[AfrICANN-discuss] First IDN ccTLDs Requests Successfully Pass String Evaluation

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

First IDN ccTLDs Requests Successfully Pass String Evaluation
21 January 2010

ICANN is pleased to announce the successful completion of the IDN
ccTLD Fast Track String Evaluation for four (4) proposed IDN ccTLDs.
The requests are associated with: Egypt, the Russian Federation,
United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. Details of the successful
evaluations are provided here.
The IDN (Internationalised Domain Name) ccTLD Fast Track Process was
approved by the ICANN Board at its annual meeting in Seoul, South
Korea on 30 October 2009. First requests were received starting 16
November 2009. The process enables countries and territories to submit
requests to ICANN for IDN ccTLDs, representing their respective
country or territory names in scripts other than Latin. IDN ccTLD
requesters must fulfil a number of requirements:
•	the script used to represent the IDN ccTLDs must be non-Latin;
•	the languages used to express the IDN ccTLDs must be official in the
corresponding country or territory; and
•	a specific set of technical requirements must be met (as evaluated
by an external DNS Stability Panel comprised of DNS and IDN experts).
The request and evaluation processes entail three steps:
1.	 Preparation (by the requester in the country / territory).
Community consensus is built for which IDN ccTLD to apply for, how it
is run, and which organization will be running it, along with
preparing and gathering all the required supporting documentation.
2.	 String Evaluation: incoming requests to ICANN in accordance with
the criteria described above: the technical and linguistic
requirements for the IDN ccTLD string(s). Applications are received
through an online system available together with additional material
supporting the process at
http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/
3.	String Delegation: requests successfully meeting string evaluation
criteria are eligible to apply for delegation following the same ICANN
IANA process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs. String delegation
requests are submitted to IANA root zone management.
At this time ICANN has received a total of 16 requests for and IDN
ccTLD through the String Evaluation process, representing eight
languages. Four of these have now successfully passed through the
String Evaluation and are hence ready for the requesting country or
territory to initiate the application for String Delegation.
ICANN is looking forward to the String Delegation function for these
four requests, as well as finalizing the remaining received requests
in String Evaluation, and receiving additional new requests in the
Fast Track Process. A staff support function is available to help all
countries and territories interested in participating in the Fast
Track Process. Please email idncctldrequests at icann.org for any
inquiries for participation.
Updates about received numbers of applications and the number of
completions will continue to be provided on the Fast Track Process web
page at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/
Press Release: http://www.icann.org/en/news/releases/release-21jan10-en.pdf
[PDF, 36K]
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