Domain Name News - May 9, 2010

First IDN ccTLDs Active – In an important step in the development of the Internet, the first non-Latin IDN ccTLDs were added to the root zone of the DNS on May 5. The three new ccTLDs are for:

Egypt: مصر (Egypt),
Saudi Arabia: السعودية (AlSaudiah), and
United Arab Emirates: امارات (Emarat).

Under a process approved last October, ICANN has so far received 21 requests representing 11 languages.

CIRA Publishes 2010 Election Schedule – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has published is election schedule for 2010. Initially, applications from prospective candidates to be considered by the Nomination Committee will be solicited starting on May 13.

Picks To Click

“IDN Usability” by Tina Dam, a description of what IDNs are and how they work.
“By the way… Your IDN is Live.” by Adrian Kinderis is critical of the manner by which the first IDN TLDs were put into the root zone.
“The Real Issue About ICANN and .XXX” by John Levine is critical of ICANN and how it does or does not follow its own processes.
As part of the incremental deployment of DNSSEC in the root zone, all of the root servers are now serving a signed root zone on a test basis. The distribution of a production signed root zone is scheduled for July 1.
Vancouver Community College loses a complaint over vccollege.ca. Rather than make a finding under the dispute resolution policy, the panel stated that this “is a marks dispute that involves a domain name, which takes it outside the Policy, and not strictly a domain name dispute per se.”

Timeline

Mon, May 10: last day for comments on report on .xxx process options
Thu, May 13 – Fri, Jun 11: applications to CIRA’s Nomination Committee solicited
Sun, Jun 20 – Fri, Jun 25: ICANN meetings in Brussels, Belgium
Thu, Jul 1: registry fee increases for .com/.net take effect
Thu, Jul 1: production signed root zone to be available
Tue, Aug 3 – Mon, Aug 16: call for Member Nominees for CIRA Board election
Thu, Aug 26 – Thu, Sep 9: shows of support for Member Nominees for CIRA election
Tue, Sep 14 – Tue, Sep 21: online forum for CIRA Board of Directors election
Tue, Sep 21: CIRA Annual General Meeting
Wed, Sep 22 – Wed, Sep 29: CIRA Board of Directors election
Sun, Dec 5 – Fri, Dec 10: ICANN meetings in Cartagena, Columbia