Posts filed under 'Technology'
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
Today ICANN turns 10 years old!
While many may wish ICANN never existed to begin with I can’t help but reflect on the industry as a whole. In the last couple of months, when talking with people, I would ask them to think back to what the Internet was like 10 years ago for them. That usually follows with a “wow” like facial expression. In other words, they are in agreement that the Internet has progressed greatly in the last 10 years.
When you look at this industry from ICANNWiki’s perspective, the entire ICANN community includes not only the ICANN “academics”, but the registries, registrars and Domainer communities as well. I should also note that I also view ICANN “academics” apart from the global movement centered around Internet Governance.
Not only has ICANN built structure to support the survival of the Internet, but the other communities associated have created a whole new multi-billion dollar industry. As with several of my previous posts one thing I find energizing about this community is the very fact that it is entrepreneurial. Overall this community of ours is still in its infancy, working to move forward while at the same time helping to define its future.
And, from my perspective, the future looks even brighter with the work that is being done towards opening up the market for new gTLDs and, of course, the vast impact the Internet will have on those with the introduction of IDNs.
As we take this time to reflect over the previous 10 years, what about looking ahead? What would you like to see? Personally speaking I feel that the whole ICANN community is in a TREMENDOUS position to utilize its vast contacts to assist in more humanitarian efforts, whether that be in areas of charitable fund raising, such as what Sedo has done with its “SedoCares” initiative or in developing programs whose goal is to assist in disaster relief efforts, such as what DotAsia has done with “Relief.Asia” and their mindset in giving back to the .Asia community.
So as the day goes with the world’s financial markets reeling from recent events, wars in other countries and the world watching and waiting for a new US president to be elected, ICANN turns 10 years old today. For some this is a celebration. For others this may only fuel their dislike of the organization. However, travel back to your experience with the Internet 10 years ago today. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but marvel over the organization and efforts that have brought the overall ICANN community, not to mention the Internet itself, to where it is today.
Happy birthday, ICANN!
Now, I’ve got to go. A phone call is coming in on my PC…….
September 30th, 2008
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
There is no doubt I continue to be fascinated by this community of ours. It is rare to find a community that involves the growth of an in industry before our very eyes! An industry that affects large numbers of this globe’s population; whether directly or indirectly. You’ve heard me mention this several times, but I get energized by the entrepreneurial spirit found in the overall ICANN community.
When thinking about this further, it all seems to boil down to (for me, anyway) the name space or the domain name. What IS a domain name? This is where I like to also use the term name space as we are all using the Internet based on how we name the space of our destinations.
What does such a “name space” consist of? Is it the simple URL followed by the traditional .com, .net, .biz, .info, .org, etc… ? For many the term “name space” can mean “brand”. It is because of such branding that we see the various UDRP cases to clear up who owns the brand, or the “name” for such a brand, or any “names” that may be “confusingly similar” to such brands.
For me it goes deeper than brand. For me it means identity. Not only does our industry help define identity within this virtual universe we call the Internet, it can be used to identify to this virtual universe who “WE” are. Who I am. Who you are. So in my earlier reference of how we name the space of our destinations, that is only part true. There is a whole emerging industry that focuses on the other half of the name space and that is the space that identifies NOT the destination, but the originator. In other words, the part of the industry where the name space identifies who YOU, the individual, are.
OpenID is one such aspect of the industry that is growing rapidly. As stated in my earlier post from this year many large organizations have adopted the use of OpenID. Two camps have been helping identify the OpenID movement. While you have one camp, called “OpenID” you have another that provides a more secure form of OpenID known as the iname.
The whole purpose of OpenID is to allow you to use your same OpenID, or iname at any site that supports the general OpenID specification. The roadmap for the whole OpenID movement is for you to be able to customize attributes of YOUR OpenID or iname so not only can sites learn more about you with only the information you provide in your various attributes, it becomes YOUR identity, or trusted name space when accessing destinations around our virtual universe. It also serves as a way for people you know who tend to visit the same sites as you, they will see input from the use of your iname or OpenID. Being that you can use the same iname or OpenID across many sites, it is a good way for your friends to validate information that came from YOU, a trusted source.
