As of 00:00 UTC today – 4 days after the launch of the Fast Track Process we have new requests coming in.

The total number is 10 requests. They spread over 5 different languages.

Details about the process is at: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

Please keep asking questions. Is there is anything we can explain better? The FAQ will be updated shortly to include everything you ask here as well.

The launch went smoothly. We have since monitored the system and everything is working.

As of 10pm Pacific time (15 November 2009) we have received:

- 6 requests from countries/territories
- representing 3 different languages

Following the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Final Implementation Plan, no additional details will be reported by ICANN – that is, until requests has been successfully processed.

That said, we will be providing additional stats (as the above) updates in regular time intervals.

No countries or territories has reported problems using the system, at this time.

All details for participants and access to the system is available directly from http://www.icann.org or directly at: http://icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

Inquiries for the system are to be submitted to idncctldrequest@icann.org

A quick note to participants:

When uploading supporting material, please note that each file must be limited to 10MB. If you have larger files, please indicate that in the text box provided, and send the files to idncctldrequest@icann.org We will try to find a better solution to this soon.

We are very much looking forward to receiving additional requests and processing everything, to make IDN ccTLDs a reality for Internet users around the world!

Instead I have decided to post the letter below. Samira is a real person She is a little girl from a village in a developing country. She has one thing in common with many others – she has no access to the Internet (they do have radio). But while her Internet problems start at a different place than IDNs, I am confident that IDNs at some point soon will make it easier for her to learn about the Internet and also make it easier for her to use it. Samira will have to wait for the postal delivery of this letter – but then there is nothing like getting that kind of mail too

Other than that I just like to say that I hope the Fast Track launch goes smoothly, and that it will work favorable for all participants. But most of all I hope that we with this launch will treat IDNs carefully and with the respect it deserves, and that we will continue to work together across time-zones and cultures, because afterall, what is the Internet if it does not work well for many years and users to come.

————————————-
Dear Samira,
Tomorrow is BIG BIG day for many people around the world and I decided to share it with you.

I know you have not seen the Internet yet, but as you grow up and you do, maybe you will recall this letter and an exciting time. What is the Internet? Well, it’s like this big box of information, pictures, games – you can read and also write about anything you like. it could be about peasants, your favorite food, toy, and you know what? You can even listen to the radio on the Internet. Only your imagination sets a limit for the Internet. Have you ever looked under water? It’s like an entire new world down there, so different than on land. The Internet is kind of like that – a different world – only bigger and it has information about under-water and land in it….anything you can imagine

And every page on this Internet has an address. You know, just like you know how to explain where you live. It is made that way so that I can tell you an address and you can then go to that address and read my letter to you, or look at a picture I placed there for you to see. All these addresses have only been able to be written in the Roman alphabet….yes sounds a little weird, but that is just all those letters you see me write here.

Guess what happens tomorrow? Countries around the world – your country too – will be able to get a new address on the Internet. The most exciting thing is that this new address can be in almost any letters you like. So you can use your own language for an address for you. Then your friends and family can use that address and see what you are putting on the Internet. So it will be easier for you and everyone you know to remember that address. I think you will be excited when you see how it works.

I know that even though you already know more than one language, you are soon going to begin learning English. English is the language I used to write this letter to you. Languages are so exciting and they change all the time. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with, but I will tell you more about it in my next letter. Learning another language is amazing and it will help you communicate with people around the world. I have made so many friends around the world who all have helped make the Internet change the way I tried to describe to you. They have all taught me something important about life that I will never forget. But it would not have worked if we did not speak a little bit of the same language. So I really hope that you will be enjoying learning a new language.

You know how you can write your language both by using the Roman alphabet, and also the Arabic one? Well, this Internet change is almost the same thing – now these addresses can be in either alphabet too! And the coolest thing about it is that there is only one to decide which alphabet to use, and that it YOU! It is your choice for you and you alone!

