What are IDNs?
The Internet was designed to be global, but it was not designed to be multilingual due to
technical constraints at its inception. When visiting a website, despite of your native tongue, you
are required to type the domain name URL using a small set of ASCII characters, namely the 26
basic Latin alphabet (“a-z”), numbers 0-9, and hyphen “-“. However, this has changed due to the
introduction of the Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). IDNs use representations of
languages (e.g. characters with accent or diacritical marks, characters from non-Latin scripts).
When typing an IDN into your browser’s address bar, the non-ASCII characters in the URL will
be transliterated into Punycode, a machine-readable string of ASCII character prefix by xn--.
Hence, users can locate websites using their own languages while the underlying technical
resolution of domain names remain unchanged.
The implementation of IDNs began in 2000 at the second level of URLs under .com and .net.
Growing over a decade, hybrid IDNs have been available with non-ASCII characters at the
second, third, and even fourth level. In 2009, IDNs were first introduced into the top level,
known as the root zone, to support country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) operated by
governments and administrations of countries and territories. As a result, Russians, for example,
are no longer restricted to registering domains using the Latin (.ru) country code and may instead
use the Cyrillic equivalent .рф; furthermore, the Russian search engine Yandex can be located at
http://Яндекс.рф. Beyond ccTLDs, the new generic top-level domains (new gTLDs) program in
2012 has unlocked greater opportunities for IDNs, as the new top-level domains can be any word
or phrase and in any language script, subject to ICANN’s approval. While facing technical
challenges, IDNs have the potential to make a single, diversified, and truly multilingual Internet
a reality.
Why IDNs matter to you?
While English is the mother tongue of less than 10% of the global population, it represents over
55% of web content. Increasing linguistic diversity online, IDNs will give you the same rights to
access the web in your native tongue and you don’t even need to type a web address in English
any more. They will provide you a quick hint about the page topic and the language to expect,
make it easier for you to discover and remember websites, and promote local content via service
providers that are likely in your own countries. In particular, it is expected that IDNs will
increase the Internet penetration in emerging economies of the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin
America regions where English is not the primary language.
Challenges for IDNs
IDNs also bring with them additional challenges. Using IDNs can be problematic across
browsers, emails and mobile apps because of the lack of universal acceptance. While you may
search a site via IDNs, browsers are prone to NOT displaying the native version of IDNs due to
potential homographic attacks, so their corresponding punycode are shown as default. As a
result, you are less likely to bookmark, share or publish the IDNs. Furthermore, emails with
internationalized characters (e.g. aндрей@проект.рф) are incompatible with our existing email
systems. You can neither send a message to an address that contains IDNs via email software,
nor use web-based services to set up a new account with non-ASCII characters. Unaware that
IDNs have existed for years, many app developers have built into their software functionality for
checking domain names based on the incorrect assumptions that only two or three Latin
characters can exist at the top level. Because of this, some apps are unable to locate IDN sites.
While still having a way to go, the universal acceptance of IDNs will ultimately improve your
user experience, increasing the IDN uptake and realizing a truly multi-linguistic Internet.
What is ICANN’s role in IDNs?
Implementing IDNs is expected to impact on the development of domain name industry in
emerging economies, as well as encounter challenges in terms of universal acceptance. Hence, it
requires that several groups work together, including language experts, engineers, security
experts, industry, government, and end-user communities. ICANN, as the organization mandated
with the coordination and maintenance of the domain name system and in charge of ensuring the
stable and secure operation of the Internet, brings together different stakeholders to develop
policy for implementing IDNs.
What are the IDN Policy and Program?
When IDNs were first used at the second level (e.g. 실례.com), ICANN created the IDN
Implementation Guidelines for register operators -- organizations that manage the technical
operation of domains -- to follow. Over the years, ICANN has been working with registries to
update these Guidelines.
In 2009, the ICANN Board approved the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process that enables countries
and territories to offer national domain names with non-Latin characters. This is a milestone
event in the development of IDN TLDs. As of today, 36 IDN ccTLDs representing 28 countries
and territories have been rolled out and are in use.
Presently, ICANN has been rolling out a wave of new gTLD applications, among which 116
applications are IDN gTLDs. This massive expansion of TLDs has brought new challenges. One
key challenge is around setting new rules for determining the validity new top-level domain
labels in a diverse array of language scripts and writing systems. These new rules are called
“Label Generation Rule-set (LGR).” They identify which subsets of characters can be used to
form a top-level domain, which characters may be confusable or variant to end users due to
their visual similarity (e.g. 中国 vs.中國), and what other additional
constraints may exist. Since this work requires linguistic expertise, ICANN facilitates the
communications between language experts around the world and help them organize into
Generation Panels to develop the LGR proposals for various scripts. An Integration Panel will
then review these proposals and determine whether they are ready for implementation. So far, the
proposals from the Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Armenian language community have been
approved by ICANN. As part of this effort, Generation Panels are also working on the LGR
Toolset, a software for checking the validity of IDN gTLDs; this will help ensure that registries
have the capacity to operate their proposed IDN new gTLDs in a stable, secure manner.
How the At-Large community has contributed to IDN Policy?
With presence in more than 80 countries and territories, the At-Large community is the most
geographically, linguistically, and culturally diverse stakeholder group at ICANN. Our members
have published Policy Advice Statements on IDNs, universal acceptance, and WHOIS issues that
have an internationalization component. We also participate in ICANN’s Generation Panels and
mobilize interested individuals to take part in. Furthermore, experts within our community have
hosted webinars to educate the broader audience and raise awareness of IDN issues. As a vocal
and vigilant presence in the IDN activities of ICANN, we bring language and technical expertise
and highlight the end-users' interests in policy discussions.
How can you get involved?
Do you want to help build a multilingual Internet benefiting the next billion Internet users? Get
involved in At-Large!
Our IDN Policy Working Group is open to anyone, even if you are not a member of the At-Large
community. You may get to know like-minded members from all around the world, participate in
its discussions on ICANN’s IDN Program, and join their conferences usually held during
ICANN meetings. Contact staff@atlarge.icann.org to ask for more information. If you just want
to be an observer in this Working Group, you may simply subscribe to its mailing list to follow
the discussions and receive conference details.
To directly take part in ICANN’s IDN program, you may volunteer in Generation Panels by
joining an existing Generation Panel or starting a prospective one. Read this to learn about the
language and technical expertise needed for Generation Panels. You can also contact
idntlds@icann.org to learn more.
Resources
- World Report on Internationalised Domain Names 2014
- Speak up for your language
- IDN Program Update at ICANN 52 Singapore
- Useful Links and Related Documentation
- IDN Reference Tables
- IDN Document Depository
- Community wiki for the LGR Project
- Final Implementation Plan for IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process
- APRALO-APAC Hub Webinar on IDNs on 09 April 2015