News


Blockages still a problem on the road to a multilingual Internet
Article Source: EURid - Go to Source
Ambitions to create a genuinely multilingual Internet are being frustrated by technical gridlocks and the solid dominance of Latin script and the English language.
Internet domains offering content in local languages and scripts need to be more user friendly if they are to challenge English’s overwhelming domination of the online world, says a report to be presented on February 26 during a conference at UNESCO’s Paris Headquarters. Prepared jointly by UNESCO and EURid, the European registry of Internet Domain Names , it calls on governments and other Internet stakeholders to step up their efforts to remove current obstacles to more languages going online.
There is no reliable count of web pages in English but among users, 27% adopt English and 24% Chinese. An estimated 56% of web sites are in English.
English was entrenched as the founding language of the Internet by the Domain Names System (DNS) which accommodates hundreds of millions of web addresses around the globe. DNS was launched on the basis of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange which favours Latin script by only allowing the characters a-z, the numbers 0-9 and the hyphen.
With an eye on breaking out of this linguistic ghetto, technical standards were developed for Internationalised Domain Name (IDNs), allowing domain names to be written in non-Latin scripts such as Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic or Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Countries where IDNs are taking off are the Russian Federation, the Republic of Korea and China.
The Report criticises most of the 19 country code IDNs currently operating for failing to capture the public imagination. IDNs are not user friendly and do not work well for emails or even Facebook accounts, says the report.
EURid-UNESCO conclusions urge policy makers to regard the promotion and deployment of IDNs as a key component of digital literacy.
The Report will be the launched on the second day of the World Summit on the Information Society +10 (WSIS+10), at 9 a.m. in Room 1.


NASK releases report for 4th quarter 2012
In 2012, more than 1 million new .pl domain names were registered, which is the second best result in the history of the Polish registry - according to the NASK's report on the .pl domain name market for the fourth quarter of 2012. Full version of the report (PDF) is available here


Norwegian domains considered robust by Local Authority
In 2012, the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority carried out an audit of the security and stability of the .no services. Overall, the NPT was very satisfied after the evaluation.
The audit focused especially on the robustness and capacity of the .no name service. In addition, the NPT requested information about the registration system. Norid's organizational robustness and financial solidity were also evaluated.
Overall, the NPT was very satisfied with the results of the audit. However, they do emphazise the importance of keeping up the preventive security work, and stress that this is a continuous process which will always require time and resources.
– We have put great effort into being among the best within our line of business with regard to robustness and security, and we are pleased to see that the the efforts have given results, says Hilde Thunem, Managing Director of Norid.
The audit report. (In Norwegian only.)
The NPT's article.


Internet Governance and the RIPE NCC: the Year Ahead
Internet governance is an important area of resource investment for the RIPE NCC. This article looks at some of the major Internet discussions taking place in 2013, including:
- What is the multi-stakeholder process?
- Who pays for the Internet’s infrastructure?
- What role will governments have in Internet governance?
Under an over-arching goal of ensuring the informed development of public policy relating to the Internet, the RIPE NCC has a number of areas of priority over the coming 12 months. These are:
- Increasing understanding of the benefits of Internet Exchange Points and local peering
- Building more effective regional engagement on Internet governance issues
- Engaging effectively with the ITU and its Member States on Internet governance
The RIPE NCC is eager to hear from all of our stakeholders, including the RIPE NCC membership and broader RIPE community, on what issues are important and how the RIPE NCC can most effectively represent its community. We facilitate this feedback through a range of forums and activities, including the RIPE Cooperation Working Group and RIPE NCC Regional Meetings.
Read the full article on RIPE Labs.


IT-NIC release rules of assignment and management of domains
The .IT Registry has prepared technical guidelines in order to provide more effective support for Registrars as well as rules for the resolution of disputes.
See the rules


Norid receives overwhelming interest for ADR Committee
Norid experienced a rush of interest from lawyers after we published an invitation to enlist for a position in the Committee in early February. A seat on the ADR Committee seems to be attractive.
It is of utmost importance for both domain name holders and complainants that the ADR members are competent. The high quality of the lawyers who have expressed their interest ensures that the ADR Committee will continue to be a body with wide experience within the relevant branch of jurisprudence.
Norid has now closed for applications and will evaluate the candidates. In the future we will use the list of candidates to elect members when vacancies in the Committee open up. Usually, there will be two to four seats vacant each year.
..go to original article..

Focus on world of Internet addresses at Domain pulse, Davos
At this year's Domain pulse specialist conference – a joint event staged by the registries for Germany (DENIC), Austria (nic.at) and Switzerland (SWITCH) – more than 200 Internet experts from Switzerland and abroad are meeting up in Davos on 18 and 19 February 2013. Domain pulse is the most important event on the subject of domain names in the German-speaking world and the annual industry get-together for domain experts. The conference provides an optimum opportunity for keeping up-to-date with social, political and economic topics from the world of domain names.
Read further article at source (SWITCH)


DNS.be will offer the IDNs with the .be extension
IDN is short for Internationalized Domain Name and is used for domain names that include at least one character which isn’t in the normal alphabet (A-Z), isn’t a number (0-9) or isn’t a hyphen (-). In other words: IDN allows you to use accented letters. Starting 11 June 2013, DNS.be will offer the possibility to register IDN domain names with a .be extension.


Nominet warns Registrants on pressured selling practices
Nominet has recently become aware of attempts to persuade unsuspecting users to pay for domain name products which are not available yet and may not become so. Typical attempts use pressure selling techniques, claiming a very limited opportunity to secure a new version of a registrant’s existing domain name.
We have recently been consulting on the possibility of allowing registration of domains at the second level, i.e. internet.uk but the decision on whether or how to progress has not yet been taken. It has come to our attention that existing co.uk registrants may have been offered the opportunity to pre-register domains with just a .uk ending. This is not a genuine opportunity and should be rejected.
This type of activity is not new and similar methods may be used try to capitalise on the impending changes to the domain name market, including the launch of hundreds of new suffixes in the near future.
Registrants should always be wary of any unsolicited calls or emails regarding their domain name or web presence. If you have an existing domain name and you receive an unsolicited call or email about its registration, you should contact your registrar in the first instance and they will be able to give you advice and verify if any action needs to be taken.
It is also important to read the small print carefully to fully understand what is and is not included in the details of any promotion or offer before completing a transaction.
If you think that you have been the affected by internet fraud then you should contact your local trading standards service.
For more advice on avoiding internet scams please visit our education and information site knowthenet.org.uk.
..go to source article..


40th Legal and Regulatory Workshop concludes in Zurich
The 40th CENTR Legal and Regulatory Workshop was held recently in Zurich, Switzerland.
The workshop was well attended with participants representing the legal departments of some 21 ccTLD Registries.
Main topics discussed and presented were;
- Liability of intermediaries (domains linked to websites infringing copyright) - a specific case was discussed
- The French ADR system "Syreli"
- The Dutch Domain Name Debate - whois and dropcatching issues
- Host presentation from SWITCH on fighting malware and the SWITCHplus case
- A tour de table of recent developments at all participant Registries