Re: Universal Acceptance of IDN TLDs

On 3/4/2014 7:50 AM, Andre Schappo wrote:
> ① Is this document available online? I have looked round 
> http://aptld.org <http://aptld.org> but cannot find it.
>
> ② There are indeed barriers to the effective, real world use of IDNs. 
> A fundamental problem is that IDNs, in general, are not properly 
> catered for and not properly integrated into systems. One reason often 
> quoted for treating IDNs differently is "Security". Well, I posit that 
> any IDN security issues pale in comparison to the ubiquitous "… for 
> further information please click here."
>
==> example shows as clickable link in Thunderbird and is opened by 
Firefox. So that level works.

==> example links correctly (thumbnail shows) when entered in to FB (on 
firefox). So that one works.

> Here are some examples from Social Media:
>
> Twitter
>
> If the Unicode form is entered —
>
> #test http://北大.中国 <http://%E5%8C%97%E5%A4%A7.%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD>
>
> It is not recognised as a Domain Name & not displayed as clickable link
>
> If the punycode form is entered —
>
> #test http://xn--djry4l.xn--fiqs8s
>
> It is now recognised as a Domain Name and displayed as a clickable 
> link but displayed as punycode instead of Unicode
>
> Sina Weibo
>
> Same results —
> #test# http://北大.中国
> #test# http://xn--djry4l.xn--fiqs8s
>
> There is also the related issue of having to Percent Encode the 
> Unicode pathname components of a URL.
>
> ③ In my experience, another fundamental problem is the lack of IT 
> Internationalization teaching in Schools and Universities. Certainly 
> in England, IT Internationalisation has not yet become an accepted 
> part of the curriculum. We need to produce students that have 
> an appreciation/understanding of IT Internationalisation in order to, 
> amongst other goals, properly integrate IDNs into 
> systems/apps/websites …etc…
>
> For several years I have been teaching a module entitled 
> "International Computing" which covers several aspects of IT i18n. One 
> of the topics I cover is IDNs :) And I am keeping my students up to 
> date with the idn new gTLDs as they are delegated to DNS Root :)
>
> During my years teaching this module I have found few students 
> (regardless of which country they come from) with even a basic 
> appreciation of IT Internationalization because it is a topic that was 
> never discussed/raised in their prior studies.

this correlates with my observations about project plans. I noticed over 
the years that in the table of contents or summary bullets the same two 
line items battle for the last two slots: internationalization and 
"accessibility". (Have not seen any real counter example, except perhaps 
if the "product" itself was something international, like IDN). I find 
the way that association implies that international users are somewhat 
disabled an interesting insight...

>
> So, any initiative in "to improve the use of IDN TLDs in the real 
> world" should get Universities onboard and encourage 
> Universities/Schools to teach "IT Internationalization"
>
> André
> http://schappo.blogspot.co.uk
>
> On 4 Mar 2014, at 12:14, Richard Ishida wrote:
>
>> I was contacted last week by Don Hollander, General Manager of the 
>> Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association, who is trying to improve 
>> the use of IDN TLDs in the real world, and looking for support.
>>
>> See the attached PDF (from him) outlining what are the barriers to 
>> the effective use of IDN TLDs and who can help address these issues.
>>
>> He's hoping to create a community of interested stakeholders. He 
>> expects this community to include ICANN, many ccTLDs, ISOC, and 
>> hopefully commercial developers. He is also looking to set up some 
>> opportunities to meet and discuss how to move things forward.
>>
>> If you are interested in getting involved, please raise your voice.
>>
>> Don says "There is a HUGE population with interest in this - but it 
>> is not really the current 2Billion, but the next 2 Billion - those 
>> who aren’t yet connected."
>>
>> RI
>> <Addressing the issue of Universal Acceptance of IDN TLDs-1.pdf>
>
>
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