Personal comment to Universal Acceptance of IDN TLDs

[Joseph Yee <joseph.yee@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear All,

Below is my personal thought and comment to universal acceptance of
IDN TLDs.  The problems faced by IDN TLDs are the same for many non
IDN TLDs as well.

 From personal observation, the acceptance concerns started to move
away from registering & resolving (although not yet completely
eliminated) to associating & using the name with many common Internet
services.  Although many promotions and publications made, many in
public were still not aware of IDNs or TLDs beyond common ones.  Many
in public were not rejecting, simply they were not aware of it.  And
they ask about the domain in terms tools & services, not pure domain
name, that's where ICANN may want to focus on.

1. Work with open source communities to enhance & improve on domain
name related codes.  Since there are so many open source tools and
communities, it will be hard to ICANN to reach them one by one.
Instead, ICANN to work with other organizations and/or initiatives
like Google Summer of Code.  Act as either sponsor or to provide
mentor resources.  ICANN doesn't need to be the sole sponsor, but to
engage with other organizations to promote code change who may
benefits from it.  Once the tools support IDNs and many TLDs
"naturally" right from the beginning, users and service providers
scramble less.

2. Startup communities, especially those who serve in different
regions where English may not be the primary languages.  One of the
issue of acceptance is adoption.  There are many startups (even those
who are very technical oriented) who are not aware of IDNs.  Engage
them to have them excited about this technology, encourage them to
utilize it to enhance their business, which create something
attractive and build up the user base.  Startups communities are
usually small but do act very quick and also excite for the potential
opportunities, even it may take several baby steps to get the
momentum.  ICANN does not need to be angels or VCs, but sponsoring
events and participate technology and start up related conferences
would be beneficial.

Best Regards,
Joseph Yee