Internationalized Domain Names Dr. Cary Karp MUSENIC Project Manager Second MUSENIC Project Workshop Stockholm, 22-23 March 2004 MUSENIC – The Museum Network

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



In June 2003, standardized means became availablefor encoding a large range of characters usingnothing more than the initial LDH array.



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.



http://www.unicode.org/

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.



The IDN

blåbärsbröd.museum

is displayed here usingUNICODE characters.



The Punycode equivalent of

blåbärsbröd.museum

is

xn--blbrsbrd-2zai7q.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.



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.



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.



An illustration of a useful IDN application will be found at:

http://icom.museum/idn



http://icom.museum/idn

Detailed documentation will be found at:

http://about.museum/idn



http://about.museum/idn

The real issues surrounding IDN are not primarily technical.

Policy concerns are substantially more complex.



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.



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.



Which of the these two domain names is the more reasonableto make available in a Greek language environment?

αθλητισμου.museum or

αθλητισμου.μουσειο



This quickly leads from the realm of DNS policyto that of national interest.



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.



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.



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 ...



Can coherent policies and procedures be establishedand maintained for the operation of, for example,

greece.museummuseum.gr

ελλάδα.museum μουσειο.gr

ελλάδα.μουσειο μουσειο.ελλάδα

???



Documents

Internationalized Domain Names Dr. Cary Karp MUSENIC Project Manager Second MUSENIC Project Workshop Stockholm, 22-23 March 2004 MUSENIC – The Museum Network