The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers organization (ICANN org) has partnered with the North American Regional At-Large Organization (NARALO) and the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) to host a Universal Acceptance (UA) training series for the North America (NA) region in early 2022. The series aims to increase UA awareness across the region and provide an opportunity to engage with technical stakeholders directly. This initiative is part of ICANN's Regional Universal Acceptance Training Program.
UA is key to achieving a digitally inclusive Internet by ensuring that all domain names and email addresses – regardless of the script, language, or character length – are accepted by all Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems.
The North America UA training series is designed to create awareness about the changing landscape of the Domain Name System (DNS) and provide training for key stakeholders who can help implement UA. The four sessions will be held throughout January and February 2022 and provide software developers, programmers, email system administrators, and IT leaders in the region with the tools to make their systems and applications UA-ready.
"Imagine mailing a letter to a relative and being unable to reach them because the receiving postage carrier cannot understand the new address. The same thing will happen if UA is not widely implemented throughout the Internet, and this training series is a step towards achieving that goal. UA is the responsibility of all of us, and we look forward to welcoming participants from across the region for this training series!" said Eduardo Díaz, NARALO Chair.
"ICANN org is excited to partner with NARALO and the UASG to conduct UA training to help bring greater UA awareness to the North American region. UA is key to supporting the usage of IDNs and internationalized email by Internet users around the world, as well as to advancing consumer choice and innovation in the domain name industry through the use of new and long TLDs," said Sarmad Hussain, ICANN Sr. Director of IDN and UA Programs.
NARALO is one of the five Regional At-Large Organizations (RALO) that make up the At-Large community. It serves as the main forum and coordination point for public input to ICANN from the At-Large community in North America. It provides news and critical resources to individuals and end -user groups.
The North America UA Training Series schedule is available here. To register for the series, click here.
North America UA Training Series Schedule
Dates are tentative and subject to change.
| Date | Session | Audience | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
20 January 2022 12:00 PM EST (17:00 PM UTC) |
Introduction to Universal Acceptance (UA) | General | An introduction to the fundamentals of UA and EAI. |
|
27 January 2022 12:00 PM EST (17:00 PM UTC) |
Email Addresses Internationalization (EAI) Configuration | Technical (email and system administrators) | A detailed training on how to configure email systems to support EAI. |
|
3 February 2022 12:00 PM EST (17:00 PM UTC) |
Universal Acceptance (UA) for Software and Application Developers | Technical (software and application developers) | A detailed training on how to design and develop applications and systems to support UA. |
|
10 February 2022 12:00 PM EST (17:00 PM UTC) |
Outreach and Engagement: The Life of a UA Ambassador | General | A session to discuss how participants can stay involved in UA efforts across the NA region. |
For more information on the regional training programs, click here. To learn more about UA, an introductory course is available on the ICANN Learn platform.
If you are interested in partnering with ICANN on UA-related initiatives, please email UAprogram@icann.org.
To stay up to date with all the offerings from ICANN org in the North America region, sign up for our mailing list here.