Re: [gnso-idn-wg] Passing on a request for aliasing of IDNs

["Werner Staub (CORE)" <werner.staub@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Avri,

Indeed, the more we look at IDN the more it becomes clear that an IDN 
TLD needs a fallback alias in ASCII. The xn-- of course is not a 
solution for that, it must be an intuitive fallback alias.

In the case of ccTLD-related IDN TLDs, the original ascii ccTLD is 
available for that purpose.

But for the sake of consistency, it would be good to have an assumption 
that a TLD requiring a special input method would be mapped to a low-use 
letter-digit-hyphen (LDH) alias TLD. One guideline could be that the LDH 
alias would be written in an established transcription method for the 
respective language, or an established internationally understood 
equivalent name.

The need for an LDH alias is also apparent for diacritic-based IDNs as 
the required diacritics are not available on all the devices.
Suppose an Italian TLD ".libertÃ" were launched. It would then not be 
very intuitive to have to use ".xn--libert-nta" when it is not possible 
to type the "Ã" with a grave accent. So the logical alias is .liberta.

Regards,

Werner




Avri Doria wrote:
> hi,
>
> I know this issue really isn't on the table yet, but I want to pass on 
> the content of an issue that several people passed on to me in Geneva 
> last week at the IGF consultations.  I got essentially the same request 
> from 2 native Arabic speakers and 1 native Chinese speaker.  The request 
> surprised me as I had not given it consideration, but after several 
> hours of conversations, it starts to make sense.
>
> The request was that IDN always be established with an unencoded ascii 
> alias (staying out of the implementation details).  I was given 3 basic 
> reasons:
>
> - A concern that if site or email addresses can only be accessed with an 
> IDN keyboard, then those using IDNs will essentially be cut off from the 
> rest of the internet.  I.e those without the right keyboard would not be 
> able to communicate with them.
>
> - A compounded concern that this would lead to greater pressures for 
> isolation and restriction of freedom of expression in certain countries.
>
> - A concern that when these people travelled abroad, they would be 
> unable to communicate with people back home if they did not bring their 
> national keyboards with them - i.e. it would prevent them using cyber 
> cafes, borrowing a western friend's laptop or using the ubiquitous 
> keyboard one finds at conferences etc.
>
> Obviously one could require them to use the xn-- encoding but this is 
> almost as bad as using IP addresses (actually IPv4 addresses might be 
> easier to use then the xn-- encoding - IPv6 might be a challenge)
>
> In any case I felt I should pass this concern on to this group.
>
> a.


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