[registrars] Re: [minc-org-member] MINC Press Release on Interoperability Testingfor IDN (fwd)

[Rick Wesson <wessorh@ar.com>]

FYI

-rick


----- Original Message -----


From: "Tan Tin Wee" <tinwee@bic.nus.edu.sg>
Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2002 6:18 PM
Subject: [minc-org-member] MINC Press Release on Interoperability Testing for
IDN


>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> MINC ANNOUNCES INTEROPERABILITY TESTING FOR INTERNATIONALIZED DOMAIN NAMES
>
> 4 November 2002.
>
> In 2001, MINC announced an initiative to carry out an Interoperability
> Testing of the many solutions for Internationalised Domain Names (IDN)
> currently offered by its members and others. At that time, the
> Interoperability Testing was contingent on the publication of Internet
> standards on IDN by the IDN Working Group of the Internet Engineering
> Task Force (IETF).
>
> As of last week, the Internet Engineering Steering Group IESG has
> announced the publication of proposed IETF standards in IDN. Having had
> more than a year of background work on Interoperability Testing, until
> now being placed on hold, MINC is ideally positioned to coordinate an
> orderly deployment of IDN through the first step of determining conformance
> to IETF standards via its Interoperability Testing.
>
> At the Second meeting (2002/2003 session) of the new MINC Board, including
> six new recently elected board members, MINC passed a resolution to approve
> the Interoperability Testing process, and to endorse the expeditious
> execution of this testing process to ensure that the many solutions offered
> by vendors and providers of IDNs currently in the market not only conform
> to the standards, but can also fully interoperate with each other. This
> is essential for the proper delivery of reliable and robust IDN services
> to the user community.
>
> In proceeding with the Interoperability Testing, MINC shall shortly be
> announcing a call for setting up an Interoperability TestBed, and a
> subsequent call for participation. The testing is expected to be
> multi-faceted, including testing for registries, registrars, user
> applications and will involve enduser testing as well, each
> progressively released subject to stakeholder feedback and
> MINC processes.
>
> In proceeding with this, the new Chairman of MINC, Khaled Fattal, said,
> "The whole IDN community has long awaited this IDN Interoperability Testing.
>
> It will provide a level playing field for all vendors and providers to
> ensure that in their implementation of the IETF standards, that their
> solutions do not break or balkanise the Internet."
>
> "As a founding organisation to pioneer the call for IDNs, MINC has come a
> long way. To me, it is gratifying to see that finally, IDNs are recognised
> officially, from APTLD to ITU, from IETF to ICANN," said the original
> implementor and early champion of IDNs, Tan Tin Wee, a professor from the
> National University
> of Singapore. "These days, everyone seems to be organising
> their IDN committees and working groups - it's about time," he added.
>
> Newly inducted Board Member, Mr Charles Lee declared, "MINC is now taking
> on an industry-led mantle. Going forward, we shall focus on SERVICE to the
> community, ENGAGEMENT of key issues, and COOPERATION with all stakeholders
> and entities dedicated to the promotion, deployment, coordination and
> governance of IDNs."
>
> So far, MINC has contributed its first founding Chairman, Professor SH
> Kyong, to the ICANN Board of Directors. Its new Board member, K Konishi,
> has been the key driver of the Joint Engineering Taskforce (JET). Its
> second Chairman, Professor Shigeki Goto, is also the current chairman of
> the Japan Domain Names Association (JDNA). MINC's board member, S Maniam,
> is a working group chairman from the International Forum for IT in
> Tamil (INFITT). The former MINC CEO, Ms YJ Park, has also been
> active in the Names Council of ICANN, and ambassador extraordinaire for
> MINC to many international organisations. In view of the excellent
> connections  amongst key players in the field, MINC is well placed to
> provide an important service to the community and seeks the cooperation
> and participation of stakeholders in this critical moment of the evolution
> of Internet domain names in all scripts of all languages.
>
>
> About MINC
> --------------
> MINC is the Multilingual Internet Names Consortium, formed in 2000 from
> a wide diversity of stakeholders committed towards the promotion and
> coordination of the deployment of internationalized domain names (IDN)
> and other Internet names in all languages and scripts. As MINC
> increasingly evolves to an industry-led consortium, its key initiative
> is to ensure an orderly deployment of IDNs. MINC has a memorandum of
> understanding with the Tamil international language group, INFITT, and was
> involved in the formation of the Arabic Internet Names Consortium, AINC.
> It has active connections with Russian Cyrillic groups, EUROLINC, the
> European Languages Internet Names Consortium, FIAM, and has cooperated
> with JDNA, ITU, WIPO, ICANN and many others to hold joint meetings to
> popularise the notion of Internet domain names in languages and scripts
> of all nations. Organisational Membership is open to all
> interested organisations. Individual Membership is currently free.
> http://www.minc.org/
>
>
> MEDIA CONTACT:
> MINC Secretariat
> c/o Dr TW Tan sec@minc.org
> TEL:  +65-9664-0347
>