[bc-gnso] ALERTS from the Secretariat: Call for Volunteers: Developing the Process for Root IDN Table Creation and Maintenance

[Benedetta Rossi <bc-secretariat@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear BC Members,

Please find below an ICANN announcement regarding the call for 
volunteers for the development of the process for root IDN table 
creation and Maintenance.
Kind Regards,

Benedetta Rossi
BC Secretariat
https://community.icann.org/display/gnsobc/Home
www.bizconst.org
bc-secretariat@xxxxxxxxx


http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-18jun12-en.htm


 Call for Volunteers: Developing the Process for Root IDN Table
 Creation and Maintenance

18 June 2012

* Deadline for responses is *13 July 2012*

ICANN is seeking volunteers to work on advancing IDN capabilities in the 
DNS. The project 2.1 "Root IDN Table Process" part of the IDN Variant 
TLD Program, is designed to develop, in consultation with the community, 
the process to define:
 * allowed code points,
 * corresponding variant code points, and
 * related allowed states for IDN Variant TLDs.

ICANN is soliciting participation from volunteers with the following 
areas of expertise: IDNA, DNS, Linguistics/Unicode, Policy.
The project team will include additional consultant expertise to help in 
the process.
ICANN has a limited budget to support team meetings such as travel, 
accommodation, and other expenses.

     General responsibilities for volunteers:

 * Contribute to developing the Process for Root IDN Table Creation and
   Maintenance
 * Research and provide input on issues discussed during meetings
 * Attend two face-to-face meetings (likely during the last week of
   August in Los Angeles, US, and mid-October 2012 in Toronto, Canada)
 * Participate in regular teleconferences (time to be determined)
 * Expected time commitment of 2 to 4 hours per week during a 4-month
   period


     IDNA Expertise qualifications:

 * Expertise with IDNA and preferably active on internationalization work
 * Participation in relevant IDNA working groups


     DNS Expertise qualifications:

 * Expertise with DNS standards
 * Active in related DNS technical fora (e.g., IETF DNSext, DNSop)


     Linguistics/Unicode expertise qualifications:

 * Expertise in linguistics
 * Familiarity with Unicode


     Policy expertise qualifications:

 * Participation in ICANN's policy development process; or
 * Have participated in, at least, one ICANN working group, preferably
   on IDN related issues


     Selection and Recruitment Process for Case Study Members:

 * Indications of interest should be sent to idnvarianttlds@xxxxxxxxx
   <mailto:idnvarianttlds@xxxxxxxxx>no later than *13 July 2012*.
 * Interested experts are invited to submit a résumé (Curriculum Vitae)
   and an expression of interest statement demonstrating how they meet
   the qualifications for one or more of the areas of expertise
   specified above.
 * The ICANN IDN Variant TLD Program team will select the team members
   ensuring a diverse composition of the members in terms of
   language/script communities represented.
 * Applicants will be notified no later than 30 July 2012.


     Background on the IDN Variant TLD Program

On 20 April 2011, ICANN announced the IDN Variant Issues Project to 
explore the benefits and risks associated with the potential inclusion 
of IDN variant TLDs in the DNS root zone. This project was initiated in 
response to a 2010 ICANN Board of Directors resolution 
<http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/documents/resolutions-25sep10-en.htm#2.5>. 
Two phases of the project have been completed to date.
Phase I involved the formation of six case study teams for the Arabic, 
Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek and Latin scripts. These teams were 
comprised of community experts with support from ICANN that worked on 
identifying issues related to IDN variant TLDs for each particular 
script, resulting in the publication in October 2011 of six individual 
reports detailing their findings.
Phase II focused on integrating those six case study reports into the 
Integrated Issues Report. To complete this phase, ICANN formed a 
coordination team comprised of experts from each of the case study 
teams. The coordination team advised ICANN on completing the Integrated 
Issues Report, which summarizes and categorizes the various issues 
related to the identification and management of IDN variant TLDs.
The next phase (phase III) outlined in the proposed program plan 
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/idn-variant-tld-revised-program-plan-04may12-en.htm>includes 
a number of activities resulting from the issues identified in the final 
Integrated Issues Report 
<http://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/idn-vip-integrated-issues-final-clean-20feb12-en.pdf>[PDF, 
2.15 MB]. The work is now focused on using the approach outlined in the 
Integrated Issues Report to define milestones that must be completed to 
manage the implementation of IDN variant TLDs.
The goal of the program is to define the necessary processes that must 
be in place to enable the management of variant TLDs. This incorporates 
the creation and maintenance of IDN tables for the root zone, and 
updating operational processes as appropriate to allow for the 
implementation of the IDN variant TLDs.