So just as the ICANN community “traditionally” thinks of the name space as a domain name for a destination on the net, we need to start thinking about the name space for the originator on the net. The nice thing about inames is you can acquire your iname just like you can with destination name spaces, or domain names. Earlier I mentioned the iname concept being more secure than the original OpenID movement. This is true because inames were developed with security in mind. Meaning, once you acquire your iname, the secure number generated with that iname is yours forever. If you allow your iname to lapse where it is later picked up by someone else, that “someone else” receives a newly generated identification number. This way when that “someone else” uses the iname you allowed to lapse, it can never be fully tied to you as the generated secure ID numbers are different, and will forever be different.
The other thing that inames allows is for multiple structures for the use of an iname. For example NeuStar and 1id are allowing ICANNWiki users to pick up their own ICANNWiki community iname. So, for example, my ICANNWiki community iname is “@icannwiki*chuck”. So as part of the ICANNWiki community I specify myself (“*chuck”) as being a member of the ICANNWiki community (“@icannwiki”). Now I can go to any site that supports the general OpenID movement and use my ICANNWiki community iname to log in. Sweet!
If you don’t already have your iname, check it out for yourself and use the other half of our virtual universe’s name space! Obtain your ICANNWiki community iname by going here or obtain your own personal iname by going here.
August 25th, 2008
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
As you can see from information about the wiki, ICANNWiki.org is based in the city of Portland, in the state of Oregon.
Oregon is one of the world leaders for the Open Source community. In fact, it is not uncommon for companies from around the globe to open up a research and development arm here in Oregon to take advantage of Oregon’s Open Source community.
Portland, Oregon’s largest city, is home to many people who actively work with and develop for the Open Source community. As such there are many ideas and conversations regarding community. From my perspective, with my position at ICANNWiki, I can not think of a better city in which to be located to have active, ongoing conversations with other members of the Open Source community.
With that said I was at an informal after-hours event a couple of days ago where I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman whose business profession is that of copy writing. I have always viewed copy writers of any country as the unofficial keepers of their respective language. A good copy writer ensures what we read not only conveys the message properly, they ensure that what is conveyed is grammatically correct.
After learning about ICANNWiki.org and how it is a neutral resource for the various communities that make up the overall ICANN community, those being ICANN academics, registries, registrars and domainers, he could not help but refer to this community as “Your Community”. He was not referring to “Your Community” in a bad way, just his way of referencing the whole ICANN community in our conversation.
The reason I thought this conversation was interesting enough for a separate post is every language, in some way or another is adaptable over time. English is one of the more flexible, or adaptable languages out there. He noted that as time has progressed the English language has evolved very rapidly in the last decade. True, the advent of computers have brought English terms to English and other languages, such as “PC”, “hard disk” and “mouse”, to name a few. Also, through “Your Community” new words have emerged, such as “Google”, “Twitter” and “Yelp”, also to name a few. However this gentleman felt that “Your Community”, or the overall ICANN community, has done more for bringing change to, or “influencing” the English language than any other such “influencer”. What he was referring to was how the Internet has brought people together, locally as well as globally and how communication can take place NOW as opposed to later. People can text, call, IM (instant message), e-mail, play games, connect with other networks, etc… FAR more easily than they could a little over a decade ago. Think back to your communication habits or capabilities back in 1995.
ICANN has created the standards and stability for the Internet. Companies and domainers, through development, provide the content and applications people use while registries and registrars provide the naming conventions people use to access applications. So, in a nut shell, “Your Community” has done a lot to advance the evolution of the English language.
With that said I could not help but wonder if a person, whose profession is copy writer in the English language, has already seen a quicker evolution of English, what will other copy writers experience of their respective languages once IDNs have been implemented for 5 years?
So while he kept referring to “Your Community” in our conversation, I couldn’t help but think about “Our Community” and how often can you be part of something where “Your Community” can have such an influence on the evolution of languages and how people communicate. So, hat’s off to “Our Community”!
August 18th, 2008
Conversation with Edmon Chung of DotAsia
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
The month of May proved to be a disastrous month for many living along Myanmar’s coast and in China’s Sichuan province. It was during this time we saw Relief.Asia, through the DotAsia Organisation, mobilize to help provide relief efforts to those in the disaster areas.
Today the Sichuan province was struck by a 6.0 aftershock of May’s original quake.
Because of this I wanted to talk with Edmon Chung, DotAsia’s CEO, as such efforts not only shed light on what others within the ICANN Community can do, but what the ICANN “Community” can do in providing international relief efforts.
