2010-04-22 - CNNIC Request for (Simplified and Traditional Chinese) IDN ccTLDs

Whereas, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has requested the simultaneous delegation of .[IDN] (xn-fiqs8S) and .[IDN] (xn-fiqz9S);

Whereas, CNNIC has met the existing Fast Track requirements and rules for String Evaluation of the requested IDN ccTLDs, including the DNS security and stability evaluation;

Whereas, an issue has arisen around the delegation and management of domains that reflect parallel uses of "Simplified" and "Traditional" character-renderings and orthographies for the Chinese language communities, and thus CNNIC is requesting delegation of this pair of IDN ccTLDs;

Whereas, CNNIC has a significant depth of experience with the registration of strings containing variants as domain names at second and lower levels under principles discussed in RFC 4713 (<http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4713.txt> - Registration and Administration Recommendations for Chinese Domain Names - October 2006), with the delegation and management of domains that are expected to reflect parallel uses of "Simplified" and "Traditional" character-renderings and orthographies for Chinese, and can point to good management experience and good user experience with this methodology, and have stated that they have the necessary competence and experience to operate the pair of IDN ccTLDs in a stable manner;

Whereas, there is general and wide community support for the notion of simultaneously delegating this particular requested pair of IDN ccTLDs to meet the well understood needs of users of Chinese, namely that users accessing a domain expect that the traditional and simplified Chinese names have been assigned to the same registrant, and that such delegations would solve a significant problem for the user communities;

Whereas, public comment makes it clear that the methodology for operation and management of IDN ccTLDs based on such parallel strings can only be achieved today through operational and administrative procedures, as there are no DNS protocol mechanisms yet that provide the desired behavior, which procedures must be handled by the local IDN ccTLD manager;

Whereas, the delegation of these IDN ccTLDs would be an extension to the current published IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process;

Whereas, the ICANN Board on 12 March 2010 resolved on a set of "Principles for Handling Synchronized IDN ccTLDs for the specific requests related to the Fast Track Process";

Whereas, after public comment and general consultation with the technical community, it became apparent that some of the ideas expressed and words used in the Principles were found to be confusing and imprecise – e.g. "Equivalent" and "Synchronized" IDN ccTLDs – and that this terminology made it difficult to evaluate important aspects of the Proposed Implementation Plan for Synchronized IDN ccTLDs;

Whereas, the methodology to be taken by the IDN ccTLD manager to handle these particular instances of parallel IDN ccTLDs is, in the short-term, the only option available, but there are serious limits to where such an approach is viable in practice, so that it cannot be viewed as a general solution, and that consequently, long-term development work should be pursued;

Whereas, significant analysis and possibly development work should continue on both policy-based and technical elements of a solution for the introduction on a more general basis of strings containing variants as TLDs;

Therefore, it is RESOLVED, (2010.04.22.10), that CNNIC be notified that the .[IDN] (xn-fiqs8S) and .[IDN] (xn-fiqz9S) IDN ccTLD request has completed the Fast Track String Evaluation and that they may enter the String Delegation step in the Fast Track Process, using the standard IANA ccTLD delegation function, and that delegation is contingent on completion of the IANA process criteria and publication of CNNIC's detailed Implementation Plan to be finalized in consultation with ICANN.