ICANN invites interested individuals and experts from its stakeholder groups to volunteer for the Task Force on Arabic Script Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). An action item on the implementation plan of ICANN’s Middle East Strategy Working Group (MESWG), the Task Force will look into technical issues and explore solutions related to the secure deployment and use of Arabic script IDNs. Among the issues the Task Force will be considering are:
- Arabic Script Label Generation Ruleset (LGR) for the Root Zone
- Second level LGRs for the Arabic script
- Arabic script Internationalized Registration Data Protocol and Practice
- Universal acceptability of Arabic script IDNs and variants
- Technical challenges around registration of Arabic IDNs and variants
- Operational software for Arabic script IDN registry and registrar operations
- DNS security matters specifically related to Arabic IDNs and variants
- Technical training material around Arabic script IDNs
The Task Force is open to interested individuals and experts from all stakeholder groups, including but not limited to Registries, Registrars, technical community, academia, policy makers, and law enforcement. All the materials prepared through the Task Force will be openly available for use by the public.
Interested individuals are invited to join the Task Force on voluntary basis by emailing their CV and Statement of Interest (SOI) to tf-aidn-admin@meswg.org, which will be publicly archived for information purposes, and then signing up at http://lists.meswg.org/mailman/listinfo/tf-aidn.
Key dates in the context of the Task Force formation:
- 5 August 2013: Open Call for membership
- 20 August 2013: MESWG to announce Task Force of Arabic Script IDNs (TF-AIDN)
- 1 Sept 2013: Initiate work item(s)
The full text of the Open Call for Participation in the Task Force is available here [PDF, 78 KB].
