Members of the Task Force on Arabic Script Internationalized Domain Names (TF-AIDN)
The TF-AIDN is a community-driven working group. It was formed by ICANN’s Middle East Strategy Working Group (MESWG) in 2013 to work on technical issues and solutions. The TF-AIDN promotes Arabic Script IDNs and their secure deployment.
Currently, the TF-AIDN has 35 members hailing from 18 countries across the globe, who also make up the Arabic Script Generation Panel. The members come from a variety of backgrounds – including linguistics, technology, and policy – and cover a wide range of Asian and African languages using the Arabic script.
Due to the dedication of TF-AIDN members, the TF-AIDN was the first generation panel that completed its proposal for the Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGR) for top-level domain names. The TF-AIDN has also finished proposals for LGR for second-level domain names for the Arabic and Urdu languages as a reference for the community to use.
Currently, the TF-AIDN is finalizing second-level LGR work for the Farsi and Pashto languages. Moreover, the Task Force is reaching out to local experts of Swahili, Fulfulde, and other major African languages to develop second-level LGR proposals for their use of the Arabic script domain names.
The TF-AIDN is working extensively on Universal Acceptance. The Task Force recently completed its first use-case report on issues encountered by languages using the Arabic script, and will present the report to the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG). Some of the key Universal Acceptance issues related to Arabic script domain names are:
- Right-to-left direction of Arabic script domain names
- End-to-end delivery of emails directed to email addresses that use the Arabic script
- Operational software evaluation for using Arabic Script domain names and email addresses
- Domain Name System security matters specifically related to Arabic script IDNs and their variant domain names
- Compliance of programming languages and frameworks with Arabic script domain names
- Challenges related to applications that automatic generate links to emails and URLs in text
TF-AIDN members are volunteers who are interested in Arabic script IDNs. Membership is open – if you would like to join, email us at meac.swg@icann.org.