But please keep that in mind when you start using the Internet. Let me know when that is and I will help you get your own address to a place on the Internet, in your language. But remember that I am not able to read or write your language (although I wish) so it may be a little bit difficult for me in the beginning and I will need your help.

With the very best wishes to you and many many others in the next generation of Internet users. I know I am together with many people around the world when I say that I can’t wait to see what you will use it for and how you will change it over time too….

Here is a quick rundown of ICANN-related events and information for participating both in person and remotely.

Open Forum

There are two main sessions from the ICANN perspective. On Sunday 15 November, at 9.30 to 11.00am local time in Room 1 (Sinai), ICANN will be running an open forum that will cover the organization’s latest developments, including the new Affirmation of Commitments, the recently approved “fast track” for IDN Internet extensions, the new generic top-level domain process, and other topics.

If you not attending the conference in person, the session will be audiocast and you will be able to send in interventions via email and through a chat function on the IGF site.

Critical Internet Resources

Then, on Monday 16 November, there will be a main session on Managing Critical Internet Resources in the main room from 9.30am to 12.30pm.

This event will be webcast and, again, you will be able to send in questions via email and through chatrooms.

Participating Remotely

Links to the webcasts, audiocasts and chatrooms will be posted on the IGF’s webpage at http://www.intgovforum.org.

There are also a number of “remote hubs” around the world that comprise local meetings where participants are able not only to watch the webcast of the IGF but also to interact with the meeting.

Those participating will also be able to discuss the themes covered by the IGF from a local perspective with others from their own region. The Forum serves as a stimulus or a starting point for the debate of local issues and implications and for the development of a network of interested people in every region.

For more information go to: http://www.igfremote.com/

Other sessions

Apart from those two main sessions, there are a range of other sessions that may be of interest to ICANN community members. These include:

Monday 14.00-15.30 (Room 2, Red Sea): Best practices in ccTLD Policy and Operations management Resources

Monday 14.30-16.00 (Room 3, Suez Canal): Managing Internet Addresses: Global and regional viewpoint

Tuesday 11.00-12.30 (Room 2, Red Sea): Domain Name Use: Theft, Threats & Solutions

Tuesday 14.30-17.30 (Room 4, Nile Valley): Securing Cyberspace: Strategy for the Future

Tuesday 15.00-18.00 (Main room): Internet Governance in the light of WSIS Principles

Wednesday 9.00-12.30 (Room 3, Suez Canal):Code of good practice on participation, access to information and transparency in Internet governance

Wednesday 14.00-15.30 (Room 4, Nile Valley): Arabic Script IDNs: Challenges and Solution

Full schedule

You can view the full IGF meeting schedule online at: http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/2009/sharm_el_Sheikh/WorkshopSchedule.html

في ختام اجتماع الآيكان في مدينة سيول بكوريا الجنوبية الأسبوع الماضي وتحديداً يوم الجمعة ٣٠ أكتوبر ٢٠٠٩، وافق مجلس إدارة الآيكان على الخطة التنفيذية لتطبيق أسماء النطاقات الدولية من خلال ما يعرف بعملية المسار السريع لأسماء نطاقات المستوى الأعلى لرموز الدول. وهذا القرار يعني ببساطة أن الدول التي لغاتها الرسمية لغات غير الإنجليزية، أو تحديداً لغات لا تعتمد على الأحرف الاتينية (الألمانية والسويدية وغيرها)، سيكون بإمكان هذه الدول الحصول على نطاقات عليا تمثل أسمائها بلغاتها المحلية. فعلى سبيل المثال سيكون لدول كالصين والهند والدول العربية وغيرها أسماء نطاقات بلغاتها الرسمية. ونص القرار على أن تبدأ الآيكان في تلقي طلبات من الدول التي ترغب في الحصول على نطاقتها العليا بدءاً من يوم ١٦ نوفمبر ٢٠٠٩

وخلال الأسبوعين الماضيين تلقيت العديد من الأسئلة بخصوص هذا الموضوع ماذا يعني وما هو أثره على الإنترنت بشكل عام وعلى استخدام الإنترنت في العالم العربي بشكل خاص. وسأقوم هنا بمحاولة الرد على هذه الأسئلة بشكل موجز ومن خلال النقاط التالية:

