National and Regional Approaches to Multilingual

Internet NamesAsia Pacific Perspective

Tan Tin Wee

Retired Chairman

Asia Pacific Networking Group

(APNG)

Historical Origins of Multilingual Domain Names

• 1998 – APNG Chairman’s Commission• 1998 – National University of Singapore research project

– proxy/UTF5 solution• 1998 – Asia Pacific iDNS Testbed – at least five countries• 1998 – APNG/NUS Presentation to INET’98, Geneva.• 1998 – APNG/NUS Presentation to IFWP, Singapore.• 1999 – AP Task Force on iDNS• 1999 – iDNS IPv6 research project funded by PanAsia

Networking, IDRC Canada

Historical Origins of Multilingual Domain Names – II

• 2000 Formation of Multilingual Internet Names Consortium - MINC

• 2000 CDNC - Chinese• 2000 International Forum for IT in Tamil

(INFITT) – Tamil WG03• 2001 AINC – Arabic Internet Names

Consortium• 2001 JDNA – Japanese Domain Name Assn

Key Issues - I

Multilingual Support in Internet Names is imperative• 55% of content non-English• Rapid Sustained Growth - China/HK/Taiwan, Japan,

Korea• Rapid growth in developing countries in the region –

Thailand, India, Indonesia, Philippines• Early phase – Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, etc

Key Issues - II

Principle of Least Astonishment for Users

• Chinese Traditional/Simplified,

• Kanji/Hirigana/Katakana,

• Hanguel/Hanja

• Arabic/Farsi/Urdu/Jawi

Key Issues - III

• Autonomy

• Self Determination

• National Security for authorities

Key Issues - IV

Interoperability across languages - Minority Ethnic Groups and Multi-racial societies

• Indian Languages

• IndoChinese languages

• Large minority groups in China – Mongolian, Tibetan etc.

Consequences of Delay

• Application/Vendor dependent domain names and keywords – already happened

• Keyword masquerade as domain names – 1 to 3 months

• National Intranets/Extranets with national language-specific roots imminent in 3 to 6 months

• Namespace collisions• User confusion, dissatisfaction, disservice

Solutions?

• Demythologise the sacred root of IAB/IANA/IETF/ICANN

• Liberalisation of the Internet - Distributed Unique Root or multiple but singly coordinated roots?

• Controlled Economy or Market forces?• Mutual respect of all languages and scripts• Competence of authority• Speed of service• Proactive rather than reactive• Devolution of responsibility

APNG

• APNG Commission 1998 gave birth to IDN• APNG desires for Internet Digital Divide in our

region to be bridged quickly• APNG desires early resolution• APNG wishes to help and cooperate with other

regions• APNG has provided technical directions and now

hopes to contribute some ideas for future directions in politcal, governance and management

APNG

• APNG also working on IPv6 IDNs

• APNG will help and cooperate with MINC in new “above” DNS solutions such as multilingual multiscript keywords

• APNG will encourage more AP citizens to participate in Technical solutions in IETF

More Information

• Website: http://www.apng.org• Email: sec@apng.org• Info: http://www.apng.org/commission/idns/• MINC: http://www.minc.org/• AINC: http://www.a-inc.org/• CDNC: http://www.cdnc.org/• JDNA : http://www.jdna.org/• INFITT: http://www.infitt.org/