

Elisabeth
NC IDN TF Chair