١- موضوع أسماء النطاقات الدولية ليس بجديد، فتسجيل أسماء نطاقات بلغات مختلفة على المستوى الثاني متاح تحت بعض نطاقات المستوى الأعلى (.com) منذ بضع سنوات، لكن الجديد في الموضوع هو أن تكون نطاقات المستوى الأعلى هي نفسها بلغات مختلفة وبالتالي يكون عنوان الإنترنت بالكامل بلغة لا تعتمد على الأحرف اللاتينية كاللغة العربية والصينية وغيرها.
٢- ما تم الموافقة عليه يوم الجمعة الماضي في سيول يخص فقط أسماء نطاقات رموز الدول وليس له علاقة بأسماء النطاقات العامة (com, net, org)، حيث أن هناك برنامج منفصل يهدف لاستحداث أسماء نطاقات عامة جديدة بأي لغة سواء كانت الإنجليزية أو غيرها.
٣- بالنسبة لاستخدام أسماء النطاقات باللغة العربية، يظن البعض أن ذلك قد يحدث طفرة في استخدام الإنترنت في العالم العربي من حيث انتشار الخدمات الإلكترونية والزيادة في أعداد المستخدمين. أنا شخصياً أرى أن أسماء النطاقات العربية، بالرغم من أهميتها، لا تقدم حلولاً سحرية لمشاكل النفاذ للإنترنت في عالمنا العربي. أنا أرى في أسماء النطاقات العربية عاملاً مساعداً للمحتوى العربي، فإذا ما توفر المحتوى العربي بشكل جيد على الإنترنت فعندئٍذ ستكون أسماء النطاقات العربية بمثابة العنصر التكميلي المشجع والمحفز للملايين الذين تقف اللغة عائقاً بينهم وبين الوصول إلى الإنترنت، بحيث يكون من السهل عليهم قراءة وفهم وكتابة العناوين كاملةً باللغة العربية وتصفح الإنترنت من خلال محتوى جيد باللغة العربية.
٤- بالإضافة للنقطة السابقة، فإن أثر استخدام أسماء النطاقات العربية سيختلف من دولة إلي أخرى. ففي المملكة العربية السعودية على سبيل المثال يستخدم الناس الكمبيوتر والإنترنت باللغة العربية بشكل كبير وبالتالي عند توفير أسماء النطاقات باللغة العربية سيستفيد هؤلاء المستخدمون بشكل مباشر وقد يمتد هذا التأثير لتشجيع أصحاب الأعمال والهيئات المختلفة على توفير المزيد من الخدمات الإلكترونية والمحتوى باللغة العربية وبالتالي تشجيع الناس على الدخول على الإنترنت واستخدام هذه الخدمات. في المقابل فإن بلد كجمهورية مصر العربية والتي وصل فيها عدد مستخدمي الإنترنت لحوالي ١٦ مليون مستخدم بنسبة انتشار حوالي ٢٠٪، والنسبة الأكبر من استخدام الإنترنت فيها باللغة الإنجليزية، فمن الصعب تصور أي أثر سريع لأسماء النطاقات العربية على استخدام الإنترنت في مصر. ولكن لو نظرنا إلى المدى المتوسط والبعيد وتأملنا نسبة انتشار الإنترنت في مصر وكيف يمكن أن تصل هذه النسبة إلى ٥٠٪ أو ٦٠٪ سنجد أنه لا يمكن