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ICANN 52 Comes to a Close

18 Feb 2015

500 New GTLDS Delegated

500+ new gTLDs Introduced into the Internet

18 Feb 2015

Globe Graphic with Text: Public Comment: WHOIS Accuracy Reporting System Pilot Report

Help Design WHOIS Accuracy Reports

18 Feb 2015

Arrows with Text "IANA Stewardship Transition" and Magnifying Glass with Text "Enhancing ICANN Accountability"

IANA Stewardship Transition and Enhancing ICANN Accountability

18 Feb 2015

Announcements

Results Available for 25 February 2015 New gTLD Program Auction

On 25 February 2015, Power Auctions LLC, ICANN's authorized auction service provider, conducted a New gTLD Program Auction to resolve string contention for one new generic top-level domain (gTLD) string: .APP. Applicants for the string were unable...

26 Feb 2015  |  gTLD, New gTLDs, Developing World, DNS Marketplace, Government, Technology

Update on the IANA Stewardship Transition and ICANN Accountability

Date: Thursday 5th March 2015 Time: 12:00 UTC AGENDA SUMMARY: Time Event Speaker 12.00 – 12.05 Welcome note Baher Esmat, VP, Stakeholder Engagement, Middle East – ICANN 12.05 –...

25 Feb 2015  |  NTIA Stewardship Transition, IANA

ICG Announces Twelfth Conference Call

The IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) has scheduled its twelfth conference call: ICG Call # 12 (agenda [PDF, 39 KB]) – Wednesday, 25 February at 04:00-05:30 UTC (time converter here) The community is welcome to attend by...

23 Feb 2015  |  NTIA Stewardship Transition, IANA

ICANN Updates Authorization Process for Release of Two-Character ASCII Labels

Today, ICANN is announcing updates to the "Authorization Process for the Release of Two-Character ASCII Labels" to take into account additional direction from the ICANN Board. On 12 February 2015, the Board took action to accept advice from the...

20 Feb 2015  |  gTLD, New gTLDs, Developing World, DNS Marketplace, Government, Technology

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Multimedia

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ICANN 52 | Closing Interview - Blooper Reel

Blooper reel of the ICANN 52 closing interview.

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ICANN 52 Closing Interview

Brad White interviews Fadi Chehadé and Steve Crocker at the close of ICANN's 52nd public meeting in Singapore.

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ICANN 52 Closing Interview

Brad White interviews Fadi Chehadé and Steve Crocker at the close of ICANN's 52nd public meeting in Singapore.

Artworks 000106976596 xtg51w t500x500

ICANN 52 Press Conference

President and CEO Fadi Chehadé, Board Chair Dr. Steve Crocker and President of the Global Domains Division Akram Atallah answer journalists questions during the ICANN52 press conference.

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Blog Posts

The Stakeholder Journey - Los Angeles to Singapore and Beyond

  |   By Christoper Mondini, VP for Business Engagement

Update on IANA Stewardship Discussion - 24 February 2015

  |   By Samantha Dickinson

Service update on some ICANN hosted blogs

  |   By Ashwin Rangan

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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."