[UA-discuss] Language - how do you refer to non-ASCII to a non-technical audience?

Jothan Frakes jothan at jothan.com
Fri Jul 22 19:41:20 UTC 2016


Don-

This is a good question and a good conversation starter.

If we're doing it right, the correct term is 'Domain Names', ultimately,
and I am sure we all yearn for that utopian day.

:)

All kidding aside, I have had success at 'Grandma' audiences by referring
to IDNs as a variety of terms based upon suitability to the audience.

If, for example I am in Macau speaking to an audience of largely Chinese
participants, and describing [chinese].[chinese] domains, I would say
'Domains in your language'.

Where I am talking to a wider demographic, I might also refer to them as
'world language' domains and then offer a brief narrative of what IDNs are.

It seems that without the context of visual support and background on IDNs
in some brief explanation, it is not as clear to the audience what is being
discussed.  Also, too much detail causes them to nerdfilter the technical
mumbo-jumbo and gobbledy-guck, and then the balance of the discussion
receives a reaction like I am explaining real estate on Mars.

Some of the better visual Queues that have been a real benefit are things
like Brett London's early stage slides from many of our foundational stage
meetings about UA, in some form.

Not sure if 'domains in world languages'  answer your quest for a
simplified 'grandma' term, but I hope it helps.

And perhaps others on the list might build on the concept...

-Jothan

Jothan Frakes
+1.206-355-0230 tel
+1.206-201-6881 fax

On Fri, Jul 22, 2016 at 12:21 PM, Don Hollander <don.hollander at icann.org>
wrote:

> I’ve been grappling with this for la very long and now find out I’m not
> the only one.
>
> So, how would you simply refer to IDNs.
>
> a) non-ASCII  - probably technically correct, but would your grandmother
> know what this meant?
> b) non-Latin - Not even close to being correct as Latin character sets
> have all sorts of extra bits and bobs
> c) non-English - Currently my favourite at the moment.
>
> I’m looking for something really short.
>
> Your thoughts?
>
> Don
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