Policy and Coordination in Multilingual Internet Names

Tan Tin Wee

Vice Chairman

Multilingual Internet Names Consortium

(MINC)

Framework of Authority-I

IANA

Names Numbers Protocols

gTLDs ccTLDs APNICARINRIPE

IETF

SRINSIVerisign

CountryNICs/Mngrs

US Govt

LegalGovtContract

Framework of Authority-II

IANA

Names Numbers Protocols

gTLDs ccTLDs APNICARINRIPE

IETF

Verisign/NSI CountryNICs/Mngrs

US Govt

Registries

Registrars

LegalContract

LegalGovtContract

ICANN “Inc”

PSOASODNSO

Stakeholders:ConstituenciesAt Largeetc

GAC

Framework of Authority-III Names

ICANN “Inc”

DNSO

gTLDs ccTLDs

Verisign/NSI CountryNICs/Mngrs

Registries

Registrars

. “root”

.com

.org

.net

.intetc

.us

.jp

.cn

.tvetc

TopLevel Domains TLDs

example.com

www.example.com

geneve.ch

elections.org.sg

Framework of Authority - IV

• US Government Dept of Commerce• IANA original authority• ICANN is in charge of the “Root” inter

alia• ICANN coordinates Insertion of TLDs in

the Root• Delegates authority to gTLDs and

ccTLDs

Justification for authority

• US Government funded the original research, operation of IANA, Jon Postel – Precedence

• Delegated Authority from USG• Universal Acceptance• Government Involvement through GAC• Contractual Agreements between authority and

delegee – Commercial Contract law• Universal Representation from Stakeholders• Hierarchy of authority – ICANN – SOs – Stakeholders• Universal Suffrage of current Internet users?

Multilingual Name Space - I

• New Name Spaces extended from ASCII

• New Technology Originated from Asia Pacific 1998

• Testbed pioneered in Asia 1998/1999

• New Standards with Strong Asian Input in IETF processes 1999

• New Complexities of Languages and Scripts

Multilingual Name Space - II

• New Scenarios of TLDs – language TLDs? ccTLDs and gTLDs in other scripts?

• New Names – IDNs and Keywords• New User communities of non-English

speaking users• New authority/expertise framework nascent –

MINC-INFITT-AINC-CDNC-JDNA-etc 2000-2001

• New Companies – I-DNS.net (1999) Neteka, Netpia, Realnames, Nativenames etc

ICANN ++ response

• IETF Internationalized Domain Name IDN Working Group end 1999/ 2000

• IDN Committee 2001

• Names Council/DNSO IDN WG 2001

• Since 1998 to date.

Different Premises may necessitate Review of Authority

Framework• Is any change required of existing framework of

authority?• Can existing framework be extended to include

the new multilingual namespace?• Can the existing stakeholder base be extended to

the new multilingual stakeholders?• Can the gTLD/ccTLD ICANN authority structure

work for the new multilingual multiscript IDN namespaces?

Authority Matrix in IDNLanguage Script Country/

EconomyExample

1 1 1 Hebrew, Greek

1 M 1 Japanese

1 1 M Russian, Mongolian

M 1 M Ascii, Han, Arabic

1 1 0 Tamil

1 M M Korean

Matrix of Language-Script-Country I

• ManyLanguages-OneScript-ManyCountries – - Latin script-ASCII; - Arabic/Farsi/Urdu/Jawi-Arabic->20countries; -Chinese/Japanese/Korean-Han-China/Japan/Koreas/Taiwan/HK/Macau/Singapore etc.

• OneLanguage-OneScript-OneCountry – Ancient Icelandic-Iceland; Hebrew-IsraelGreek-Greece

• OneLanguage-ManyScripts-OneCountry – Japanese-Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji-Japan

Matrix of Language-Script-Country II• OneLanguage-OneScript-ManyFonts-NoCountry – - Tamil-

Tamil-TamilNadu State+>12countries with Tamil minorities; - American Indian languages; - Indian Languages such as Gujerati, Marathi, etc.