What is “Relief.Asia”?
Relief.Asia is a platform bringing together the Internet community around Asia for relief and rebuild efforts. While the portal itself is being built into a social network site, Relief.Asia is more than an online information or discussion forum. Relief.Asia is also a platform bringing together open source and open knowledge technologies to support relief and rebuild efforts. Today, a number of technologies such as SAHANA — a web-based disaster relief management system (with features such as missing people registry, victims registry, inventory system, aid request/pledge/procurement system, etc.), DUMBO — an emergency mobile network infrastructure, as well as GPS tracking and SOS devices, are being coordinated through Relief.Asia and deployed into Myanmar and Sichuan to help relief teams in the field.
Furthermore, Relief.Asia is a platform for driving online donations. As we progress, Relief.Asia intends not only to be facilitating the deployment of these technologies but also become a platform for open development, sharing and enhancement of software, technologies and experiences on relief and rebuild efforts.
The vision for Relief.Asia is that information technology saves lives. In the wake of natural or other disasters, information technology can deliver the efficiency and effectiveness at a time when it matters most, and at a time when it could mean life or death. The previous experiences of disaster recovery had often been local and seldom shared. Technologies were often built for specific tasks on ad hoc basis. Relief.Asia hopes to provide a platform for integrating and learning from these experiences. It is also meant to be a social network which could help in driving volunteers as well as ongoing support such as psychological support which is not always well planned at the initial often chaotic rescue phase.
Relief.Asia is an Internet platform that facilitates relief response, rebuild efforts and knowledge sharing for disaster recovery by leveraging the social and technological networks of the Internet community.
Who started Relief.Asia?
DotAsia could be said to be the host and coordinator for Relief.Asia. The DotAsia team grafted together the platform in the wake of Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar during May 2-3, 2008. Without the collaborative efforts from organisations and institutions from around Asia, or the open technologies already being developed since the 2004 Asia Tsunami, for which the origins of Relief.Asia owes its conception, it could not have happened nevertheless. Most notably the participation and help from Charles Mok of ISOC HK, the Asia Institute of Technology (AIT), APNG (Asia Pacific Networking Group), APNIC and the Museum of World Religion (MWR) has been instrumental to the early developments of Relief.Asia.
While running a relief effort can take a major effort, why start Relief.Asia?
Relief.Asia exemplifies DotAsia’s commitment to the Asia community. It is a major and ongoing effort. As mentioned, the vision of Relief.Asia is to build a platform that can deliver open technologies and expertise when it matters most in relief and rebuild efforts. We feel that Relief.Asia is a meaningful project and the whole team at DotAsia was working overtime from our already packed launch schedule for the ongoing auctions and our commitments such as at www.think.asia, yet we all felt it was well worth our time as we were truly able to provide help, leveraging our expertise and network, to the relief efforts in Myanmar and Sichuan. Through the partnership with the Museum of World Religion (MWR), who was a .Asia Pioneer, we have been able to secure cargo space and channels into the hardest hit areas in Myanmar and were one of the very few international efforts being able to deliver relief materials in. The project while demanding was refreshing for our morale. This would be one of the first times DotAsia really made some difference for the Asia community.
I see there are several partnerships in place for Relief.Asia. Were the partnerships in place prior to the Myanmar and China natural disasters or were they established during the creation of Relief.Asia?
The origins of Relief.Asia can be traced back to the 2004 Asia Tsunami.
DotAsia at that time was still organized around volunteer efforts and toiling through the ICANN TLD process. The team at that time nevertheless still tried to facilitate and drive donations where possible. Some of the core technologies being coordinated through DotAsia to Myanmar and Sichuan also had its roots from the aftermath of the 2004 Asia Tsunami. For donation drives, we work specifically with partners when disasters hit.
While Relief.Asia quickly integrated in the wake of the Myanmar Cyclone, plans have been in place throughout the preparatory phases at DotAsia even as we were launching the .Asia registry, as can be evidenced by our own pioneer domain application for the domain “relief.asia”.
The DotAsia footprint is quite large. Given the natural disasters that occurred in both Myanmar and China, would Relief.Asia be able to handle other disasters in Bangladesh, Iran and New Zealand? If so have the relationships been developed with the various organizations in countries throughout the whole DotAsia footprint?
