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Announcements

ICANN Hires DNS Expert to Lead Research

Matt Larson, an expert in Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure and security, has joined the...

 |  Announcement, Technology

Revisions to ICANN Expected Standards of Behaviors

Open Date: 16 May 2016 Close Date: 25 June 2016
Originating Organization: Legal
...

 |  Civil Society, Technology

Important Update from Constituency Travel

ICANN Travel Provider Change Is Complete

On 31 March 2016, ICANN transitioned its travel support...

 |  Civil Society, Technology

ICANN and COMTELCA to Work Together to Increase Mesoamerican Government Participation in ICANN

Members of ICANN and the Regional Technical Commission of Telecommunications (COMTELCA)

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – 4 May 2016 – ICANN and the Regional Technical Commission of...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, Technology

15 Successful Candidates Have Been Selected for NextGen@ICANN56 Policy Forum

15 individuals from various Universities in Europe have been selected to participate with ICANN...

 |  Civil Society, Technology

Release of Country and Territory Names within the .HYUNDAI, .KIA and .GODADDY TLDs

Open Date: 27 April 2016 Close Date: 9 June 2016
Originating Organization: Global Domains...

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

IANA Functions, DNSSEC Audits: ICANN Systems Have Appropriate Controls

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has completed annual,...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Government, Technology

Fellowship Application Round Opens for ICANN57

lCANN launches the application round for those interested in participating at the ICANN57...

 |  Civil Society, Technology

Draft New ICANN Bylaws

Open Date: 21 April 2016 Close Date: 21 May 2016
Originating Organization: ICANN
...

 |  DNS Marketplace, NTIA Stewardship Transition, Technology

ICANN and Verisign Announce Start of 90-day Root Zone Management System "Parallel Testing" Period

As scheduled and previously communicated, on 6 April 2016, ICANN and Verisign began a 90-day “...

 |  DNS Marketplace, NTIA Stewardship Transition, Technology

Data Retention Waiver - ONE.COM A/S, Denmark

DATA RETENTION WAIVER
ONE.COM A/S, DENMARK

ONE.COM A/S ("Registrar") submitted to ICANN a...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Registrars, Technology

Release of Country and Territory Names within the .TORAY and .PICTET TLDs

Open Date: 28 March 2016 Close Date: 10 May 2016
Originating Organization: Global Domains...

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

Data Retention Waiver - 101Domain GRS Limited

DATA RETENTION WAIVER
101DOMAIN GRS LIMITED

101DOMAIN GRS LIMITED (Formerly - "Emerald Global...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Registrars, Technology

Data Retention Waiver - Emerald Registrar Limited

DATA RETENTION WAIVER
EMERALD REGISTRAR LIMITED

EMERALD REGISTRAR LIMITED ("Registrar")...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Registrars, Technology

Data Retention Waiver - Hosting Concepts B.V. d/b/a Openprovider

DATA RETENTION WAIVER
HOSTING CONCEPTS B.V. d/b/a OPENPROVIDER

Hosting Concepts B.V. d/b/a...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Registrars, Technology

Data Retention Waiver - TransIP B.V.

DATA RETENTION WAIVER
TransIP B.V.

TransIP B.V. ("Registrar") submitted to ICANN a Registrar...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Registrars, Technology

Call for Volunteers: New GNSO Policy Development Process Working Group to Review All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs

In Brief

The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council seeks volunteers for a new...

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

Plan to Transition Stewardship of Key Internet Functions Sent to the U.S. Government

Marrakech, Morocco… Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board Chair Dr....

 |  Accountability, Civil Society, Developing World, DNS Marketplace, Government, NTIA Stewardship Transition, Technology

ICANN Temporarily Stopped from Delegating .AFRICA Pending Federal Court Hearing on 4 April 2016

The Court in the DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA) v. ICANN matter granted DCA's request for an...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Technology

Launch of Registration Authentication Platform for .MOI TLD

Open Date: 2 March 2016 Close Date: 14 April 2016
Originating Organization: Global Domains...

 |  DNS Marketplace, gTLD, New gTLDs, Technology

First Version of Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone Released

ICANN is pleased to announce that the first version of Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone...

 |  ccTLD, DNS Marketplace, gTLD, IDN, New gTLDs, Technology

IDN ccTLD Request from Bulgaria Successfully Passes String Evaluation

ICANN is pleased to announce the successful evaluation of the proposed IDN ccTLD string for...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, IDN, Technology

Request for Quotation (RFQ) - Routers Refresh

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN") is seeking one or more...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, Technology

Nomination Period Extended For ICANN Multistakeholder Ethos Award | Award Targeted for ICANN 56 | Nominations Close 17 March 2016

ICANN is pleased to announce that the nomination period for ICANN's Multistakeholder Ethos Award...

 |  Civil Society, DNS Marketplace, Technology

ICANN Releases Identifier Systems SSR Activities Report

As part of our continuing commitment to transparency and accountability, ICANN's Identifier...

 |  DNS Marketplace, Security, SSR, 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."