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Announcements

Third LAC DNS Forum to Take Place in the Dominican Republic

Event: Latin American and Caribbean Domain Name System Forum (LAC DNS Forum)

When: 24–25 August...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, Technology

Successful Candidates Announced for ICANN57 Fellowship

51 fellows from 35 countries have been selected to participate in ICANN's Fellowship program at...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, Technology

New Registration Data Directory Services Requirements for gTLD Registries, Registrars to Take Effect in February 2017

ICANN today announced that gTLD contracted parties must update their Registration Data Directory...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, gTLD, Registrars, Registries, Technology

Auction for 1 Contention Set Slated for 27 July 2016

An auction will be facilitated by Power Auctions LLC on 27 July 2016 to resolve string...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, gTLD, Technology

ICANN Publishes Plans for Upcoming Key Signing Key Rollover

ICANN today published plans outlining the operational processes required to change or "roll" the...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, DNSSEC, Technology

Proposed Guidelines for the Second String Similarity Review Process

Open Date: 20 July 2016 Close Date: 31 August 2016
Originating Organization: ccNSO
...

 |  ccTLD, Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, Government, IDN, Technology

ICANN Publishes gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta) for Community Feedback

Today, ICANN published the gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta) [PDF, 2.37 MB] for community...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, Government, gTLD, New gTLDs, Technology

Call for Expressions of Interest to Host ICANN Meetings in 2019 and 2020

ICANN is actively seeking hosts for its public meetings to be held in 2019 and 2020 in Europe,...

 |  Developing World, DNS Marketplace, Government, Technology

Draft PTI Bylaws

Open Date: 12 July 2016 Close Date: 11 August 2016
Originating Organization: ICANN
...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, Government, Technology

Public Comment: Proposed Measures for Release of Two-Letter Second-Level Domains in gTLDs

ICANN today announced that it has issued for public comment proposed measures for release of...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, gTLD, New gTLDs, Registries, Technology

Proposed Measures for Letter/Letter Two-Character ASCII Labels to Avoid Confusion with Corresponding Country Codes

Open Date: 8 July 2016 Close Date: 17 August 2016
Originating Organization: Global Domains...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, gTLD, New gTLDs, Registries, Security, Technology

Modifications to GNSO Operating Procedures Relating to Motions and to the Chair and Vice-Chair Elections

Open Date: 5 July 2016 Close Date: 14 August 2016
Originating Organization: Generic Names...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Technology

ICANN Board Adopts Updated Five-Year Operating Plan, and FY17 Operating Plan and Budget

The ICANN Board adopted the updated ICANN Five Year Operating Plan, and the ICANN FY17 Operating...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Financials, Government, Technology

Draft PTI Articles of Incorporation

Open Date: 1 July 2016 Close Date: 31 July 2016
Originating Organization: ICANN
...

 |  DNS Marketplace, NTIA Stewardship Transition, Technology

ICANN-commissioned Study Finds Increased Awareness and Trust in Domain Name System

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today published [PDF, 2.88 MB]...

 |  DNS Marketplace, gTLD, New gTLDs, Technology

ICANN Grants Data Retention Waiver to Binero AB

DATA RETENTION WAIVER
BINERO AB, SWEDEN

BINERO AB, SWEDEN ("Registrar") submitted to ICANN a...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Registrars, Technology

ICANN Fellowship Program Application Process Review

Open Date: 14 June 2016 Close Date: 29 July 2016
Originating Organization: Development and...

 |  Civil Society, Technology

NextGen@ICANN Application Round Opens for ICANN57

ICANN is looking for the next generation of individuals who are interested in becoming more...

 |  Civil Society, Technology

Draft Root Zone Evolution Review Committee (RZERC) Charter

Open Date: 10 June 2016 Close Date: 10 July 2016
Originating Organization: ICANN
...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Technology

Call for Expressions of Interest for 2017 Nominating Committee Chair and Chair-Elect

ICANN EXTENDS TIME TO SUBMIT EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST THROUGH 30 JUNE 2016.

ICANN is seeking...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, Technology

Syntax and Operability Accuracy of WHOIS Data in gTLDs Presented in Second Cycle of Phase 2 of the Accuracy Reporting System

ICANN today published the Phase 2 Cycle 2 report of the WHOIS Accuracy Reporting System (ARS),...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Technology, WHOIS

Report on Public Comments on Draft FY17 Operating Plan and Budget and Five-Year Operating Plan Update Now Available

ICANN has published its report on public comments [PDF, 1.83 MB] for the draft plans for FY17,...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, Financials, Technology

Reference Label Generation Rulesets (LGRs) for the Second Level

Open Date: 7 June 2016 Close Date: 18 July 2016
Originating Organization: Global Domains...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, IDN, Technology

Policy Implementation Update

ICANN announces the implementation of amendments to the Transfer Policy and the Transfer Dispute...

 |  Civil Society, Registrars, Technology

Draft Restated Articles of Incorporation

Open Date: 27 May 2016 Close Date: 6 July 2016
Originating Organization: ICANN
...

 |  Civil Society, Technology

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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."