UNESCO - Internationalized Domain Names

UNCLAS PARIS 000889 FROM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS SIPDIS FOR IO/UNESCO E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: UNESCO KPAO EAID EINT ETRD SUBJECT: UNESCO - Internationalized Domain Names ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: UNESCO held a May 6, 2008 Information Meeting on Internationalized Domain Names (IDN),entitled "Using Your Script to Access the Internet." Assistant Director General (ADG) for Communication and Information (CI) Abdul Waheed Khan (India) hosted, with the Latvian Ambassador to UNESCO and France, Janis Karklins, who is on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors and Chairman of its Governmental Advisory Committee. Khan provided an overview of UNESCO's policy on Internet governance, while Karklins and an ICANN staffer previewed the fast track process for introducing a limited amount of IDNs, which will be considered for approval at the upcoming ICANN Public Meeting in Paris this June. Karklins urged member states, particularly those from developing countries, to attend the Paris meeting (funded by India) and voice their views on permanently adding IDN strings to the root zone. Member states in attendance included many EU and Arab states, Venezuela, China, Thailand, Russia and India. The audience posed questions that revealed an inability to grasp what IDNs are. While the UNESCO Secretariat is firmly committed to facilitating World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) outcomes, UNESCO member delegations have little expertise on the Internet. Accordingly, their value-added at the ICANN meeting would be limited and may even confuse debate. END SUMMARY. -------------- UNESCO AND THE INTERNET: -------------- ¶2. (SBU) ADG Khan, staffed by MIRIAM Nesbit (U.S.),Director of the Information Society Division in CI and Mauro Rosi (Italy),Division of Cultural Expressions, Culture Sector, outlined UNESCO's support of access, freedom of expression, linguistic diversity, openness and interoperability on the Internet. Khan stated that UNESCO has contributed to the issue of multilingualism on the Internet through its 2007-2009 budget and program, the 2003 Recommendation on Multilingualism and Cyberspace and the 2007 UN resolution on Multilingualism. When questioned about censorship on the Internet, Khan categorically stated that UNESCO is vehemently opposed to censorship in all media. (COMMENT: Khan also mentioned a few CI programs that are on life support, such as Initiative Babel, whose webpage has not been updated since 2004. UNESCO CI does not have the resources to make much of these programs - its role as an advocate for a free and interoperable Internet is much more important. END COMMENT.) -------------- Fast Track for IDNs: -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Ambassador Karklins and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) representative explained how ICANN and its Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) function. They then defined IDNs, and provided practical reasons why countries (where languages with non-Latin, or ASCII, alphabets are used) need them in top-level domain names and country codes (the .com or .uk part of an Internet address),and then outlined the fast track process currently under review to deploy a limited number of non-contentious IDNs in ICANN's root zone. ¶4. (SBU) The fast-track process would deploy these IDNs within a short timeframe and would be used where near-term demand and readiness exists for top-level country codes (For example, .uk or .fr). If it were finalized at the June 2008 ICANN meeting in Paris, then ICANN would launch the application process by 2009. The addition of these IDNs to the root zone will be permanent, Karklins stated. It would, at this point, only involve top-level domain names for websites and not emails. -------------- --- KARKLINS PLEADS WITH DEVELOPING WORLD TO ENGAGE: -------------- --- ¶5. (SBU) Karklins outlined a list of general issues that IDNs raise, including which territories are eligible for an IDN; how many scripts per territory, should they be two and three letters long as in the Latin-script Domain Name System (DNS) (.com and .uk); is a reference table necessary if it takes 10 years to make; are there "rights" attached to a given script; who will run the IDNs; should the IDN be an abbreviation like the DNS (Chinese and Arabic do not use abbreviations); and is the operation and management of IDNs different from the Latin/ASCII script DNS? Karklins noted these questions might seem trivial but reveal important security, cultural and other issues, and stated that there still needs to be a discussion so that stakeholders in ICANN's bottom-up process are comfortable. ¶6. (SBU) To demonstrate the challenge, Karklins cited the importance of local efforts to examine the impact of IDNs, noting the example of the Arabic Script IDN Working Group, which unites players from Iran to Saudi Arabia. He stated that while all nationals involved used Arabic script, they identified similar characters in Arabic and Persian that look identical on a screen, but actually have different Unicode points. This creates possible security implications for Arabic IDNs. Now that this has been discovered, people can work on it before it becomes part of the root zone. Karklins added that thus far mostly Anglo Saxon countries had engaged in the debate on IDNs, with very little comment from Asia or the Arab world. He urged UNESCO member states present to report to capitals on his briefing, advise their governments to consider becoming a member of the ICANN GAC and attend the June, 2008 ICANN meeting in Paris. UNESCO's ADG Khan added that UNESCO, as a WSIS facilitator, was playing a role in promoting multilingualism by publicizing this meeting to UNESCO member states and also encouraged them to sign up for the next Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, India. ¶6. (SBU) COMMENT: The presentation, which, while engaging and thoughtful, was very technical for UNESCO delegations more familiar with cultural and educational issues. Karklin's rallying cry to engage governments and local stakeholders on the practical challenges of IDNs before it is too late sailed majestically over everyone's head. One delegate asked if this meant he could now type in the UNESCO website address in Arabic. Another asked if ICANN had a membership fee. Another asked if people would now buy up IDNs in advance of their operability, and yet another asked if IDNs would prevent spam. Disconcertingly, it is these same voices that will try to draft UNESCO resolutions on Internet governance once this issue becomes sexy. One would hope that Karklins and ICANN are reaching out to better-informed audiences, for example, at the ITU in Geneva. We also note ADG Khan's interest in using the UNESCO platform to promote the Indian-government sponsored ICANN meeting and the IGF, also to be hosted by India this December. END COMMENT. Oliver