The ICANNblog

IDNs on the…. “Fast Track”?

By Chuck Kisselburg

With ICANN’’s conference in New Delhi behind us now (February 10th – 15th) the topic of IDNs was one of the hot topics of this conference. In fact, New Delhi was a great place to showcase the progress of IDNs for several reasons.

1). India has 22 “official” languages.
2). India is part of a dynamic region, a region with MANY languages (portions of the Middle East, Southern Asia as well as Southeast Asia.). Not only does this region support a large number of varied languages, it has an even greater number of diverse cultures.

Being that IDNs will prove to have a significant impact to the whole global Internet community, my next couple of posts will focus around IDNs and what it means to members of the ICANN “community”. As such I have asked a couple of members of our “community” about their thoughts on the subject.

Through my previous writings you know that I am keenly in favor of IDNs since I see the value this can bring to the local “community”. In other words, I see IDNs bringing a whole new social aspect to users of the Internet, helping to increase this global community. While some feel IDNs are a way for registrars, and ICANN, finding a way to obtain more money, and others feel IDNs dilute the very reason of the Internet, that being bringing people together, what I appreciate most about IDNs is the impact this will have in preserving cultures. Who better to be aware of the many cultures of this globe than this community of ours?

Then there are applications. Will applications be IDN “aware”? For more information on this, please visit my previous blog post on practical implications of IDNs.

I approached my first ICANN conference in LA with great enthusiasm about IDNs. I had a great time meeting members of this global community and enjoyed listening to what they had to say. When it came to IDNs, however, it is an understatement to say I received an ear full, especially when talking about IDNs being on ICANN’s “fast track”.

The topic of IDNs is not new. In fact, this is something people within our global community have been working towards for years. There is no doubt that much needs to be considered when moving forward with IDNs, but on the “fast track”? At the LA conference ICANN was demoing concepts of how IDNs can work. This is not a fast track?

As mentioned earlier, when I talked with people at the conference (regular attendees as well as sitting committee members) I received an earful about the topic of “IDNs” and “fast track”. It seems the same word kept coming up in each conversation: “China”.

What I learned was China has been working on an initiative to bring Internet connectivity to as many residents of China as possible – even down to the small towns throughout the country. When you think of China’s population, our global online community will thus be expanding at an unprecedented rate. What impact would this have on the stability of the root servers? Hmmmmm…… In fact, as I continued to listen to those at the LA conference, China was moving forward, even if it meant they would manage and own their own root servers, with or without ICANN’s involvement. So it appears that what “fast track” movement on IDNs we have seen from ICANN appears to be due to China’s initiative and progress. If China moves forward on its own with its own root server(s) would it send today’s root servers into a state of imbalance? What if China refuses to sign ICANN’s “Mutual Responsibilities Agreement” outlining mutual responsibilities on the operation of root servers; as ICANN recently entered into with the Internet Systems Consortium? What impact would this have on ICANN if China moved forward on its own and operated a version of the Internet that was not under the authority of ICANN? What would this do to ICANN and mean for the current global online community?

2 comments February 19th, 2008