[Chapter-delegates] Language Independent Domains or Phonetic names.

[Sivasubramanian Muthusamy]

Hello Marcin,

Domain names in local languages is an issue that needs to be
delicately handled. As you have pointed out India is a country with 22
languages to be given importance.  India is very much an unified
nation, but language is politicized. We have seen language movements
in different geographic zones where politicians championed for their
language - BY RESITING AND SHUTTING DOWN OTHER LANGUAGES. For example,
you might find public city buses in a cosmopolitan city such as
Bangalore or Chennai featuring route name plates ONLY in local
languages. The street names and shop name boards are at times
regulated or compelled to be ONLY in local languages. How would you
take public transportation in Bangalore if you were to arrive from
Poland or Calcutta ? You suddenly become illiterate and lost. More
often than not government officials, even a police officer would
resist another national or foreign language even if they are
conversant with the language.

France can have its URLs in French, Italy in Italian, Poland in
Polish, some states of India in Hindi, other states in one of their 21
other languages. But this needs to be done in such a way that it does
not shut out websites in France for the English speaking people or the
websites in Italy for the Hindi speaking people.

Sivasubramanian M.



On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 9:58 PM, Marcin Cieslak <saper at saper.info> wrote:
> Sivasubramanian Muthusamy wrote:
>>
>> Whether or not this proposal makes technical sense, we may begin
>> working on an RFC on the method of allocation of language domain names
>> in such a manner that the local language domain names are universally
>> readable and writeable or make the domain names language independent
>> at one level.
>>
>> Again, this is a core problem to be addressed by the Internet
>> Community if the universality of the Internet is to be preseved.
>
> In Paris, the board of ICANN has approved IDNC Working Group final report
> for public comments:
>
> http://www.icann.com/minutes/resolutions-26jun08.htm#_Toc76113172
>
> The report describes a so-called "Fast Track" process for internationalized
> country top-level names (like .de or .in). It is understood that the whole
> issue is very complex therefore a "quick & easy" fast track process has been
> defined to address most simple cases.
>
> http://ccnso.icann.org/workinggroups/idnc-wg-board-proposal-25jun08.pdf
>
> During the ccTLD workshop in Paris, India "with its 22 languages" was often
> set as an example. The document is now open for discussion and I think it
> would be good if ISOC could come up with a broad background material from
> different regions and possibly a joint opinion on the issue.
>
> --
>              << Marcin Cieslak // saper at saper.info >>
>
>



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