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Is the IDN ccTLDs fast-track really needed?
Wednesday, February 11. 2009
In 2007, ICANN had a run of "My name, My language, My Internet" t-shirts printed to highlight the launch of a test website for 11 IDN scripts, which made the fast-track possible. The t-shirts had "example.test" written on them in the same 11 scripts.
Last year, ICANN sent 252 letters to the governments and ccTLD managers of the world to let them know that they would soon be able to request an IDN national suffix and asking them if they were interested in obtaining one.
Of the responses received so far - a total of 74, with a small number of respondents requesting confidentiality - 31 were expressions of interest from governments or ccTLD managers (who are generally either under direct government control or affiliated with their national authority in some way).
So that means a little over 12% take-up. Is that enough to justify a special procedure? I don't really think so to be honest, even though the level of interest for IDN extensions actually doesn't seem too bad. But the fast-track that ICANN is planning in order to hasten the launch of IDN ccTLDs while its full IDN program continues to be readied leaves me with a feeling of overkill.
Perhaps judging from responses from Iran (Farsi) Bulgaria, Russia or Sweden, who respectively said they were ready to launch a Cyrillic (no surprise there, a logical choice for the Bulgarians and Russians) or Yiddish (perhaps more unexpected given that Sweden is requesting this) extension right away (other respondents indicated they it would take them from 3 to 18 months to be ready), I should not be so quick to judge.
But I do have a problem with governments pressuring ICANN for what is basically a "VIP pass" to new extensions, while at the same time refusing to finance any of the work that is needed to bring such a different technology to the Net. Before we start thinking about an IDN fast-track, I'd like to see an agreement on financial contributions and/or contracts between those that would be IDN ccTLD managers and ICANN. But I suppose by the time any agreement is reached on this, it would be more a question of a slow-track than a fast one.
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