RE: [registrars] ICANN IDN Registry Implementation Committee

["Ross Wm. Rader" <ross@tucows.com>]

I would request that anyone considering nominating themselves please
consider whether or not they have an appropriate level of technical clue
to ensure that the technical elements of the exercise are not lost to
the policy elements. If you do not, please consider requesting that
someone else from within your organization that does have the requisite
clue volunteer their time.



                       -rwr




"There's a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an
idiot."
- Steven Wright

Got Blog? http://www.byte.org/blog


 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-registrars@dnso.org 
> [mailto:owner-registrars@dnso.org] On Behalf Of Michael D. Palage
> Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2003 12:06 PM
> To: registrars@dnso.org
> Subject: [registrars] ICANN IDN Registry Implementation Committee
> 
> 
> Hello All:
> 
> Listed below please find a request from Stuart Lynn asking 
> for two registrar representatives to serve on the ICANN IDN 
> Registry Implementation Committee. Those interested in 
> serving in this role please make your interests known via the 
> Registrar Mailing list so that the Executive Committee can 
> get these people in place as soon as possible.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Michael D. Palage
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: M. Stuart Lynn [mailto:lynn@icann.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 1:30 PM
> To: Michael Palage
> Cc: Masanobu Katoh
> Subject: ICANN IDN Registry Implementation Committee
> 
> 
> Dear Mike:
> 
> On behalf of Masanobu Katoh, Chair of the ICANN IDN 
> Committee, and myself, I am writing to invite the ICANN 
> Registrars Constituency to appoint two representatives to 
> ICANN's new IDN Registry Implementation Committee.  Given the 
> speed with which IDNA implementation is expected to occur in 
> the major gTLD registries, the participation of registrar 
> representatives in this Committee will be of great 
> importance.  As explained below, the Committee membership is 
> intended for registry- and registrar-level project managers 
> who are currently working on implementation of IDNA.
> 
>     o Purpose of IDN Registry Implementation
>        Committee
> 
> In October, the IESG approved the publication of 
> "Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications" (IDNA) as a 
> standards-track protocol.[1]  The focus of domain name 
> internationalization efforts will now shift from 
> standard-setting by the IETF to implementation by the 
> existing TLD registries that will implement the IDNA protocol 
> at the second-level and below.
> 
> While IDNA is an exciting development for the DNS, it brings 
> with it significant risks.  The DNS functions well in part to 
> due its simplicity of design and clarity of documentation;  
> IDNA represents a new set of complications that must be well 
> understood and accounted for by implementing registries.  For 
> example, the IDNA protocol enables the translation of all 
> Unicode code points into unique ASCII strings.  It has become 
> clear over the past year that collisions, confusion, and 
> other potentially damaging side-effects will arise if 
> registration of all arbitrary characters available in the 
> Unicode encoding system is permitted.  These and other 
> potential problems cannot be solved at the protocol level;  
> they must instead be addressed by registries in their 
> technical implementations and registration policies.
> 
> Because these problems are common to all DNS registries that 
> choose to implement IDNA, it is essential to have a global 
> forum for registry-level dialogue, consultation, and exchange 
> of information, open to the registries, registrars, and 
> technical experts closest to the issue.  Accordingly, in 
> December the ICANN Board directed me, in consultation with 
> Katoh-san, to convene a President's IDN Registry 
> Implementation Committee "to consider and exchange 
> information on ways to resolve the issues associated with 
> implementation of IDN capabilities in existing top level domains."
> 
> The relevant ICANN Board resolutions can be found at:
> 
>     
> <http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-15dec02.htm#IDNCommittee>
> 
> <http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-31oct02.htm#intern
> ationalizeddom
> ainnames>
> 
> For the benefit of Internet users everywhere, it is extremely 
> important that the registries pioneering the implementation 
> of IDNA share information and experiences with each other, 
> particularly on issues of common concern, such as the use of 
> character equivalence tables.  See, for example, the proposed 
> "Internationalized Domain Names Registration and 
> Administration Guideline for Chinese, Japanese and Korean" 
> <http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-jseng-idn-admin-02.txt>.
> 
>     o Membership
> 
> Membership in the IDN Registry Implementation Committee is 
> intended for those who are directly involved in the 
> implementation of IDNA (such as registry-level IDN project 
> managers), and several independent IDN technical experts.
> 
> There is a tension between keeping the committee as open as 
> possible, and keeping it small enough to get its work done.  
> Accordingly, I am advising registries of the following 
> guidelines.  For gTLD and ccTLD registries, I invite any 
> registry that is currently working to implement IDNA within 
> the next six months to nominate someone at the level of a 
> project or technical manager -- in other words, an individual 
> with actual responsibility for IDNA implementation.  For the 
> gTLD registrars, I have invited the Registrars Constituency 
> to name two such individuals from among its member 
> registrars. And for technical expertise, I have invited 
> several of the IETF architects of IDNA to join as well.
> 
> To provide contiunity and to ensure optimal communications, I 
> have invited Katoh-san to chair the new IDN Registry 
> Implermentation Committee while he continues to chair the IDN 
> Committee, and he has graciously agreed to accept this dual 
> role. He has also requested that I serve on the IDN Registry 
> Implementation Committee, and I am pleased to do so.
> 
>     o Schedule & Methods
> 
> The IDN Registry Implementation Committee will begin 
> immediately.  Work will proceed via mailing list and, if 
> needed, the occasional teleconference.
> 
>     o Agenda
> 
> I anticipate that the Committee members will begin by sharing 
> information and plans for registry-level IDN registration and 
> administration policies, including the use of character 
> equivalence tables (such as the CJK guidlines cited above) 
> and the exclusion of certain non-language code point ranges. 
> It is important to emphasize that the committee is not 
> intended to set hard rules for registries, but rather to 
> facilitate dialogue and information sharing so that IDNA 
> project managers can educate and learn from each other and 
> develop common solutions to common problems.
> 
> Both Katoh-San and I hope that you can accept this 
> invitation. We would very much look forward to working with 
> you on these important problems.
> 
> Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Stuart
> 
> 
> [1]  The three standards-track IETF documents comprising IDNA are:
>     - P. Fältström, P. Hoffman and A. Costello, 
> "Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)" (24 
> October 2002), draft-ietf-idn-idna-14.txt
>     - P. Hoffman and M. Blanchet, "Nameprep: A Stringprep 
> Profile for Internationalized Domain Names" (24 October 
> 2002), draft-ietf-idn-nameprep-11.txt
>     - A. Costello, "Punycode: A Bootstring encoding of 
> Unicode for IDNA" (24 October 2002), draft-ietf-idn-punycode-03.txt
> 
> --
> 
> __________________
> Stuart Lynn
> President and CEO
> ICANN
> 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
> Marina del Rey, CA 90292
> Tel: 310-823-9358
> Fax: 310-823-8649
> Email: lynn@icann.org
>