Comment on IDN gTLDs & ccTLDs

[Jaser Elmorsy <jaser.elmorsy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of ICANN,



my name is Jaser Elmorsy. I am CEO of BlueBridge Technologies, a software 
development company with locations in Austria and Egypt. I appreciated the 
opportunity to attend my first ICANN meeting in Paris in June and look forward 
to continued participation in a process that has major implications for my 
business.



Of particular concern to my company is the ongoing debate over the launch of 
internationalized domain names. For a company like mine with significant 
business in the Arab world, IDNs represent a critical opportunity to better 
reach and serve my customers by communicating with them fully in their native 
language. I applaud your efforts in this area.



But two aspects of the IDN discussion gave me cause for concern. One was the 
idea of creating an IDN "fast track" ONLY for country-code top-level domains, 
and not for generic top-level domains. The other was the notion that the IDN 
versions of existing gTLDs may be operated completely separately from the 
existing domains.



A key component of my brand is the Internet address BlueBridge.net. I look 
forward to making BlueBridge.net available to my customers in the Arab world in 
IDN format at the earliest availability. It has never been part of my company's 
Internet strategy to buy ccTLDs to complement our ".net" address.

We are known by BlueBridge.net and will continue to build that as our Internet 
brand.



But now I understand that there is a possibility that IDN ccTLDs will be made 
available months or even years before IDN gTLDs, under a process known as 
"fast-track." This would put my company in a difficult position, facing one of 
two unappealing alternatives. I could either ignore the needs of my Arab 
customers and risk offending them by failing to offer an IDN option when it 
becomes available; or I could incur the expense and challenge of attempting to 
acquire ccTLDs in all of the nations where I may do business.



I am certain that many of my colleagues in the business world would face a 
similar dilemma if "fast-track" were implemented in such a way that IDN ccTLDs 
became available ahead of IDN gTLDs.



The obvious solution from my perspective is to ensure that IDN versions of 
existing gTLDs are put on the same ³fast-track² process as the ccTLDs.  From a 
domain owner standpoint, this will ensure far greater choice, simplicity and 
ease of use. From a user standpoint, it will ensure that expectations of 
continuity throughout the IDN space can be met as soon as they become available 
to the public.



On a related note, I was surprised and troubled to learn of the possibility 
that the IDN versions of .net and other gTLDs could be operated completely 
separately from the existing versions. This would be disastrous for companies 
like mine that do business in nations that use non-Latin scripts.



Regardless of where people are in the world and regardless of what language 
they use, they should be able to reasonably expect that that when they type 
BlueBridge.net into their browser, they will come to my company's home page.

That is the essential beauty of the Internet's addressing system. Should that 
fundamental value change, the potential for user confusion will be enormous.



The nightmare scenario for a company like mine would be if another registrant 
bought the Arabic version of BlueBridge.net and either deliberately or 
inadvertently confused and alienated my Arabic customer base.



The Internet is a tool to unite people around the world with a common network 
that behaves in predictable, reliable ways everywhere in the world.

What this means in the IDN space is that typing BlueBrige.net should take users 
to BlueBrige.net, whatever language they use.



Thank you for your consideration and I am looking forward to seeing you in 
Cairo.



Sincerely,

Jaser Elmorsy


[cid:image001.jpg@01C8FF23.F3665F90]<http://www.bluebridge.net/>

Jaser Elmorsy | CEO | Microsoft Regional Director
BlueBridge Technologies | Vienna, Austria
[cid:image002.jpg@01C8FF23.F3665F90]   
jaserelmorsy.bluebridge.net<http://jaserelmorsy.bluebridge.net/>
[cid:image003.jpg@01C8FF23.F3665F90]   
www.bluebridge.net<http://www.bluebridge.net/>