تحقيق ذلك إلا من خلال نشر مزيد من المحتوى باللغة العربية سواءً كان هذا المحتوى في صورة خدمات عامة تقدمها الجهات الحكومية، أو خدمات بنكية، أو في صورة محتوى تعليمي أو ترفيهي أو غيرها. إذن مع وجود المحتوى الذي يتطلع إليه ٤٠ أو ٥٠ مليون مواطن في مصر ومع إمكانية قراءة وكتابة عناوين الإنترنت كاملةً باللغة العربية، أتصور أنه من الممكن الوصول إلى انتشار أكبر لخدمات الإنترنت في مصر وستكون أسماء النطاقات العربية هي أحد العوامل المساعدة لهذا الانتشار.
٥- وفيما يخص ما تمثله أسماء النطاقات العربية بالنسبة لمسجلي الأسماء من الأفراد والشركات والهيئات وغيرها، فذلك سيساعد بالطبع هؤلاء المسجلون على تسجيل أسمائهم والعناوين التي يرغبون في الحصول عليها كاملةً باللغة العربية، مما يسهل على المستخدم النهائي الوصول لذلك الموقع. من ناحية أخرى، فإن وجود أسماء للنطاقات العليا باللغة العربية قد يشجع الشركات التي تعمل في مجال الإنترنت والخدمات الإلكترونية في العالم العربي على الدخول في مجال العمل في تسجيل أسماء النطاقات. ولا بد هنا من التأكيد مرة أخرى أن القرار الذي اتخذته الآيكان يوم الجمعة الماضي في سيول يخص فقط أسماء النطاقات الخاصة برموز الدول، بينما الحديث عن أعمال تسجيل النطاقات وشركات التسجيل وأصحاب السجل مرتبط أكثر بأسماء النطاقات العامة والتي لم تتم إتاحتها بعد بلغات غير الاتينية.
٦- ظن البعض أن هذه الأسماء الجديدة ستكون متاحة للاستخدام بدءاً من ١٦ نوفمبر القادم، والصحيح أن هذا التاريخ هو التاريخ المحدد من قبل الآيكان لبدء تلقي الطلبات من الدول. وتساءل البعض عن التاريخ المحدد لبدء تشغيل هذه النطاقات العليا الجديدة، وهو سؤال لا يمكن الإجابة عليه لأن هذا التاريخ بالقطع يختلف من دولة إلى أخرى بحسب ظروف استعدادية كل دولة ومتى ستقوم بتقديم طلبها إلى الآيكان وكذلك الوقت الذي ستستغرقه عملية التقييم، ثم عملية تفويض النطاق نفسه إلى المشغل في الدولة صاحبة النطاق. وقد يستغرق المشغل بعض الوقت للتجهيز وفتح باب التسجيل تحت النطاق، وبمجرد فتح الباب نستطيع القول أن المستخدم النهائي يستطيع التسجيل تحت هذا النطاق.
٧- يتساءل البعض عن الدول العربية التي من المتوقع أن تقدم طلباً إلى الآيكان للحصول على اسم نطاقها باللغة العربية. كانت الآيكان قد أجرت استطلاعاً عن هذا الموضوع وأعربت تسع دول عربية عن رغبتها في الحصول على اسم نطاقها العربي. الدول التسع هي الجزائر، تونس، المغرب، ليبيا، مصر، سورية، الأردن، السعودية، والإمارات.

