The IDN wiki was launched in October 2007 to provide a test environment of IDNs that is open and available to all interested parties. The IDNwiki was initially based on the eleven example.test domains listed on the main page (http://idn.icann.org) with articles and discussion in each of the indicated languages.
Although there currently are no plans for establishing further .test top-level domains, separate facets of IDNwiki can be established in additional languages. The first two such language extensions have just been made available:
- Amharic:
- Hebrew:
Clicking on the language names, or copying and pasting the Web addresses into the address line of a browser will lead to the new areas. Further, in relation to the Hebrew addition, since there is a .test TLD label in Hebrew script, an additional address has been assigned to the Hebrew language facet of the IDNwiki — http://דוגמה.טעסט . (This is an alias for the evaluation domain and relies on the wiki server to identify the language area that is being sought.) Further details are provided in the article on Hebrew script.
If you are interested in adding any further languages to the wiki please contact me directly at tina.dam@icann.org.
The IDNwiki is managed by the greatly valued assistance of volunteer moderators for each of the available languages. As such, one main requirement for adding languages is to make a moderator available that can manage a new language area. He or she hence need to be fluent in the language, spend time with the wiki support team to localize the language area, and will also need to work with users that may need specific assistance in that particular language.