We certainly hope that disasters would not hit so often and so closely with each other. The Myanmar Cyclone and then the Sichuan Earthquake did present great challenge for us. Just as we had put together the platform for Myanmar, the Sichuan Earthquake hit. It was not an easy decision, but one which I believe is correct, when we made commitments to exert as much efforts to both disaster areas. Besides working with local and international charities and NGO, DotAsia will continue to utilize its relationship with its member ccTLDs and other ccTLDs in the region. For our efforts in Myanmar, we had, with the help of the .MM registry been able to better deliver materials into the affected areas. As for Sichuan, we worked with CNNIC (.CN) and the Internet Society of China. In the future, we will continue to use this model to reach out to the local communities when and if disasters hit. On top of which, we intend to strengthen our relationships with international organisations such as World Vision, Oxfam and Red Cross to leverage their footprint around the world as well. But as the case in Myanmar shows, being able to leverage local presence through our online platform can be extremely critical for relief and rebuild efforts.
Have other regionally-based TLDs created a formalized relief effort before?
I am not sure. For DotAsia, this is consistent with our mandate and vision.
For others who wish to do the same, what were the major barriers you encountered that made establishing Relief.Asia difficult? In other words, if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
A major barrier is driving online donations. Both setting it up as well as driving actual donations. In setting up the system, the payment gateway and processing was troublesome and expensive. This cascades to the issue of driving donations as well because of the high overhead. As a new online platform, there will of course be an issue of trust, which we understand. Nevertheless, we are glad that there are people who believe in our cause and also we were able to drive donations through our partners as well.
For regionally-based TLDs, existing and new, do you foresee the need for such organizations to budget for, if not have a person covering a “Relief Coordinator” role?
I think it really depends on the mission and vision of a TLD.
While there are many aspects to a complete relief effort, what can Relief.Asia do well and what should one NOT expect Relief.Asia to handle?
The vision of Relief.Asia is that information technology can save lives.
Relief.Asia leverages the technology and social network over the Internet community to bring together people and open technology to contribute to relief and rebuild efforts. Also, Relief.Asia is a platform that facilitates collaboration and sharing, and is focused on supporting relief and rebuild teams with technology. We will continue to work with other organisations such as World Vision, Oxfam and Red Cross to drive donations and support their operations for more general relief work.
I have heard of many organizations that organize relief efforts around natural disasters. This is the first time I have personally heard of any organization within the general ICANN community organizing a relief effort. What might organizations within the general ICANN community bring to disaster relief that traditional organizations struggle with?
Many organisations in the ICANN community has extensive networks within their locality and industry. Often, great work can be built from these social and technological networks. I think those are the types of thing the ICANN community can really make a difference. I believe there has been different initiatives in the past as well. As I recall, Afilias and PIR also contributed efforts in the wake of the 2004 Asia Tsunami.
Anything else I may not have covered that you wish to be told?
If you feel that Relief.Asia is a meaningful project, please support us by adding a button or ribbon to your website! See http://support.relief.asia.
The children of the disaster ridden areas need your help! Relief.Asia will focus not only on relief efforts but also rebuild and through your help, we can bring better technology to these deprived children, and give them a better hope for a better future!
August 5th, 2008
by Chuck Kisselburg
of ICANNWiki.org
In my morning read I ran across the following article that announces the debut of “Cuil”, a new search engine.
The creator of this search engine, Anna Patterson, is no stranger to search engines as she once had a search engine company that was apparently impressive enough for Google to purchase in 2004 to upgrade their own system.
After working at Google for a while, she and a couple of Google’s engineers left Google to create another search engine that is to better Google.
So I headed over to “Cuil” to check it out. I proceeded to do a VERY scientific number of searches to arrive at an authoritative opinion. (ok, ok, so I did a couple of searches…..)
True, I tried my test search of “Bill Chase”, the founder and leader of my first favorite rock band back in the 70s before Bill and most of his band, “Chase” were killed in a plane crash in 1974 – hence a somewhat obscure search. I was amazed by the content delivered and the speed was amazing!
True, Cuil has a way to go, but impressive none-the-less.
However, while doing other searches I found things don’t rank like you typically find on Google or Yahoo. This lead me to realize that what we find today, through searches on Google and Yahoo, are what has developed over time. By time I am referring to ranking based upon change, thus relevance.
