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ICANN Newsletter | Week ending 11 January 2008

News from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

Announcements This Week

Possible 'Next Steps' in Dispute Resolution

11 January 2008 | Following the posting of the Frameworks and Principles for Accountability and Transparency, ICANN published a document that countenances some possible additional improvements in dispute resolution mechanisms.

'Dashboard' Allows Window into ICANN Performance

11 January 2008 | ICANN released the first version of a new 'Dashboard' that will offer measurements of ICANN's performance in numerous areas across the organization.

Updated: Global Policy Proposal for Remaining IPv4 Address Space — Background Report

10 January 2008 | An updated table indicates the current status within each RIR for the foreseen Global Policy for remaining IPv4 address space.

Updated: Global Policy Proposal for Autonomous System Numbers — Background Report

10 January 2008 | An updated table indicates the current status within each RIR for the proposed Global Policy for ASNs.

Accountability and Transparency Document Released

10 January 2008 | ICANN released a final draft of a key accountability document that has been amended to incorporate additional community input, including that of the Governmental Advisory Committee.

ICANN Releases Its Submission to the Midterm Review of the Joint Project Agreement

9 January 2008 | ICANN made its formal submission to the Midterm Review of the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between ICANN and the United States Department of Commerce.

New Delhi Meeting Hotels Information

8 January 2008 | ICANN posted hotel information to help participants prepare for ICANN's 31st International Public Meeting in New Delhi, India from 10-15 February 2008.

GNSO Council Invites Recommendations for Future Studies on WHOIS

8 January 2008 | Public comments are invited until 15 February on recommendations for future studies on the WHOIS system.

GNSO Initial Report on Domain Tasting

7 January 2008 | The GNSO Initial Report on Domain Tasting has been posted for comment.

ICANN in the News

These links lead to external news stories. ICANN is not responsible for the content of these pages.

Chairman of cyberspace has right stuff (The New Zealand Herald)

12 January 2008 | Wellington lawyer Peter Dengate Thrush might seem an unlikely choice to head an international internet governance body. New Zealand, after all, is hardly a cyberspace superpower - we have yet to produce a Google, Amazon or MySpace.

ICANN Submits JPA Review (Web Host Industry Review)

10 January 2008 | ICANN announced on Wednesday that it has made its formal midterm review submission of the Joint Project Agreement between ICANN and the United States Department of Commerce. ICANN says that with the JPA showing more signs of closure, this will enable the organization to move closer towards transitioning the domain name system to the private sector, something it has envisioned since its establishment.

Upcoming Events

10 February - 15 February 2008: 31st International Public ICANN Meeting - New Delhi, India

About ICANN

ICANN Bylaws

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Strategic Plan, July 2007 - June 2010

Operating Plan (Draft) Fiscal Year 2007 - 2008

Adopted Budget Fiscal Year 2007 - 2008 [PDF, 426 KB]

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Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."