[council] Re: Regarding issues report on IDNs

[Avri Doria]

On 5 feb 2006, at 07.11, Cary Karp wrote:

>
> I think you have to take a step back and identify what questions have
> to be asked, and REALLY try to find questions that are not dependent
> of each other. Many of the words Sophia wrote about DNAME really is
> not about DNAME but from my point of view other questions.
>


It is certainly laudable to try and find issues that can be described  
in isolation of other issues.  and I realize that in the purest of  
IETF engineering circles there is often a desire to do a strict  
bifurcation between the technical (the good) and political/policy  
(the bad/ugly).  But on the topic of IDN, i don't see how this can be  
done.  Even the questions that PAF asks are dependent on the current  
thinking about the technology and if there was creative work being on  
the research and engineering for IDN, we might have different  
questions to answer.

Unfortunately, as interesting as the IAB draft is, it doesn't, to my  
mind, do much to indicate what work will be done to try and figure  
out solutions, maybe even creative solutions, that take the very real  
political realities into account.  I think it is critical to realize  
that the political realities, though not yet fully understood,  
constitute some of the requirements for any technical solution  
(another way of saying technical solutions need to take customer  
requirements into account)

I may miss the Council meeting discussion on this topic because of my  
flight schedule, hence this note.  While I think experimentation is  
always a good thing, I think the work that needs to be done both  
technically and regarding policy (dare i say the technopolitical  
work) is extensive and requires a more serious attempt to bring the  
threads together in discussion. And the need to widen the discussion  
beyond the relatively closed door IAB circles, council circles, and  
presidential blue ribbon panels.  The discussion in Vancouver was an  
interesting tidbit of a start, but we need to figure out how do get  
some cooperative heavy lifting done in this area.  As someone who is  
on the council and a participant in the IETF and the IRTF, I am  
hoping to see the initiation of some activities, some joint  
activities, in the very near future.  I think the council can play an  
important role in calling for such cooperative efforts.

a.