So what might this mean for those organizations who have worked to ensure higher placement? How long will it take for sites, or pages, to once again rank higher? Does a new search engine mean a new way of search engine optimization? How should an “optimizer” approach Cuil differently than Google? For that matter, how should an optimizer approach Cuil differently than Yahoo? Another way of looking at this is while a site may have accrued a lot of “Google Juice” or “Yahoo Juice”, what does it take to accrue an equal amount of “Cuil Juice”?
With that said, what impact will this have on businesses who work with optimization specialists to rank high to bring in the proverbial “eye balls”? Same with those in the domaining community.
True, Yahoo and Google are not going away ANYTIME soon. OPPORTUNITY? The opportunity I see with Cuil is how often do we have a search engine “petrie dish” to examine and watch how sites initially as well as evolve in rank? How cuil is that?!!!!
July 28th, 2008
By Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
Last month Paris was the site for all things Internet.
June 21-26 ICANN held its 32nd International meeting. I am not saying that fits my claim of “All things Internet” because two other conferences were being held just prior to ICANN’s conference. The other two conferences were the EGENI conference on the 20th and the Domainer Meeting on the 19th and the 20th. All three conferences were held at the same venue.
As we all know, the goal of ICANN meetings is to focus on utilizing input for purposes of the development of policy regarding the Internet. The Domainer Meeting focused on the domaining industry with sessions on the industry followed by an auction. The EGENI conference covered issues regarding the future of the internet, what users want and the impact of new TLDs, especially what they may be able to do from a cultural and heritage perspective.
While ICANN continued to have their “standards” feel, and the Domainer Meeting continued with the Domainer entrepreneurial spirit, the EGENI conference viewed more into Internet Governance from the public perspective. The EGENI conference also provided perspective from the needs of the European Union in the overall global discussion.
From ICANNWiki’s perspective, this is a dream only because everyone that makes up the ICANNWiki “community” was under one roof. What I especially liked was members from the three groups were talking – TOGETHER! While members of the EGENI conference actively take part in the various ICANN conferences, there are members from the Domainer community that are going to take on a greater role by actively participating on various ICANN committees. I have seen and heard others talk about respective groups bickering over other groups. So getting ALL voices to the table is a good thing.
In all this was a very successful venue for all conferences. While the EGENI conference was more regionally and IGF focused, the conference pulled in around 100 people, the Domainer Meeting, more European-centric, attracted over 300 people. As for the ICANN meeting, this was ICANN’s largest meeting with approximately 1,500 in attendance.
The three things I pulled from ICANN’s conference were:
1). Additional TLDs are on the way. The process is being defined and applications, at the time of this conference, should start being accepted by 2nd quarter, 2009. Yes, this may slip, but the overall feel is this will happen. The main concern voiced by conference attendees rested with security.
2). IDNs continue to progress and will become a reality. Progress is being made.
3). Reaching out to businesses. ICANN’s new effort is to reach out to the business community. Reaching out not only ensures the voices of the business community are heard, it allows the business community to hear what is coming, how they will be impacted and why changes are important. The item at the top of my mind is to help businesses understand the need for converting from IPv4 to IPv6.
As for the EGENI conference the main things I took away from this conference were:
1). As the European Union continues to develop, their needs can differ from those of the US as the EU has a common interest and culture difference from the US; so it is important to ensure the EU is heard. The EU has an initiative known as “E2010” where by the year 2010 education and healthcare will be able to use the Internet to enhance reaching out to the public. With this come challenges such as the need for the protection of:
* Children
* Personal data
* Data protection
2). The various ISOCs (Internet Societies) provide a way for the public to provide their input; with the ISOCs providing input to the political level. In other words, the political level is wanting to get more involved in raising the EU’s concerns regarding Internet development.
3). What do you do with a society that utilizes their mobile phones to a greater extent than people in the US? What about the need to reach out to various devices on the net that are not PC-based; hence a pressing need for migration for IPv4 to IPv6.
4). New TLDs will be coming out with the new TLDs being able to provide a strong focus on culture, heritage, and economic development for the respective TLD regions, whether a specific TLD covers a city, the region of a country, or a region that encompasses multiple countries due to a common economic region.
You can learn more about the EGENI conference by viewing the session notes.
So to wrap up this post, again I get back to how great it was to see the confluence of people from the various groups (ICANN policy/standards, Internet governance, Domainer) in one place. I hope this confluence continues as “continued” dialogue is healthy and committee participation from the various groups is the best way in moving forward. Perhaps someday “confluence” will be replaced with “convergence”. In the mean time, as mentioned earlier, “Getting ALL voices to the table is a good thing.”
