|
AUSTIN, Texas - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers announced Wednesday that it will  prioritize creation of domain names using languages not based on the Latin alphabet, in an effort to allow people everywhere to use the Internet in their own language. Planning Internet Expansion With nearly one billion people now using the Internet, focus should now shift to extending the reach of the Internet to the five billion people worldwide who do not read or write English, ICANN announced at the Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, which ended today. The ICANN Mandate ICANN is the Marina del Rey, California-based international nonprofit organization that coordinates the Internet's domain name system, or DNS, in order to ensure its stability and security. The organization reports to the U.S. Commerce Department, which has veto power, causing criticism among some that political interference may take place in the governance of the Web. Country-coded Domains ICANN is setting out to fast-track implementation of what it calls country code top-level domains, or ccTLDs, that will use alphabets such as Chinese, Arabic and Greek, and will do so in conjunction with its Country Code Names Supporting Organization offshoot group. Internationalized domain names (IDNs) have long been seen by ICANN as key to an Internet capable of fully serving non-English-speaking people around the world, and by putting plans to make the IDNs reality on a fast-track, the group will be able to begin working with governments worldwide. "A lot of hard work has been done on IDNs — and there is a technical evaluation of their impact [...] as we speak," said ccNSO chair Chris Disspain in a statement. "The next step is to develop the policies that will see the creation of new top-level domains in characters from the languages of the world," Disspain said. Fast Track to Implementation The plan will focus on the areas where the need for implementation is greatest. "The goal behind the fast-track process is to find a way to represent territory identifications in their local languages in operation as ccTLDs as quickly as possible in the areas of highest need, without impacting the long term policy process for the full implementation of IDNs across the globe," Disspain said. Earlier this month in Los Angeles ICANN's board established the IDN working group, which will now work on implementation plans. "This fast-track process will really be driven by those who want to take part and get their name in their language on their Internet in their country," Disspain said. ICANN in the Post-Cerf Era ICANN is working for the first time without Internet pioneer Dr. Vint Cerf, co-designer of the TCP/IP protocol that  underlies the Internet, who left his position as chairman of the organization to pursue other projects in October. Cerf was replaced by newly elected New Zealand lawyer Peter Dengate Thrush. In the 1970s when Cerf developed the protocol which would drive the Internet, he most likely did not envision how quickly the medium would change the way the world communicates. Cerf said that substantial progress has been made over the past year in expanding the domain name system to include non-Latin scripts, according to a recent article in Media Newswire. Internet for Africans, Pacific Islanders, Others ICANN's plan now is to bring the Internet to a new audience, and more than double its size. "Ten years ago, to talk about one billion Internet users sounded exaggerated, unthinkable, but now we talk about the next billion," said United Nations official Markus Kummer in a recent article in the International Herald Tribune. "It is clear sooner or later we will reach that number. It is also clear that next billion will be poorer than the first," Kummer said. The United Nations created the IGF two years ago to deal with issues such as differing international opinions about how the Internet is run, making access less expensive, and the proliferation of spam, however the group does not have U.N. decision-maker power. It has been estimated that fewer than four percent of Africans have access to the Internet, and in many areas of the world even electricity is not readily available. Some have suggested mobile technologies as a viable solution to the Internet access problems in many areas, however much remains to be done to bring widespread access to remote regions. U.S. Internet Influence Questioned As today's conference wound down the issue of U.S. control over pieces of the Internet were raised. Konstantin Novoderejhkin, a Russian U.N. representative, hoped that "practical steps" could be taken in an effort to move the governing responsibilities of the Internet "under the control of the international community," according to a recent Associated Press report. Dr. Cerf appears to view Novoderejhkin's fears of a U.S. dominated Internet as misguided. "It's a very small vocal group bothered by this issue. ICANN has existed for eight years and done a great job with its plans for internationalization," Dr. Cerf said. The next forum will be held in 2008 in New Delhi, India. Related Links:
| 
11:20 pm on Nov. 15, 2007 (utc 0)