internationalized domain names dr. cary karp musenic project manager second musenic project workshop...
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Internationalized Domain Names
Dr. Cary KarpMUSENIC Project Manager
Second MUSENIC Project WorkshopStockholm, 22-23 March 2004
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
Added European Values Inherent in .museum: Museum, Political and Public Perspectives
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
MUSENIC
The Internet Domain Name System (DNS)permits the use of a limited number of characters
in domain names:
the 26 letters in the Latin alphabet: a – zthe ten digits: 0-9and a hyphen: -
The ”LDH” characters
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
In June 2003, standardized means became availablefor encoding a large range of characters usingnothing more than the initial LDH array.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
The characters used in almost all of the writtenscripts in present-day use are listed in the
UNICODE Code Charts.
Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)can include all characters that are listed
in the UNICODE charts.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
A domain name that includes UNICODE charactersis converted into ”Punycode”, which only uses the
Domain Name System’s basic LDH representations,before it is actually entered into the DNS.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
The IDN
blåbärsbröd.museum
is displayed here usingUNICODE characters.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
The Punycode equivalent of
blåbärsbröd.museum
is
xn--blbrsbrd-2zai7q.museum
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
The original intention was that users wouldnever actually see domain names in their
Punycode representation.
Initial experience with the actual use of IDNstrongly suggests the need for familiarity with both
the presentation (or display) form of a name,and its encoded representation.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
The technical intricacies aren’t much of a problemat present, except when designing Web documents
that provide hyperlinks to resources containingIDN characters in their addresses.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
The reason for the restriction in the scope of this difficultyis that, except for the Web, the implementation of IDN isat such early stages that users are unlikely to encounter
IDNs at all.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
An illustration of a useful IDN application will be found at:
http://icom.museum/idn
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
Detailed documentation will be found at:
http://about.museum/idn
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
The real issues surrounding IDN are not primarily technical.
Policy concerns are substantially more complex.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
Although the underlying notion is one of ”internationalization”,this may be a misnomer. From the USA perspective, the availabilityof Chinese characters for inclusion in domain names may, indeed,
appear as a step toward internationalization.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
From the Chinese point of view, the ability to use the nativelanguage in domain names is a matter of ”localization”.
And there is no clear reason why IDN should notbe available for this purpose on all levels.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
Which of the these two domain names is the more reasonableto make available in a Greek language environment?
αθλητισμου.museum or
αθλητισμου.μουσειο
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
This quickly leads from the realm of DNS policyto that of national interest.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
A generic top-level domain such as .museum servesthe global community and the maintenance of its
policy is not linked to any particular national government.
This is precisely the sort of thing NGOs such asICOM are there for.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
A ”country code” top-level domain such as .gr servesa clearly defined national community and the maintenance of its
policy can be seen as a concern of the national government.
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum
Multiple IDN representations of a top-levellabel such as .museum can provide a useful vehiclefor accomodating differing national perceptions of
the essential attributes of museum activity.
This is, however, far easier to describethan it is to implement.
Disregarding issues directly relating to DNS management,the Grand Question is ...
MUSENIC – The Museum Network Information Centre – Europe (IST-2001-33538)
http://musenic.museum http://about.museum