Internationalized Domain Names Surveys: Follow-Up Questions 5 July 2001

Follow-Up Questions for the IDN Surveys

On 30 April 2001, the ICANN Board's Internal Working Group on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) published three surveys seeking information and opinions from the Internet community on Internationalized Domain Names. The three surveys covered technical questions (Survey A), policy questions (Survey B), and current services (Survey C).

On 1 June 2001, the IDN working group published a status report summarizing the results of the survey until that time. On 21 June 2001, the IDN working group invited additional responses to the three surveys and public comment on the report. It also announced that it would be publish follow-up questions. It set a deadline of 31 July 2001 for these responses and comments.

The follow-up questions are:

Survey A (Technical Questions)

17. During the public forum discussion of IDNs in Stockholm, several members of the public observed that adoption of an IDN standard was "the easy part" of
the IDN process. What are the "hard parts" we have to look forward to? Why are they going to be so hard?

Survey B (Policy Questions)

7. Presumably there will be a demand for top level IDNs, i.e., [IDN].[IDN]. What role should ICANN play with respect to the selection of these top level names and their registries? What should be the role of the country code registry of the country where a particular script is a native script? And what if a particular script is a native script in more than one country?

8. Several respondents indicated that cybersquatting should be fought through greater use of regional dispute resolution procedures. Should ICANN encourage the development of these RDRPs? Should it establish criteria for RDRP providers? Or should it encourage the existing UDRP providers to increase the number of panelists familiar with non-Western languages?

Survey C (Current Services)

18. During the public forum discussion of IDNs at the Stockholm meeting, several members of the public suggested that there are providers of IDN services who may seek to develop an alternate root or who are misrepresenting the nature of their services. Who are these providers? What proof is there of their activities?

Instructions for Responding to Original and Follow-Up Questions

Although each survey is targeted at a different sector of the Internet community (e.g., the "Current Services" survey is directed at entities which provide IDN services), the working group welcomes responses from the entire Internet community to any question on any survey. Our goal is to gather as much information from as many sources as quickly as possible.

Please provide your responses by 31 July 2001 by e-mailing them to idn-survey@icann.org.

The working group is attempting to approach this fact-finding exercise without any preconceptions. Accordingly, please do not read any bias into the questions. We have tried to word the questions neutrally; at the same time, we feel some hard questions must be asked in order for us to get a complete picture of the situation.

Confidentiality of Submissions

Although ICANN endeavors to develop policy in an open and transparent manner, we recognize that the surveys (particularly Survey C) seek information that some responding parties will consider confidential. If you wish for a particular response to be treated confidentially, please clearly label that response "CONFIDENTIAL" and state the specific limitations you request on its use or disclosure. Responses labelled CONFIDENTIAL will be initially reviewed by ICANN staff to ensure that we are willing to treat them in the manner you request. If we are unwilling, we will contact you and we will not make use of or disclose the affected response unless you and we agree on manner in which the response may be used and disclosed.

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Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for you cooperation.