Re: [wg-c] S/K principles [Was: Working Group C agenda]

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Fri, Apr 07, 2000 at 10:55:16AM +0800, tinwee@pobox.org.sg wrote:
> > The problem will be the string, for example .union has a complete different
> > meaning in France (so in french) than in English !!!!!!! and may be it's an
> > insult in some other language...so Do we have the goal to invent a global
> > language????????
> 
> This is all the more reason there should be support for
> multilingualism to be fair to all languages and peoples of the world.

While they may seem related, to me the term "support for
multilingualism" implies something rather different, something usually
called "internationalization": a facility in the DNS to support multiple
character sets.  That issue is orthogonal to the issue before us, which
is that TLD names, whether they support international character sets or
not, need a broad public review before they are approved, and there
should be a process for that review. 

For the proposed initial rollout, however, there won't have a process.  
In practice, the only TLD names that have had really broad public review
are the IAHC 7, which in fact went through a public comment process, 
and have been widely exposed for a couple of years now.

-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Do good, and you'll be
kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain