<<<
Chronological Index
>>> <<<
Thread Index
>>>
[ga] IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process Launch
- To: "ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Subject: [ga] IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process Launch
- From: Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:16:55 -0800
IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process Launch
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-16nov09-en.htm
16 November 2009
ICANN is pleased to announce the launch of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process.
Non-English speakers across the globe will soon have access to the Internet
addresses completely in their own language. The Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization charged with overseeing
the Internet's naming and numbering systems, is today launching a process for
delegating a number of internationalized top-level domains.
IDNs are domain names that include characters other than the currently
available set of the English alphabet (the 26 letters "a-z", numbers 0 to 9,
and hyphens). ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush noted, "The IDN program will
encompass close to one hundred thousand characters, opening up the Internet to
billions of potential users around the globe."
ICANN President Rod Beckstrom described the importance of this change to the
global Internet community, "Over half the Internet users around the world don't
use a Latin-based script as their native language. IDNs are about making the
Internet more global and accessible for everyone."
Starting November 16, 2009 at 00:00UTC ICANN will accept requests from
representatives of countries and territories around the world for new Internet
extensions that represent their country name and are made up of non-Roman
characters.
Once the requests are evaluated and approved, Internet extensions are expected
to come online in many countries during 2010.
"This is the biggest technical change to the Internet's addressing system - the
Domain Name System - in many years," said Tina Dam, ICANN's Senior Director of
Internationalized Domain Names. "Right now, it's not possible to get a domain
name entirely in for example Chinese characters or Arabic characters. This is
about to change."
It's important to note that ICANN will not accept direct registration
applications for second-level domain names - the part before the Internet
extension or suffix - from individuals, companies, or organizations. The
ability for people to get a domain name in their language will come later -
through a process determined by the entity that successfully applies for an IDN
country-code top-level.
The IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process is available online now, including an online
request form, a manual describing how to apply, a list of Frequently Asked
Questions, ICANN's final implementation plan, and brief history of the Fast
Track process.
All material and access to the system is available at:
http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/
Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat
gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://gnso.icann.org
<<<
Chronological Index
>>> <<<
Thread Index
>>>
|