Soon, ICANN will allow Internationalized Domain Names to be registered. These names will allow speakers of languages like Japanese, Swahili, and Russian to register domains in their native vernacular using characters not found in Latin-derived alphabets. Unfortunately, it seems as though an outdated ICANN policy might seriously hinder the IDN system.

According to the gTLD Application Guidebook, the document that dictates rules for domain registrations:

Policy Requirements for Generic Top-Level Domains – Applied-for strings must be composed of three or more visually distinct letters or characters in the script, as appropriate.

Just as domain under three letters can’t be registered, the same currently holds true for characters and ideographs in foreign languages. In most Asian languages, a single character represents a word. The way ICANN’s policy is set up now, speakers of languages such as Korean and Chinese will be limited to domains at least three words long when the IDN system goes live.

If anything, this proves that ICANN needs more international input. Such a glaring oversight could easily have been corrected by a beginning Japanese student. If the California organization is going to continue to lead the Internet, it should start showing more foresight and responsibility.

Source: CircleID

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