[UA-Tech] BIUWG action item for Tech and Measurement WGs

[Seda Akbulut]

Dear Technology Working Group members,

I’d like to provide some background information on the second action item that is assigned to Tech WG by UASG as a follow up with their meeting with the ICANN Board IDN UA Working Group (BIUWG). Please kindly go through this information and share your input about the points for UASG Tech WG discussion provided in the end. You may share your input in response to this email or during the Tech WG meetings (the next one is today 20 Nov at 15:00 UTC).

Background information about the BIUWG and UASG meeting:
BIUWG raised that IDN variant TLDs may have an impact on UA and asked if UASG is considering it? While UASG is aware of the policy discussions within ccNSO and GNSO, but UASG has not considered this topic yet. However, UASG will start looking into the UA challenges which may be caused by IDN variant domain names and get back to BIUWG.

Action Item for Tech WG and Measurement WG: UASG to look into the impact of IDN Variant TLDs on UA.

Background information about IDN Variants on both top-level and second level considerations:

  *   Based on the IDN-related Outputs under Topic 25 in the GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) PDP Final Report<https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/final-report-newgtld-subsequent-procedures-pdp-02feb21-en.pdf>, following recommendations are related to variant domain names.
     *   Variant TLDs are allowed for the same-entity.
        *   Recommendation 25.5 “IDN gTLDs identified as variant TLDs of already existing or applied for gTLDs will be allowed only if labels are allocated to the same entity and, when delegated, only if they have the same back-end registry service provider. This policy must be captured in relevant Registry Agreements.”
     *   Variant domain names needs to be assigned to the same registrant.
        *   Recommendation 25.6 “A given second-level label under any allocated variant TLD must only be allocated to the same entity/registrant, or else withheld for possible allocation only to that entity (e.g., s1 under {t1, t1v1, …}, e.g., s1.t1 and s1.t1v1).”
        *   Recommendation 25.7 “For second-level variant labels that arise from a registration based on a second-level IDN table, all allocatable variant labels in the set must only be allocated to the same entity or withheld for possible allocation only to that entity (e.g., all allocatable second-level labels {s1, s1v1, …} under all allocated variant TLD labels {t1, t1v1,…}).
     *   It is not required that each variant domain name to behave the same.
        *   Recommendation 25.8 “Second-level labels derived from Recommendation 25.6 or Recommendation 25.7 are not required to act, behave, or be perceived as identical.”
           *   For example, s1.t1 can point to a Traditional Chinese content website, while s1v1.t1 can point to a Simplified Chinese content website. As long as these two domain names are with the same registrants it is ok.

Points for UASG Tech WG Discussion:

  1.  Is there any points in the DNS ecosystem that needs variant domain names to be ‘merged’?
     *   If a registrant has both s1.t1 and s1v1.t1, is there any needs to merge two email addresses e.g. info at s1.t1<mailto:info at s1.t1>, and info at s1v1.t1<mailto:info at s1v1.t1> and point the incoming message to the same inbox? If so, what happen when reply?
     *   If a registrant also apply the ‘variant’ concept at the mailbox part e.g. info1 at s1.t1<mailto:info1 at s1.t1> and info1v1 at s1.t1<mailto:info1v1 at s1.t1> is there any need to merge the two mail boxes/mail accounts?
     *   Others?
  2.  Is there any other considerations needs, based on the SubPro Recommendations?

Best regards,
Seda

From: Seda Akbulut <seda.akbulut at icann.org>
Date: 5 October 2023 Thursday 17:55
To: Seda Akbulut via UA-Tech <ua-tech at icann.org>
Subject: BIUWG action item for Tech and Measurement WGs

Dear all,

As a follow up of the meeting conducted between UASG Coordination WG and ICANN Board IDN&UA Working Group (BIUWG), UASG Tech WG and Measurement WG have been tasked and started to handle some of the action items from that meeting.

In that meeting, one of the topics raised by BIUWG was “Status of UA Readiness by Next New gTLD Round“.

Background information about the Next Round:
As you know, the Domain Name System (DNS) is expanding with the IDN ccTLDs, IDNs and New gTLD Program since 2009. In January 2012, ICANN launched the New gTLD Program and since the launch of the New gTLD Program, more than 1,200 gTLDs have been delegated into the DNS root zone. The next round of the New gTLD Program is expected to in Q2 2026. The next round of new gTLDs will also offer opportunities to create a more multilingual and inclusive Internet for the billions of people who speak and write in different languages and scripts and are yet to come online. More information about the Next Round<https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/next-round>.

Background information about the BIUWG and UASG meeting:
BIUWG raised that IDNs (and their UA) is a big part of the next new gTLD round. They raised the following questions:

  *   Will this focus on IDNs promote UA adoption, expose the UA limitations further or raise UA issue in a way that community tries to resolve it?

UASG Leadership shared that as this requires more study. So the UASG aims to answer this question in writing after discussing within the Tech WG and Measurement WG. If it requires some studies to be able to provide data driven feedback, the UASG WGs may identify the necessary studies.

Action Item for Tech WG and Measurement WG:
UASG to explore UA-readiness by the next new gTLD round and how UA could impact the next round. This topic will be handled in the future WG meetings.

I hope you find this information helpful. Please feel free to share your inputs either on this email thread or by joining the Tech and Measurement WG meetings.

Kind regards,
Seda




Action Item (Assigned to UA Tech and UA Measurement WGs)

UASG to explore UA-readiness by the next new gTLD round and how UA could impact the next round.




Seda Akbulut

UA Program Manager
Global Domains and Strategy
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

İstanbul, Türkiye
www.icann.org<http://www.icann.org/>


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