Re: [registrars] ICANN IDN Registry Implementation Committee

[Rick Wesson <wessorh@ar.com>]

Registrars:

The following individuals have been nominated to serve on the ICANN IDN
Registry Implementation Committee. Please use your account on
http://www.boardrooms.org to cast your ballot.


  Edmon Chung (Neteka Inc/NamesBeyond.Com)
  Yann Courtel (momentous.com)
  Jody Kolker (godaddy)


If the nominees could post a little about themselves so we can understand
their experience with IDN [1] and how it pertains to the registrar
perspective.

the original request is included below.

-rick


[1] http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/idn-charter.html


On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, Michael D. Palage wrote:

> 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#internationalizeddom
> 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
>