[council] IDN Variant TLD Program - Conclusion of Third Phase

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

https://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-3-21mar13-en.htm
21 March 2013

The IDN Variant TLD Program continues to progress towards a future secure and 
stable delegation of IDN variant TLDs. We are announcing today the conclusion 
of the third (out of four) phase of the Program with the publication of two 
reports: the IDN Root Label Generation Rules (LGR) Procedure, and the User 
Experience Study for Active Variant TLDs.

The Root LGR Procedure defines the process for creating and maintaining the 
Label Generation Rules (LGR) for the DNS root zone. The project team consisted 
of a team of Internet community volunteers from across the globe representing 
multiple scripts and languages, as well as ICANN staff and expert consultants. 
Following two face-to-face meetings, conference and email work discussions, and 
numerous community input processes, including two Public Comment processes, the 
team produced the document entitled "Procedure to Develop and Maintain the 
Label Generation Rules for the DNS Root Zone in Respect of IDNA 
Labels<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/variant-tlds/draft-lgr-procedure-20mar13-en.pdf>"
 [PDF, 1.39 MB].

This document provides a procedure for establishing some of the Label 
Generation Rules for the root zone. The procedure provides a mechanism for 
creating and maintaining the rules with respect to IDN labels for the root. 
This mechanism can be used to determine which Unicode code points are permitted 
for use in U-labels in the root zone, what variants (if any) are possible to 
allocate in the root zone, and what variants (if any) are automatically 
blocked. The mechanism is not the last stage in making determinations about IDN 
labels for the root. Rather, its output is to be consumed by other ICANN 
procedures that actually determine whether a particular label is allocated to 
someone, and whether it is delegated in the root.

The User Experience Study examines issues that end-users, system 
administrators, application developers, and other users might face when IDN 
variant TLDs are activated. Incorporating inputs from public sessions, a 
Webinar, and two Public Comment periods, ICANN staff and expert consultants 
produced the report entitled "Examining the User Experience Implications of 
Active Variant 
TLDs<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/variant-tlds/active-ux-21mar13-en.pdf>"
 [PDF, 1.38 MB].

The report: 1) summarizes and compares, from a user experience and registry 
management perspective, variant practices in several ccTLD registries; 2) 
proposes a set of guiding principles to define an acceptable user experience; 
and 3) identifies how various user communities (e.g., end users, system/network 
administrators, application developers, registrants, registrars and registries) 
will be impacted by active variant top-level domains, and 4) based on 1, 2, and 
3, proposes a set of recommendations to ensure the security, stability and 
acceptable user experience for active variant top-level internationalized 
domains.

These documents benefited from significant community participation. ICANN 
wishes to express its gratitude to all of the volunteers, reviewers, 
commentators, and the subject matter experts who contributed to these reports.

ICANN is holding a public session<http://beijing46.icann.org/sched-overview> at 
the ICANN Beijing meeting on the IDN Variant TLD Program to explain the 
Procedure and the results from the Study. In the meantime, work continues to 
ensure a secure and stable delegation of IDN variant TLDs once the IDN Variant 
TLD Program has finished its work, which is expected by June 2014. The original 
plan is being followed as indicated by the Board resolution on 25 September 
2010<https://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/documents/resolutions-25sep10-en.htm#2.5>
 and the IDN ccTLD Fast Track 
Process<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/fast-track>

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