July 10th, 2008
By Chuck Kisselburg
In the ICANN “community” we understand the concept of having a web presence on the Internet through the use of domain names, or URLs. Each domain name, or URL resolves to a single, unique number. That number allows us to travel somewhere on the net.
While people are familiar with using domain names as “identity” for corporations, people have also started using domain names as their “identity” or brand, by bringing people to their personal website, or using their personal domain name as a means for providing an e-mail address.
With that said, we are used to domain names and we understand how domain names can associate with brand or identity. Now, let’s take this a step further. Let’s take the same basic concept and wrap it into one’s OWN personal identity. When we go to sites on the web do we use our domain names to long in? No. That’s because we use domain names to reach a destination, not use once we have arrived at our destination. If the domain name is about us, we use the domain name to bring people to learn about us. Or shall I say the royal “Me“?
However, what about the concept of using an identifier, like a domain name that resolves to a number FAR longer, thus more secure than a simple IP address, an address that represents you when you go to various sites around the network?
That is what OpenID is all about. You obtain your own OpenID, or multiple OpenIDs and use them at OpenID enabled sites. This way once you establish your OpenID, you don’t have to worry about creating username/password accounts on the various systems that are already OpenID enabled. So once you use a traditional domain name to arrive at your destination on the net, you use your OpenID to validate with that destination who YOU are. Click here to understand the process of verifying you are who you say you are.
If OpenID is new to you and you are pondering who has enabled OpenID when accepting visitors from the Internet, know that many sites have, and are beginning to support OpenID. Among those are Yahoo, AOL, Plaxo, Microsoft, IBM, Sun, the BBC and France’s Orange Telecom. So, yes, OpenID is hear to stay. ICANNWiki.org has been a long time supporter and early adoptor of OpenID.
Ok, you may say this gets me into sites, “Cool!” I can manage my own identity? “Way Cool!” I don’t have to keep track of usernames and passwords for each site I go to? (*faint*) But what about applications? Are there applications, not sites, but actual applications that run on OpenID? Yes, as a matter of fact. Since February, when I added basic structure to the wiki I added applications that ONLY accept OpenID.
You may have noticed areas where simple claims can be made with people either agreeing or disagreeing with the claim. This is a great way for people to make a short statement about something in the community and gain a quick pulse on what people may be thinking. Some examples as found on ICANNWiki.org include:
Network Solutions’ move to shut down access to a site that was about to rally support for banning the Koran in Holland was the correct move; especially with cartoons of the Profit in several European newspapers were met with outrage in 2006. Results? YES = 1, NO = 5.
The best way for me to develop my domain name is to develop a business plan for that domain name. Results? YES = 3, NO = 2
If OpenID is a way for me to manage my identity, what about security? Inames is the most secure form of the OpenID movement. With inames, the number generated for you is your number FOREVER. It can never be transferred or appended.
So if you have not obtained your OpenID yet, I encourage you to do so so that you can participate more fully with, and get more from the wiki. NeuStar, together with 1id are allowing you to pick up your ICANNWiki community OpenID iname by going here or obtaining your own personal iname by going here.
Have fun and welcome to the world of OpenID!
April 29th, 2008
By Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
In preparation for ICANN’s conference in LA, I have created a section on the wiki for the conference’s schedule. For each session in the schedule I created two “commons†areas for each session. One of the “commons†is dedicated for people who want to add comments on what they would like each session to cover. The other “commons†is dedicated for any session notes people wish to take and contribute as they attend a session.
You can reach these new “commons†by going to http://icannwiki.org/ICANN_LA_Schedule_and_Session_Notes and click on the “Enter Pre & Post Comments†for each session. You can click on the respective session titles to read information available regarding the respective session’s agenda.
As you may remember, the mission of ICANNWiki.org, a Portland, Oregon-based organization, is dedicated to providing a platform for a grassroots-based, industry resource that fosters global collaboration and transparency within the ICANN community.
What better way to collect information from a widely-dispersed community in a way that is both organized and transparent?
