[gnso-idn-wg] Statement of Interest: Tan Tin Wee
March 4, 2007 RE: STATEMENT OF INTEREST OF TAN TIN WEE (Family Name:TAN; Given Name: TIN WEE) I am currently an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore. In March 1998, I started a project team to work on Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and produced a working implementation of IDNs using an ASCII encoding system (UTF5 of Martin Duerst) and a proxy Name Server between the client and the conventional DNS server to interconvert unicode characters into ASCII in UTF5 on the server. To test this IDN system, I initiated an Asia Pacific Testbed in my capacity as elected Chairman (1997-1999) of Asia Pacific Network Group (APNG), Asia's oldest Internet organisation. (APNIC for instance was one of APNG's projects before it spun off as a separate entity initially in Japan, and now in Brisbane.) This success was demonstrated to the IFWP which came to Singapore in 1998. However, there was a total lack of interest by the pre-Icanners. The objection was that it was technically impossible, which we proved it was not. The next objection was that there won't be any interest operationally and commercially. To demonstrate widespread interest, through National University of Singapore where I was Head of the Internet Research and Development Unit (IRDU) then, I co-founded a University spin-off company called i-DNS.net International Inc, which survives today headed by S Subbiah. It focused on both the original proxy system and a server end implementation. As a consequence, many companies started to buy into this idea. A taskforce for IDN was set up by Kilnam Chon which eventually became the Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC) which I was a founding member, board member and one time acting CEO. MINC at its peak had more than 40 members from industry and a wide range of luminaries, including our first MINC Chairman, Kyong Sang-Hyon, who became ICANN Board member. Next, many Internet engineers objected to the lack of standards. Consequently, APNG supported the formation of the Joint Engineering Taskforce, JET, comprising partners in Japan Korea China and Taiwan. I tasked my former student James Seng to participate in the standardisation process as part of his job as CTO of i-DNS.net. Through the cooperation of many, this eventually led to the IETF working group which finally produced the IDNA standards in 2003, that pushed the IDN solution to the Applications end and adopted RACE and then Punycode as we know of today. To popularise the idea of IDN, I gave many talks throughout the world from 1998 to date, including presentations at ICANN, INET/ISOC, APRICOT, etc. Through MINC, we set up many language and script committees such as Arabic AINC, Cyrillic group, Urdu, etc and supported languages groups such as Chinese Language CDNC and Tamil INFITT, to tap their local expertise to plan IDN deployment in their languages and scripts. To deal with policy issues, I was involved in coordinating meetings with ITU and WIPO from as early as 2002, with our latest meeting in 2006 with ITU and UNESCO. Today, I am involved in ICANN via its GNSO IDN Working Group, representing MINC and NCUC. For next generation IPv6 IDN, I received a research grant from the IDRC of Canada to research the area in 1999/2000. To prevent the fragmentation of the Internet root, I conducted a survey of IDN TLD deployments in 2006 and have demonstrated technical solutions for reconnecting a fragmented internet. From the earliest demonstration of the feasibility of IDNs to date, I have remained patient and steadfast in the vision of the globalisation of the Internet through breaking down the last barriers of accessibility due to language. By promoting a level playing field for all, I hope we can build an interoperable Internet for everyone everywhere, accessible in their own language. It has been most gratifying for me to be vindicated in demonstrating the possibility of IDN, and for IDN and multilingualism to become a global movement that it is today, thanks to all of your contributions and your efforts to keep working at it until interoperable IDNs become a widespread reality. As a founder and inventor of IDN, I hope my application to participate in ICANN activities pertaining to IDN will receive your positive support. Thank you. -- bestrgds Tin Wee --------------
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