خلاصة القول أن إتاحة أسماء نطاقات بلغات مختلفة هي خطوة مهمة للتغلب على أحد الحواجز اللغوية التي يمكن أن تعيق البعض من استخدام الإنترنت، لكنها بالتأكيد لا تقدم حلاً سحرياً لمشاكل النفاذ للإنترنت في الدول التي تستخدم لغات محلية غير الإنجليزية في تعاملاتها الرسمية وحياة شعوبها اليومية.

Sections are:

• JPA/Affirmation
• Applicant Guidebook/new gTLDs
• Fast Track/IDNs
• Public comment periods
• Seoul meeting
• And the remainder

JPA/Affirmation
Last Wednesday, 30 September 2009, the Joint Project Agreement with the US government ended and in its place a new Affirmation of Commitments was signed.

This is obviously of enormous significance to ICANN, so it currently sits front and center on the ICANN front page. We have an announcement, the Affirmation itself, a video of CEO Rod Beckstrom explaining its significance, and reaction from the community. The Affirmation has been signed but obviously there is much that the community now needs to discuss, and that conversation will start in Seoul.

Applicant Guidebook / new gTLDs
The third version of the Applicant Guidebook was released today. It’s all out for public comment, as we have done twice before. We are gradually moving forward with the overarching issues and, again, Seoul will be place to have more discussions.

It is worth pointing out that today, Monday 5 October, is the document deadline for Seoul (15 working days before the start of the meeting), which is why so much stuff has appeared in the past few days. The idea is that everyone will now have plenty of time to read the documents and so be in a position to talk about their contents at Seoul.

The full rundown of documents can be found at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/comments-3-en.htm, including red-lined versions so you can see what has changed.

Fast Track
This is the process for introducing internationalized domain names (IDNs) into the root – but only those that related to territories i.e. ccTLDs. The Fast Track final implementation plan was published last week for public comment, and the plan is to have the Board authorize it at the Seoul meeting (end of this month).

So, this is the last chance to have a look and have your say before it actually happens. You can find all the information you should need for that process at http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-30sep09-en.htm.

Public comment periods
As usual in the build-up to a meeting, we have a raft of public comment periods. Ignoring the ones for the Applicant Guidebook and Fast Track, both of which are mentioned above, we have also opened comment periods on:

• A root-scaling study by TNO
• The use of proxy services for domain registration i.e. people paying to ensure their personal details do not appear publicly as the owner of a particular domain name
• Board review final report i.e. the changes to be made to the Board itself as part of the ongoing independent review process
• SSAC review report – same as Board report above but not as far along in the process
• NomCom review report – same as SSAC above

Seoul meeting
Why we have this glut of material is, of course, the upcoming Seoul meeting at the end of October.

With respect to the meeting itself, there are several other pieces of information:

• The agenda is live - check it out to see what is going on, when and who will be speaking
• If you can’t attend, you can ask questions in the public forum online
• If you haven’t see it yet, the meeting has its own website at http://sel.icann.org

And the remainder
And there’s still more:

• Nairobi fellowship applications
• A new process for registry security requests
• A bulk transfer advisory

Hopefully that helps breaks down the work into manageable chunks. If you still have queries, please add them as a comment below.

A number of people testified, including my colleague Doug Brent, but it is the testimony of Steve DelBianco I found particularly intriguing. His testimony revolved around the notion the country-code top-level domains are “controlled by governments”, and future IDN fast track ccTLD allocations will be “reserved only for governments”.

I think many in the ccTLD community will be puzzled by these repeated assertions in his testimony.

Let’s set the stage a little. Country-code top-level domains have existed since the mid-1980s — they are the domains that currently end with two-letter extensions like .FI for Finland, and .DE for Germany. Each country has one available for their use, taken from the ISO 3166-1 standard, but at present they are all written in the letters used for English, known as Latin characters. One of ICANN’s key current initiatives is to work on allowing country-codes to be deployed in different scripts, such as those used for Chinese, Russian and Arabic languages. It is not terribly convenient for those who type in these languages to have to switch their computer to using Latin characters just to put the two-letter endings on their domains, and this will address that.

Recognising that coming up with a complete solution for these internationalised country codes will take some time, the community is working on a “fast track” programme which allows countries that have a demonstrated immediate need to get early access to using these domains. Applications will need to show that the strings they would like to use (like .рф, .日本国 or .ελ) are not contentious, in addition to meeting all the existing eligibility criteria we use for assigning the Latin-based country codes.

So what are the criteria we use today?

The criteria we use in large part revolve around the consensus of “local Internet community” — a sometimes nebulous concept, to be sure, but in essence recognising it is the Internet community as a whole in the country that should decide how their domain is run, not just the Government.

IANA Staff wrote in 1994 that we assign country code top-level domains to trustees that “carry out the necessary responsibilities, and have the ability to do an equitable, just, honest, and competent job”, and have a “duty to serve the community”. “Significantly interested parties in the domain should agree that the designated manager is the appropriate party.”

