PostWG IDNA2008 implementation, transition and deployment document preparation

Cary Karp ck at nic.museum
Thu Dec 17 08:26:05 CET 2009


> - Tina Dam is in charge of issuing a new set of guidelines that will 
> apply to Fast Track participants.
> - in this endeavor you are playing a role equivalent to an IETF AD

In this endeavor, I am one of a group of TLD administrators who meet as 
peers and have volunteered to be their scribe. (Only two of us regard 
ourselves as native Anglophones and the other guy keeps forgetting to 
bring a pencil.)

> I understand that in first phase you are concerned by a politically 
> limited number of IDNccTLDs. Our own target is similar. However it is 
> more general since it targets billions of existing or future zone 
> Managers who are going to actually use the IDNA system.

The group has been active since IDNA2003 was finalized, and its mandated 
concern has been to provide a basis for the responsible implementation 
of that protocol in the SLD space. Beyond that, we make every endeavor 
to formulate the Guidelines in a manner that will have commonsense 
appeal to the operators of all zones on all levels of the DNS when 
formulating their own IDN policies. We also make every effort for the 
Guidelines to reflect the best wisdom about IDN generated in other fora.

Our work has been in abeyance for an uncomfortably long time while 
waiting for IDNA2008, and my proposal was intended to hasten progress on 
both fronts. The transition between IDNA2203 and IDNA2008 is a glaringly 
obviously concern for the TLDs that have been accepting registration 
under the former. Since there are no IDN-labeled TLDs, those that will 
be established are unlikely to have legacy difficulties in this regard.

The next version of the Guidelines will of necessity contain transition 
recommendations. It therefore seems rather obvious for them to reflect 
the massive amount of work done by the IETF WG and the organizations 
that have participated in it. If the IETF nonetheless opts to establish 
a separate instrument in which corresponding recommendations are 
expressed, the gTLDs -- which are contractually bound to implementing 
the ICANN Guidelines -- can easily end up in the awkward position of 
needing to reject anything proposed by the IETF (or in any other 
context) that is at odds with the ICANN Guidelines.

/Cary


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