Joint UNESCO and ITU
Global Symposium on Promoting the Multilingual Internet
Koray Kocagöncü
Native Language Internet Consortium
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006

ITU-T
Where east meets the west
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Demographics
ITU-T o o
Over 70 million people
• 25% 0-14 ages,
• 68% 15-64 ages
GDP $550 billion
• 30% Industry,
• 60% Services,
• 10% Agriculture
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Demographics
ITU-T o o
Languages
• Turkish (official)
• 15% English (secondary), 5% Kurdish
(secondary)
Alphabet
• 22 characters from English alphabet
• 7 additional Turkish characters (çÇ, ğĞ , ı I, i İ ,
öÖ, şŞ , üÜ)
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Market
ITU-T o o o o
58 million Telephone subscribers
• 67% Mobile
5 million Personal computers
1.8 million Broadband subscribers
• 2% Households
Over 400,000 domain names
• 80% gTLD
• 40% Annual growth
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Market
ITU-T o o
10 million Internet users
• 52% Workplace,
• 37% Internet Cafes
• 11% Homes
8.7% Households connected to Internret
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Background
ITU-T
Project
Development
Test
Ops
S u n r i s e
On-going Infrastructure Development
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
Landrush
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Developments
ITU-T o o o o o
13th anniversary of internet access in Turkey
Recent pick-up on broadband deployment ccTLD registrar Middle East Technical
University
• Over 85,000 ccTLD’s
• Might change with the new
Telecommunications Law pTLD efforts
IDN attempts
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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ITU-T
Domain
Names
Confusion
Keyword
Look-up
Search
Engines ccTLD new registrar pTLD efforts
UNITD
Unified Root
IDN attempts
I-DNS
Turkish
Domain
Name?
NLIA
Turkish
Internet
Address!
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
MSN
Google
Yahoo
Name Search
I Feel Lucky
Finding sites?
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But
ITU-T o o o
NLIA is not a domain name
• Mapping service
• Bottom-up resolution approach
NLIA is not a search engine
• 1-to-1 keyword lookup
• No intermediate interfaces
• Direct entry from the adress bar
It is more than just a convenience
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Benefits
ITU-T o o o o o o
True multilingual representation
Local governence of the address space
Global integration
• Non-hierarchical federation of countries
Preservation of the language and the culture
Embracing non-users of the internet
• Eliminates language barrier and facilitates easier access
Increased internet activity
• Vitalizes e-commerce and e-government
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Critical success factors
ITU-T o o
Infrastructure
• Server (coverage takes time)
• Complementary client infrastructure
Quality of service
• Dynamic, functional and informative web site
• Unregistered NLIA (Landing page)
• Easy and quick registration procedure
• Complementary services
• Help desk
• Multiple payment methods
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Critical success factors
ITU-T o Database work
• Reserved words
— Government and academic institutions
— Offensive words
• Provisional linking
— Popular sites (during sunrise)
— Government & Academic institutions (for a certain period)
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Critical success factors
ITU-T o Promotions
• Newspapers, Internet, Printed media, TV
• Interviews, Press releases, Advertisement,
City visits
• Word of mouth
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Going forward
ITU-T o o o
Establishment of external committees
Dispute resolution commitee
• Improve on the current policy based on local legislation
• Need internet and business focus
Consultation committee
• Generic words
• New policies
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Going forward
ITU-T o Local governence of the address space
• Potential stakeholders
— Consumer rights groups,
— Regulatory authorities,
— Patent lawyers,
— Trade and industry chambers
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Joint UNESCO and ITU
Global Symposium on Promoting the Multilingual Internet kocagoncu@nliconsortium.org
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006