[ispcp] IDN Variants -- User (ie ISP) experience -- worthy of conversation and comment

["Mike O'Connor" <mike@xxxxxxxxxx>]

hi all,

i ran inter Peter Jennings at breakfast yesterday and he strongly encouraged me to take a look at the recently published report on the user experience implications of active variant TLDs.  now that i've read it, i strongly encourage *you* to read it as there are profound implications for our members (who will very likely be the front-line point of support when many of these issues arise for our customers).

mikey

here's a link to the public-comment page

	https://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/variant-ux-18jan13-en.htm 

here's a chunk out of the table of contents just to give you a taste of what i'm talking about;

5. Challenges Related to Active Variant TLDs........................................................................ 26 ]

5.1. Challenges with the Use of Variants............................................................................. 27

	• 5.1.1.  Different Users cannot find the complete set of variants for a primary label....... 27

	• 5.1.2.  Variants not intuitive............................................................................................. 27

	• 5.1.3.  Variants are delegated independently ................................................................... 28

	• 5.1.4.  Variants defined inconsistently............................................................................. 28

	• 5.1.5.  Variants displayed inconsistently ......................................................................... 28

	• 5.1.6.  Variants cannot be input by the user..................................................................... 29

	• 5.1.7.  Unable to distinguish specific variants ................................................................. 29

	• 5.1.8.  Identifier not bound to all variants........................................................................ 29

	• 5.1.9.  Accessibility and privacy impacted ...................................................................... 29

	• 5.1.10.  Variants not searchable ......................................................................................... 30

	• 5.1.11.  Search rankings unpredictable .............................................................................. 30

	• 5.1.12.  Search optimization affected by variants .............................................................. 30

	• 5.1.13.  Variants not part of URL/URI/IRI ........................................................................ 31

	• 5.1.14.  Variants cause session re-establishment ............................................................... 31

5.2. Challenges in the Registration and Management of Variants....................................... 31

	• 5.2.1.  Management across IDN TLDs inconsistent ........................................................ 32

	• 5.2.2.  Registration for SLDs across TLDs inconsistent.................................................. 32

	• 5.2.3.  Inconsistent association of ASCII and IDN TLDs ............................................... 32

	• 5.2.4.  Software support inadequate................................................................................. 33

	• 5.2.5.  Registration system not straightforward to localize.............................................. 33

	• 5.2.6.  Registration information inconsistent ................................................................... 34

	• 5.2.7.  Trademark protection tracking complex ............................................................... 34

	• 5.2.8.  Trademark protection dispute process complex ................................................... 34

5.3. Challenges in the Configuration and Diagnostics of Variants...................................... 35

	• 5.3.1.  Software configuration not supported................................................................... 35

	• 5.3.2.  Cannot associate variants for configuration.......................................................... 35

	• 5.3.3.  Compounded certificate management................................................................... 36

	• 5.3.4.  DNSSEC validation inconsistent .......................................................................... 36

	• 5.3.5.  Log and history searching does not match............................................................ 36

	• 5.3.6.  Network traffic statistics incomplete .................................................................... 37

	• 5.3.7.  Caching infrastructure inefficient ......................................................................... 37

	• 5.3.8.  Diagnostic and troubleshooting tools incompatible.............................................. 37

	• 5.3.9.  Forensics significantly more complicated ............................................................ 38

5.4. Traceability between User Principles and Variant Challenges..................................... 39 

PHONE: 651-647-6109, FAX: 866-280-2356, WEB: www.haven2.com, HANDLE: OConnorStP (ID for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)

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