[council] Public Comment: Draft Proposal for the Study of Issues Related to the Delegation of IDN Variant TLDs

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-5-21feb11-en.htm
Public Comment: Draft Proposal for the Study of Issues Related to the 
Delegation of IDN Variant TLDs

21 February 2011
Explanation/Background:

The delegation and management of Variant TLDs remains an important issue. The 
ICANN community seeks to develop solutions to enable the delegation of Variant 
TLDs for the benefit of users in different regions.

Today, ICANN is publishing for public comment a Draft Proposal for an IDN 
Variant Issues Project - a proposal for moving this work forward.

On 25 September 2010 the Board of Directors of the Internet Corporation for 
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) directed the CEO "to develop an issues 
report identifying what needs to be done with the evaluation, possible 
delegation, allocation and operation of gTLDs containing variant characters 
IDNs as part of the new gTLD process in order to facilitate the development of 
workable approaches to the deployment of gTLDs containing variant characters 
IDNs." (http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-25sep10-en.htm-2.5)

The proposed project work plan includes a series of case studies to investigate 
issues associated with delegating and using IDN variant TLDs in different 
communities, a staffing plan involving community members and a resource 
allocation plan. Importantly, this work will be coordinated with the Joint IDN 
Working Group and other community work on this topic. ICANN will also engage 
with the IETF to coordinate the consideration of technical issues associated 
with IDN variant TLDs delegation.

ICANN is also planning to conduct a workshop at the San Francisco meeting to 
discuss the Draft Proposal. In this session, representatives from different 
language communities will be invited to provide an overview of the potential 
issues with IDN variant TLDs.
Document Links:

    * Draft Proposal: IDN Variant Issues Project [PDF, 393 KB]

The Process From Here:

At the end of this Public Comment Forum period, ICANN will review the comments 
submitted and prepare a summary analysis of the various submissions, and 
consider changes to the work plan based on public comments.
Deadline and How to Submit Comments:

At the direction of the Board, ICANN is opening a 45-day public consultation 
forum, from 21 February through 6 April 2011 and invites community comments 
concerning any/all elements of the proposal for "IDN Variant Issues Project".

The formal Public Comment Forum Box is located here: 
http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/public-comment-201104-en.htm#idn-variant-tld
To submit comments: idn-variant-tld@xxxxxxxxx
To view comments: http://forum.icann.org/lists/idn-variant-tld/
Staff Member Responsible: Kurt Pritz


Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat
gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://gnso.icann.org