[council] Introduction of iDNs to be delayed to allow greater consultation - Thanks......

["Paul M. Kane" <Paul.Kane@reacto.com>]

Roger,

May I thank you and Verisign management on behalf of the Registrars that
the proposed introduction iDNs resolving at the second level will now be
delayed until mid-January 2002.

I was unaware that you had taken the concerns expressed during our last
NC tel conference "on-board" and had consulted both internally and with
the iDNS Registrant and Registrar community until the attached email was
posted today. (thanks Ken)... Delaying the introduction of names into
the SECOND level, yet introducing them at the THIRD level will give the
opportunity for the community to better understand the issues and for
the IETF to discuss the issues at their upcoming meeting in Salt Lake
City.

My main concern was that the deployment was being rushed through without
giving sufficient opportunity to the DNSO Constituencies to discuss this
issue in LA (in a couple of weeks time).

Again thanks to Verisign for listening, and I hope (and expect) the IETF
will be much closer to reaching the iDN standard, if/when the iDN names
are entered into the .COM zone at second level sometime after mid
January 2002 such that the internet may be used by all national
character scripts just as ASCII is used today.

I wish you well discussing this important issue during the NC meeting in
LA.

Best

Paul



Subject: [IDNList] Registrar Advisory: IDN Resolution Delay
      Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 18:25:36 -0400
      From: "VeriSign Global Registry Services" <info@verisign-grs.com>
      Reply-To: "VeriSign Global Registry Services"
<info@verisign-grs.com>
      To: <idntestbed@verisign-grs.com>

      To All IDN Registrars:

      In response to registrar requests for additional time to allow
them to
      communicate with their customers, the timing of resolution of IDN
names
      in
      the com, net and org zones will be delayed until mid-January
2002.  In
      addition VGRS will be consulting with registrars regarding an
      implementation
      plan for moving from NamePrep 0.3 to 0.6.

      ACE-Z

      On October 27, 2001 VeriSign Global Registry Services (VGRS) will
      generate
      an ACE-Z representation of the Internationalized Domain Names and
store
      that
      in the database along with the original RACE representation as
      scheduled.
      However, the process of setting all IDN Registrations to Active
status
      will
      not occur on November 12, 2001 as previously scheduled.   As
originally
      planned for Phase 3.3 of the IDN testbed, VeriSign GRS will set
all IDN
      registrations to Active status in mid-January, 2002.

      As a result of this event, registrars should be aware of these
specific
      points:

      1. Registrars will continue to submit all IDN registrations to
VGRS in
      the
      RACE format.
      2. VeriSign will continue to generate the RACE.mltbd.com/net/org
zones
      and
      they will continue to be the authoritative zone files.
      3. VeriSign Registry Whois will continue to reflect all IDN
      registrations in
      RACE.
      4. VeriSign Registry will post all existing IDN registrations in
their
      ACE-Z
      and corresponding RACE format in a report to the registrar FTP
site. We
      will
      continue to generate this report on a weekly basis.
      5. New IDN registrations received post 27 October 2001 will be
stored by
      VGRS in the RACE and ACE-Z formats.
      6. The IDN Conversion tool will be upgraded to accept either the
RACE,
      ACE-Z
      or Native language characters as input and return the RACE, Z, and

      native
      language.

      In our previous notification, we stated that we would stop
publishing
      and
      updating the RACE.mltbd.com zone file as of November 12, 2001.
With the
      delay in putting ACE-Z formatted IDN registrations into the com,
net and
      org
      zones, this is no longer true.  VeriSign GRS will discontinue the
update
      of
      these files in mid-January in concert with placing Z in the
zones.  When
      this occurs:

      1. The ACE-Z zone files become authoritative. Registrants will
need to
      update their RACE encoded name servers to reflect the Z
representation
      of
      these same name servers. This will require registrars to inform
their
      affected customers of the Z representation of the RACE encoded
domain
      name.

      2. Registrars will be able to obtain the Z representation of the
RACE
      IDNs
      from the Weekly reports published by VeriSign Registry.

      3. Registrants will be able to obtain the Z encoding of their
domain
      name
      through ML Conversion tool


      Name Preparation for Internationalized Domain Names

      The VeriSign GRS Testbed is currently using IETF's name
preparation
      draft
      version 03.   This version has been replaced and is currently at
version
      06.
      VeriSign GRS intends to update to this latest version of name
      preparation.
      Version 06 is based upon Unicode 3.1.  The primary feature of
Unicode
      3.1 is
      the addition of 44,946 new encoded characters. These characters
cover
      several historic scripts, several sets of symbols, and a very
large
      collection of additional CJK ideographs.

      VeriSign GRS will be communicating the date for the cutover to the
Name
      Prep
      06 during the week of December 3rd.  Prior to that date, VeriSign
      Registry
      Customer Service will be calling all IDN accredited registrars to
ensure
      that they understand this communication and obtain registrar
feedback
      regarding their end-user support requirements regarding the Name
Prep
      conversion.

      Best Regards,

      Chris Sheridan
      Manager, Customer Service
      VeriSign Global Registry Services
      info@verisign-grs.com
      www.verisign-grs.com