With respect to national governments, in 1997 we noted that “an additional factor has become very important since [1994]: the desires of the government of the country.  The IANA takes the desires of the government of the country very seriously, and will take them as a major consideration in any transition discussion.” Subsequent to that, the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee has also made statements regarding this principle.

Clearly national governments have an important role in country-code top-level domains, but that does not translate to controlling them. It is the local Internet community that we look to to provide guidance on how their domains should be run. We expect governments are an important actor in the local Internet community, and that they are involved in the discussion and decision making. But there is a key difference between that, and them exclusively controlling the domain, or having them reserved for the government’s use. If the top-level domain for a particular country is assigned to its government to operate directly, it is because the local Internet community consensus there has decided that is what is appropriate, versus some other alternative.

A basic description of the evaluation criteria we use are provided in the public summary delegation reports we publish on the IANA website (see here for a recent example). ICANN staff have also been working in recent months on improving the public delegation documentation, in anticipation of the launch of the fast track programme. This documentation will better elaborate our existing processes. It is our hope that this will assist prospective applicants for these domains better understand the evaluation criteria when they submit their applications.

We know that Internet communities in a number of countries are already discussing how best to run a potential fast track internationalised domain, so that they can be ready to present their consensus should the programme be launched. Until then, all countries of the world have their two-letter ASCII code and ICANN continues to receive requests to maintain and transfer these domains in accordance with the community’s wishes.

ICANN’s staff is currently producing implementation plans for both the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process and the New gTLD Process. What guides that process for the topic of variants, is three things:

1. Following the direction of policy advice already provided
2. Taking broader community needs into consideration, and
3. Ensuring the continued stability of the DNS and the namespace in general

In the course of doing this for the issue of variant TLDs there were two different proposals.

1. Reserve desired variants & block all other variants; and
2. Delegate desired variants & block all other variants

Following public comment periods on both proposed implementation methods (none were agreeable across the community), it was decided during the Sydney meeting this June that ICANN staff would seek implementation assistance from the community. This is usually the case on policies that have technical implications and hence are difficult to implement.

As a result a small team has been asked to volunteer their time (you can read more about that team and another issue the team is looking at in the post Solving the remaining IDN issues).

Community discussion on this topic is very important as we strive to reach a conclusion that works for all involved. Variant TLD management is especially important to make the introduction of IDNs work well for the end-users. The IDN Tables that hold and define the character variants are the most important piece of the management of variants, as these tables are developed to reduce the potential for confusion to end users by the introduction of IDNs.

In the most recent paper [pdf] published on this topic, a variant is defined as follows:

“Variant characters are two or more characters that are similar in appearance and result in two domain names to be visually confusing.

As such the resulting “variant strings” that are obtained by replacing the original characters with the variant characters, are visually indistinctible and, if used for separate purposes, could create user confusion. In some cases this could result in visually similar strings having the same meaning.

As such, the term “variant” designates orthographic equivalence on the character level, such as that between “æ” and “ae” in “encyclopædia” and “encyclopaedia”, but not in the broader sense that pertains to the variant spelling of words, as “encyclopaedia” vs. “encyclopedia” or “color” vs. “colour”. The IDN Tables that define variant characters are useful because they enable TLD registries to develop registration policies that will reduce the potential for confusion that could result from typographic similarities in domain names.

Recent discussions have suggested that the definition might be better if more technical stringent (for example by following the definition in the JET Guidelines: “One conceptual character can be identified with several different Code Points in character sets for computer use”) and then add various examples of variants, where some are confusingly similar visually and others are not.

The same paper proposed the following way of managing IDN TLD variants:

“ICANN understands the need expressed in the community for enabling allocation of variant strings, in particular for locations where some users will key in one string and other users will key in the variant string when accessing for example a website. ICANN urges the community to continue to discuss and develop a technical solution that will enable the allocation of variant strings in the root zone in a stable manner. Until then IDN ccTLD Fast Track requesters will need to select one string per script or language only or alternatively wait until a technical solution has been found.