• OneLanguage-OneScript-SeveralCountries – - Mongolian-Mongolian-Mongolia/China; - Russian-Cyrillic-Russia/postSovietUnion states

• OneLanguage-SeveralScripts-SeveralCountries – - Korean-Hanguel/Hanja-NorthKorea/SouthKorea

• Other combinations

Current Status - I

• IDN Technologies available

• Strong IDN demand is proven

• IDN Service providers already present

• IETF IDN standards imminent

Current Status II

• Even more new technologies forthcoming – Growth area

• New Processes available – MINC, INFITT, AINC, JDNA, CDNC

• New businesses and new opportunities and new services in keywords and above-DNS services

Urgency• Multilingual masses shut out of Internet because of

linguistic limitation• IDN Technology/Service Vendors moving forward

with proprietary software – fracturing internet• Alternative Root advocates getting stronger• Application-Dependent/ Vendor Specific Solutions

– Keywords-Realnames/Verisign/Microsoft; AOL keywords; Netscape keywords

• Country Authorities launching their own

MINC

• Multilingual Internet Names Consortium• Coordination of IDN and Keywords• Cooperation with relevant international

organisations – ICANN, IETF, ISOC, ITU, WIPO, etc

• Creation of and fostering of ties with new organisations – AINC, CDNC, JDNA, INFITT, etc

• Formation in 2000

MINC WGs and Other Associated Organisations

• Chinese Domain Names Consortium – CDNC• International Forum for IT in Tamil – INFITT• Arabic Internet Names Consortium – AINC• Japanese Domain Name Association – JDNA• Urdu WG

Russian WGIndian Lang WGGreek Langauge WG etc

MINC Proactive Ongoing Plan• Work with all stakeholders and relevant

organisations – ICANN, ISOC, ITU, WIPO etc• Set up Interoperability Testbed for Technology

testing• Foster growth of new Stakeholder communities

beyond AINC/INFITT/CDNC/JDNC etc for Self Determination process in their own languages

• Formulation of workable authority structures• Formulation of Inter-language group coordination

and dispute resolution• Creation of level playing field for all levels

Policy and Coordination• ICANN IDN Committee mid2001• ICANN Names Council IDN committee late2001• ITU-WIPO-MINC meeting on multilingual domain

names – this conference late 2001.• MINC-AINC MoU and meeting• MINC-CDNC meeting• MINC official support of JDNC• MINC-INFITT MoU• MINC fostering RussianWG, IndianLangWG,

GreekWG, HebrewWG etc.

What Policy/Coordination needed going forward?

• Conservative Central-Control Approach

• Revolutionary Liberal Free-Market Approach

• Something in-between?

Conservative Central-Control Approach

ICANN

DNSO

gTLDs ccTLDs

Verisign/NSIothers

CountryNICs/Mngrs

Registries

Registrars

IDN-TLDs

ccSO? ?SO?

CountryNICs/Mngr ??

Language TLDs ??

Unique RootWith Single Authority

Revolutionary Liberal Free-Market Approach

ICANN

DNSO

gTLDs ccTLDs

Verisign/NSIothers

CountryNICs/Mngrs

Registries

Registrars

IDN-TLDs

ccSO? ??

CountryNICs/Mngr ??

Language TLDs ??

?? ?? ??….

?? ?? ?? ?? ??

Non-Unique RootWith MultipleAuthorities

Other TLDs

Loose or No CoordinationWith colliding namespaces

Other iTLDs

Something in Between?

ICANN

DNSO

gTLDs ccTLDs

Verisign/NSIothers

CountryNICs/Mngrs

Registries

Registrars

IDN-TLDs

ccSO? ??

CountryNICs/Mngr ??

Language TLDs ??

?? ?? ??….

?? ?? ?? ?? ??

Unique Distributed RootWith CoordinatedMultiple AuthoritiesMulti-Lateral

Agreements /Coordination

Past Present Future of IDN• Technically Impossible, but 1998 iDNS proxy• Technically Unimplementable, but 1998 APNG Testbed• No Commercial Interest, but 1998 I-DNS.net Inc• No Demand, but 1999 Overwhelming response• No Standard, but 1999 IETF IDN WG• No Organisation, but 2000 MINC• No Language Support, but 2000/1 CDNC, INFITT,AINC,JDNA

• No Authority, but ICANN IDN Committee, NC IDN WG• No Fair, Equitable, Proactive, Responsive

Authority Structure to address the complexity of languages

When can the non-English speaker start to use IDN?

• Define standards

• Demythologise the unique root

• Devolve authority and responsibility

• Deploy Coordination process

• Delimit and Delegate new IDN TLDs

• More work, mostly political work needed.

Please provide feedback to:

• Tan Tin Wee tinwee@bic.nus.edu.sg

• MINC Website: www.minc.org

• MINC Email: sec@minc.org

• MINC Mailing Lists