This IDN rookie is pretty confused. Any IDN experts here? (basic questions)

[demaxxus]

Ok, I have to admit, I am extremely green when it comes to IDNs, but I'm trying to learn. I have read some contradictory things online, and I was wondering if anyone could clarify some things for me.

Please bear with me, as I'm sure these questions are going to sound ridiculously dumb to the experienced IDNer.

- From what I understood you could already register IDNs for generic TLDs (.com, .net, etc.), which is what the IDN wikipedia page also says. So now that I've read the below article, I'm somewhat confused. This article makes it sound like IDNs aren't available for TLDs that are under ICANN's control.

http://www.digitaleastasia.com/2009/...nority-status/

- Are there any good high level overviews of the IDN world? How and when everything started, where things are going, dates for specific miletones, etc. I've search online quite a bit but I cant' seem to find a definitive timeline, and I'm finding that a lot of the information is different from site to site.

One of my clients recently mentioned that they want to get into the IDN world, and I admitted that I am fairly clueless in that area (with different wording, of course ), however this is definitely something I want to get into, or at least learn more about so I can have a better understanding of the domain world as a whole.

Any information that could be offered up would be greatly appreciated.

[bwhhisc]

Originally Posted by demaxxus

Ok, I have to admit, I am extremely green when it comes to IDNs, but I'm trying to learn. I have read some contradictory things online, and I was wondering if anyone could clarify some things for me.

Please bear with me, as I'm sure these questions are going to sound ridiculously dumb to the experienced IDNer.

- From what I understood you could already register IDNs for generic TLDs (.com, .net, etc.), which is what the IDN wikipedia page also says. So now that I've read the below article, I'm somewhat confused. This article makes it sound like IDNs aren't available for TLDs that are under ICANN's control.

http://www.digitaleastasia.com/2009/...nority-status/

- Are there any good high level overviews of the IDN world? How and when everything started, where things are going, dates for specific miletones, etc. I've search online quite a bit but I cant' seem to find a definitive timeline, and I'm finding that a lot of the information is different from site to site.

One of my clients recently mentioned that they want to get into the IDN world, and I admitted that I am fairly clueless in that area (with different wording, of course ), however this is definitely something I want to get into, or at least learn more about so I can have a better understanding of the domain world as a whole.

Any information that could be offered up would be greatly appreciated.

IDNs have been available to register since 2000' in .com, .net. Since 2002, 2003 and on in .cn, .jp, .tv, .biz etc. The latest news is that ICANN is going to let the URLs "after the dot" be in foreign languages as well as the words before the dot (which can already be registered in foreign languages). There are a couple of free forums dedicated to IDNs, and you breeze thru the various archives and pick up a lot of knowledge. The best all around information on IDN history is proably the Wikeipedia article at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDNs

[Doc Com]

There is no crash course on IDN. Plus, anything of worthiness has long been regged. Without being absolutely fluent in a language as well as best usage (if you have a close confidant that helps - a non domainer), this is definitely not an arena to jump into.

Take every non-english language, alphabet, and dialect in the world and that is how confusing IDN can be.

Language approximate # of speakers Where is it spoken as an official language?
1. Mandarin Chinese NATIVE: 873 million
2nd: 178 million
TOTAL: 1.051 billion OFFICIAL: People's Republic of China, Republic of China, Singapore
2. Hindi NATIVE: 370 million
2nd:120 million
TOTAL: 490 million OFFICIAL: India, Fiji
3. Spanish NATIVE: 350 million
2nd: 70 million
TOTAL: 420 million OFFICIAL: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, United States (New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela
4. English NATIVE: 340 million
TOTAL: 510 million OFFICIAL: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong (People's Republic of China), India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Maritius, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevs, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somolia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
5. Arabic NATIVE: 206 million
2nd: 24 million
TOTAL: 230 million

[World Almanac est. total 255 million] OFFICIAL: Modern Standard Arabic: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Quatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen. | Hasaniya Arabic: Mauritania, Senegal
NATIONAL: Mali

