ICANN chair to fast-track IDN

[IDNer]

ICANN chair to fast-track Internationalised Domain Names
Ken Lewis Tuesday, 06 November 2007


Vint Cerf congratulates Dengate Thrush

http://m-net.net.nz/2035/latest-news...d-domain-n.php

Non-English-speaking nations could begin using their own scripts for top level domain names as early as mid-2008 says the new chairman of ICANN, New Zealand lawyer Peter Dengate Thrush.

Dengate Thrush, who was elected unopposed as the international body's new chairman last Friday, says fast-tracking the Internationalised Domain Names process will be one of his first challenges heading up the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Introduction of the localised top level domain system, he says, will allow countries such as Japan and others use their own script instead of English. That means rightmost suffixes such as .jp and .de can be replaced by local language scripts.

Dengate Thrush says implementation of Internationalised Domain Names will run in step with efforts to introduce the new IPv6 communications protocol that underlies the internet. This is being created to takeover from the current IPv4 protocol and will greatly expand the 4 billion internet addresses currently available to the world's internet users.

The new chairman said was pleased by progress made on Internationalised Domain Names following the launch last month of an evaluation that allows internet users to test top-level domains in 11 languages - Arabic, Persian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil.

The Wellington intellectual property expert says that overall he is pleased with the shape ICANN is in and credited that to the leadership of outgoing chairman Vint Cerf and current CEO and president Dr Paul Twomey.

"There are still some internal structural issues, especially around the At-Large community. There is some debate whether this should remain an advisory role and is quite contentious." He said the role of the At-Large community had become an issue because of ICANN's rapid growth in recent years.

Dengate Thrush says his chairmanship will naturally differ from Vint Cerf's: "Vint is an evangelist and always in demand because of his charisma and background."

He said he intends to focus on making sure that "the business is done and new voices are heard" during his term.

The ICANN chairperson's term runs for just one year, although Dengate Thrush said no one had been voted out after just one term.