“In order to reserve the possibility of allocating variant strings to the appropriate entities, ICANN will ensure that all variant strings are reserved or blocked for allocation for now. Blocked strings will be considered as “existing strings” when incoming requests are checked for conflicts with existing TLDs. Therefore, any later request for the same string will be denied.”

The reservation of desired variants was thought to be the safest way of securing adequate variant management until a solution has been found on how to manage them at the top level. The community response to the temporary solution was mixed. There is a concern in certain regions that a blocking of variants will disfranchise certain user communities. However, at the same time the response received stated that solving this problem should not in any way slow down the Fast Track introduction.

While we continue work on the subject with the industry experts, one thing seem to be clear: variant TLDs will be identified using of the IDN Tables that are required in either a Fast Track request or an IDN gTLD application.

This means that for the sake of the end-users, the usability of IDNs globally, and therefore the adoption of IDNs across applications on the Internet, we better get these tables right!

I have previously blogged about what could be the worst case scenario. We really want to avoid this. We are in the last step of making IDN TLDs a reality for users globally which will be an amazing step for all involved.

قامت آيكان على مدار الأيام القليلة الماضية بنشر مجموعة من المستندات في إطار الاستعداد لاجتماع سيدني (٢١-٢٦ يونيو
٢٠٠٩) تمهيدا لمناقشتها خلال الاجتماع. وتشمل هذه المستندات ما يلي

المسار السريع لأسماء النطاقات الدولية لرمز الدولة: تم نشر الإصدار الثالث لمسودة خطة التنفيذ، ونسخة معدلة لاقتراح وثيقة المسئولية، وكذلك التفاصيل الخاصة بالمساهمة المالية المقترحة لدعم تطبيق أسماء النطاقات الدولية لرمز الدولة، بالإضافة إلى تحديث الورقة الخاصة بتطوير جداول أسماء النطاقات الدولية، ويمكن الاطلاع على جميع المستندات من خلال الرابط
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-31may09-en.htm
ويمكن أيضا التعليق عليها من خلال الرابط
http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/public-comment-200907.html#fast-track
علما بأن التعليق على هذه المستندات سيكون متاحا حتى ١٥ يوليو ٢٠٠٩.

With Sydney opening on Monday 22 June, we strived to have this information up before this morning, Monday 1 June.

As such, it is probably as comprehensive a set of documents as ICANN has published for any meeting – addressing hard issues on IDNs, an important report on intellectual property issues as related to domain names, another huge piece of comment and analysis related to new TLDs, new financial analysis, more on community travel (which is coming), and other areas. I’m also pretty confident that this is the earliest (relative to an ICANN meeting) that this kind of material has been available.

So what was included?

IDNs: We posted the third revision to the Fast Track Implementation Plan. This was accompanied by explanatory memos that discuss: the form of agreement we will have with IDN TLD operators, financial contributions to ICANN, and the use of variant tables. The bottom line – we plan to launch this process right after the meeting in Seoul.

New gTLDs: We posted the Analysis of public comment, as we did before the Mexico City meeting. This document is intended to demonstrate ICANN’s careful consideration of all the comment. We decided to not publish a new version of the Guidebook since the overarching issues are not yet resolved.

Instead, we have identified several areas where the Guidebook can be amended and published excerpts – just those sections that are changing. We also published explanatory memos: discussing whether Chinese, Japanese, and Korean TLDs should be allowed to register one or two-character names since complete words in those languages are generally that short; describing all the research that has been done regarding morality & public order issues; describing a process for contractual compliance in community-based TLDs; and advocating a requirement that registries maintain thick Whois databases.

IRT and Trademark Protection: The Implementation Recommendation Team was created by a resolution of the Board to develop solutions to trademark protection issues. The IRT made its final report, it was posted yesterday. The report represents a ton of work by the 18 members of the team for which we are very grateful.

As an ICANN staff member closely associated with this important and huge amount of work, I would like to thank everyone from staff and the community that worked so hard in making it possible to publish this in time for review and discussion in Sydney.