October 19th, 2007
In my blog post, titled, “Evaluation Deployment in the Root Zone” I discussed ICANN’s program to enable routine introduction of TLDs (Top Level Domain) within IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) labels that utilize non-ASCII code sets. While some may be VERY familiar with the ASCII code set, others may not be aware that ASCII even exists. “Hey, a letter is a letter, right?” So, whether we know it or not we are used to using the ASCII character set. ICANN’s program, however, looks at utilizing non-ASCII code sets.
Since my last post on this topic I have had a chance to talk with a couple of people from non-English speaking countries to examine the practicality of the program’s end result.
In one instance I was told by one person how difficult it is for his wife, who is Chinese, to communicate current URLs to her friends in China when talking on the phone. For example, when talking about URLs, simple communication moves to translation, where possible, of each letter found in a URL. So in this example, utilizing non-ASCII sets within IDNs would be extremely helpful.
But as another person stated, “I thought the Internet was to be global!†In other words, if we start including non-ASCII character sets to allow for multiple languages, might we loose the global aspect the Internet represents today? Would people start thinking more regionally instead of globally? Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? I am interested in your thoughts.
However, let’s take this discussion out of the high level to a more practical view.
I had a detailed chat session over this topic with a friend of mine who lives in Sweden. Even if, or when IDNs are in place, will applications, other than browsers, be able to support non-ASCII character sets? For several years the “.SE†country code has been recognized. Great! You would then think that with an internationalized, or in this case the Swedish, version of Microsoft Office that all would be well and that Swedes could now begin using simple characters such as Ã¥ ä ö. This may work well in Word, for creating documents, but when it came time to entering www.göteborg.se, the browser would not recognize the “öâ€. It was only after IE 7.0 was introduced that “ö†was even recognized. But by this time, everyone was used to entering www.goteborg.se (with an “oâ€) instead of www.göteborg.se (with an “öâ€). In other words, people are used to using the English-based character set instead of their native Swedish-based character set. Well, you say, “If now supported in IE 7.0, well all is good then, right?†Perhaps not. Let me answer a question with a question, “Do you suppose EVERYONE has upgraded to IE 7.0?†My take on this would be “noâ€.
To take this a step further, is it only the browser we need to be concerned with? No. Let me explain, as my Swedish friend and I were chatting over Yahoo! Instant Messenger, we were tossing URLs around. What he pointed out, which is common for his fellow Instant Messaging (IM) Swedes is when you enter a URL via your IM chat session, Yahoo! will underline the URL. You know, like what we are used to seeing, such as www.goteborg.se. However, when we used the letter “öâ€, in the URL, such as www.göteborg.se, the underlining stops at the “öâ€, thus displaying www.göteborg.se.
OK, so you say, “That’s Yahoo!’s problem!†Are you sure? Is this oddity limited to Yahoo! Instant Messenger? Test this out with other IM packages and let us know.
OK, so you now say, “Could this be a Microsoft issue?†Well not exactly as we tested Linux as well. To be specific we used a Linux-based system only to find that when sending an e-mail to someone whose e-mail address included a normal Swedish character, such as “ö†or “åâ€, the e-mail would result in an error message to the sender. For the purpose of example, I am changing my name from Chuck Kisselburg to Chuck KÃ¥sselburg. My “NEWâ€, fictitional e-mail would now be chuck.kÃ¥sselburg@icannwiki.org. When sending an e-mail to myself the error message I would receive would be, Syntax error in mailbox address chuck.k?sselburg@icannwiki.org (non-printable character). So, this is another example where people will be forced to deviate from their native language, to continue using the English-based ASCII character set.
So, while my Swedish friend said, “While this may work well from the TLD perspective, everything needs to catch up.â€
Someone also told me that when the Country Codes, managed by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authroity) came out, some organizations moved to secure their “.com” equivalent with their respective country code, or country codes. Still, a couple of years after acquiring their respective URLs with their respective country code extensions, they were not really able to use them because, while defined, had not yet been fully implemented. Some felt this was a way for money to be made without providing the associated value. Also, what was discovered was as the country codes came out, many businesses did not realize this, so other people purchased an organization’s .com country code equivalent, placing that organization either at risk or facing a potentially expensive alternative to purchase back their country code specific URL. Some did not bother to acquire their .com equivalent.
True, some people would say talking with a couple of people does not represent a proper scientific, statistical sample. This by no means exhausts all of the issues surrounding ICANN’s IDN TLD program, but it does raise issues to think about.
What are your thoughts? Have you had similar experiences? Let us know!
August 16th, 2007