CONAC's Comment on the IDN Variant Issues Project

["Yang Yu" <leo@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

China Organizational Name Administration (CONAC) appreciates all the effort 
that ICANN has done in addressing IDN variant issues. CONAC, as a member of the 
Chinese user community, is keen to move the variant issues forward and 
committed itself to find a solution. CONAC would like to make the following 
comments on the IDN Variant Issues Project.

 

1. The Timeline of the Project

We believe the deadline for issues report publication should not go behind of 
the pace of whole new gTLD program. According to the proposed schedule, the 
issues report will be published on 15 Dec. 2011. It may take another period of 
time to wait for the implementation plan. But according to the Board 
Resolutions in San Francisco meetings, the new gTLD application is expected to 
be accepted in November 2011. Obviously, the Project timeline will be lagged 
far behind the process of new gTLD program, and problems emerged from the time 
gap will surely cost ICANN more to solve.

 

We admit the solution of variant issues is complicated and may be very 
time-consuming, but we keenly hope that the project can be moved forward as 
soon as possible. We believe it is on the right track to conduct the research 
on basis of case-by-case studies and developing feasible solutions accordingly. 
A mechanism should be established to allow for those who have mature solution 
being approved quickly. The solutions for Chinese variants have already been 
proven by the delegation and operation of “.中国”(.CN in Chinese) ccTLD. We 
believe such experience can be introduced and adopted in delegating Chinese 
variant gTLDs .

 

2. More Communication with the Language Community Involved

We believe more communication is needed between IDN variant study team and the 
language communities involved. We suggest an effective communication mechanism 
that liaisons between communities and the study team can communicate in a 
timely manner through mailing lists or telephone-conference if necessary. The 
communication between IETF and ICANN should also be as accessible as possible 
so that the communities can be well informed and give proper inputs.

 

Thank you.

 

Yang Yu

China Organizational Administration Center