Note: These figures combine all the varieties of Arabic. Some data sources, e.g. CIA World Fact Book, World Almanac, Ethnologue, treat these varieties as separate languages.
6. Portuguese NATIVE: 203 million
2nd: 10 million
TOTAL: 213 million OFFICIAL: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau (People's Republic of China), Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe.
7. Bengali NATIVE: 196 million
TOTAL: 215 million OFFICIAL: Bangladesh, India (Tripura, West Bengal)
8. Russian NATIVE: 145 million
2nd: 110 million
TOTAL: 255 million OFFICIAL: Abkhazia (part of Georgia), Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyyrgyzstan, Russia, Transnistria (part of Moldova).
9. Japanese NATIVE: 126 million
2nd: 1 million
TOTAL: 127 million OFFICIAL: Japan, Palau
10. German NATIVE: 101 million
2nd: 128 million
TOTAL: 229 million OFFICIAL: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy (South Tyrol), Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Siwtzerland
11. Panjabi Western: 60 million
Eastern: 28 million
TOTAL: 88 million OFFICIAL: India (Punjab)
NATIONAL: Pakistan
12. Javanese 76 million OFFICIAL: Indonesia (esp. Java)
13. Korean 71 million OFFICIAL: North Korea, South Korea
14. Vietnamese NATIVE: 70 million
2nd: 16 million
TOTAL: 86 million OFFICIAL: Vietnam
15. Telugu NATIVE: 70 million
2nd: 5 million
TOTAL: 75 million OFFICIAL: India (Andhra Pradesh)
16. Marathi NATIVE: 68 million
2nd: 3 million
TOTAL: 71 million OFFICIAL: India (Daman and Diu, Goa, Maharashtra)
17. Tamil NATIVE: 68 million
2nd: 9 million
TOTAL: 77 million OFFICIAL: India (Tamil Nadu), Singapore, Sri Lanka
18. French NATIVE: 67 million
2nd: 63 million
TOTAL: 130 million OFFICIAL or NATIONAL: Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, France, French Polynesia, Gabon, Guernsey, Guinea, Haiti, India (Karikal, Pondicherry), Italy, Jersey, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Monaco, New Caledonia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, United States (Louisiana), Vanuatu.
19. Urdu NATIVE: 61 million
2nd: 43 million
TOTAL: 104 million OFFICIAL: India (Jammu and Kashmir), Pakistan.
20. Italian 61 million OFFICIAL: Croatia (Istria Country), Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland.
21. Turkish NATIVE: 60 million
2nd: 15 million
TOTAL: 75 million OFFICIAL: Bulgaria (Kurdzhali Province and areas of South and East Bulgaria), Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Turkey
22. Persian 54 million OFFICIAL: Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan.
23. Gujarati 46 million OFFICIAL: India (Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli).
24. Polish 46 million OFFICIAL: Poland
25. Ukrainian 39 million OFFICIAL: Ukraine, Transnistria (part of Moldova).
26. Malayalam 37 million OFFICIAL: India (Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahe).
27. Kannada NATIVE: 35 million
2nd: 9 million
TOTAL: 44 million OFFICIAL: India (Karnataka).
28. Oriya 32 million OFFICIAL: India (Orissa).
29. Burmese NATIVE: 32 million
2nd: 10 million
TOTAL: 42 million OFFICIAL: Myanmar.
30. Thai NATIVE: 20 million
2nd: 40 million
TOTAL: 60 million OFFICIAL: Thailand.

Perhaps now you and others can see why there are 6 billion people for whom English is not their native language - speaking or writting.

[bwhhisc]

Good post Doc, even with those staggering numbers still hard to understand all the po'd domainers that think the web should remain "english only" for domain names. Here is a blog by Tina Dam the IDN lead at ICANN entitled "Next Generation Internet Users"

http://blog.icann.org/2009/11/next-g...nternet-users/