"Life lies not in never falling, but in rising when you fall." Nelson Mandela 1995, Easten Cape

My interview in ictQATAR newsletter and web site on ICANN’s launch of ccTLD Internationalized Domain Names “IDN ccTLD” applications .. link : http://www.ictqatar.qa/output/Page1544.asp

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In what is being hailed as the “biggest change” to the way the internet works in 40 years, non-Latin language domain names will soon be a reality. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently announced that it will soon start accepting applications from countries around the world for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) in the official languages – whether it is Arabic, Chinese, Greek or Japanese. ICANN is the world governing body for internet domain names.

Rod Beckstrom, ICANN Chief Executive Officer and President, said the change is being made in recognition of the fact that more than half of the Internet users worldwide speak languages with non-Latin scripts.

Mohammad Al-Basheer, Head of Internet, Numbering and Interconnection Section at ictQATAR’s Regulatory Authority and an ICANN system expert has been actively involved in the discussions on creating new domain IDNs in different languages. Al-Basher shares some of the history on internet domain names and the challenges being faced in the Arab world on naming with ictQATAR’s e-newsletter readers.

The Basics of the Internet Address System:

The Internet address system is based on transferring domain names into IP addresses, which contain Internet content and services. For example when an address is typed, such as www.ictQATAR.qa, requesting request to an IP address is made that contains all the information and graphics shared by ictQATAR on a specific server. The address system was basically designed to be an easy formula for enabling Internet users to quickly access contents and services.

The existing Internet address system dates back to the 1960s, when the TCP/IP was developed by Dr. Vinton Cerf. This system is divided into two main sections; the first is Generic Top Level Domains “gTLD” like .com, .org, .net, .edu, .gov. The second is Country Code Top Level Domains “ccTLD” ending with a domain in the form of two letters, symbolizing a certain country at the end of the address, like the domain of Qatar , .qa. These two main sections of the Internet address domains depend on English in writing Internet site domains.

Growth in Non-English Content

As the Internet has become more and essential for business, trade, communication, education and information sharing, the demographics of a typical Internet user has changed dramatically from an only tech savvy, educated group to the entire world population. The huge expansion in users brought many languages to the Internet and English no longer is the main language of Internet content, with Chinese now accounting for about 35%. Despite this, English remains the main script for Internet Domain Name System (DNS).

Many countries began to see English only domains as a limiting factor for their citizens to access information online. In China, Chinese Internet users uses a computer with a Chinese-letter keyboard as and an operating system run in ChinsesChinese, yet had to learn English to access an Internet site.

Pressures to Internationalize Internet Administration

Under increased world pressure to make the internet more open to other languages, ICANN formed a technical group to determine standards for DNS in world languages. Eleven languages, including Arabic, were tested within the main servers of a test internet environment 2007 to determine feasibility. Many of the initial tests proved successful, however, there remained considerable disagreement among countries on how to move forward, especially in terms of governance.

Most countries agreed that there needed to be a more world view of internet naming, however the approaches differed. Many developing countries supported a model for administering the Internet based on government control, while many European countries and non-governmental organizations opined that a leading role should be given to the private sector and that governments should be kept away from such administration. Ultimately a decision was made to have ICANN retain its role as the internet governance body, yet to have ongoing discussions at regular Internet Governance Forums to address emerging issues.

The US played the leading role in ICANN until current President Barak Obama amended the ICANN accord with the American government in September 2009, providing ICANN with more autonomy and allow for greater input from the rest of the world.

Progress Towards Arabic Internet Domains

In a bid to narrow the information gap between the Arab world and the West Arab countries have adopted a decision to Arabize the Internet through creating an experimental environment for Arab Internet sites (domain names). This will enable Arab countries to gain valuable experience in operating Arabic domain names. The project, entitled Arab Project for Domain Names on the Internet, was launched in 2005 with Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Palestine and Tunisia all participating.

The primary goal of the project is to promote Internet usage in Arab countries by removing linguistic barriers. This is also viewed as a way to help share Arab culture on with other cultures.

Even with the creation of Arabic language domain names, creation of quality Arabic content is still a major obstacle to adoption. Despite the rise in the number of Internet users in Arab countries, statistics show that Arabs’ contribution to world online content is very low and does come close to matching Arab countries’ capabilities. According to a UN report, Arab online content accounts for 3% of the world Internet content.

Al-Basheer sees two primary reasons for this shortage in Arab e-content. The first is the high cost of uploading the content to the Internet, especially in terms of creation of effective websites. , The emergence of blogs and social media sites makes this less of an obstacle, however the Arab world has yet to embrace these new mediums in the right way.

The second major issue is the many dialects of Arabic in the world, which are often extremely localized. Overall, there are no universal standards applied to Arabic and sometimes one dialect is not accessible to broader audiences. Al Basheer sees Arabic universities and educational institutions as forces that could drive standardization.

With Arabic internet domain names just around the corner, if Arabic content grows, people in the Arab world will have equal opportunities and equal access to the benefits of the internet – without language as a barrier.

Interview By: Zakaria Fawzi

Related Links:
www.icann.org
www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/implementation-guidelines.htm
www.arabic-domains.org
www.intgovforum.org

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“A moment of truth will come on 30 September this year, when the current agreement between ICANN and the US Government expires. This opens the door for the full privatization of ICANN.” EU ICT Commissioner Vivane Reding.

EU ICT Commissioner Vivane Reding suggest forming an oversight body to be accountable for ICANN operations same as G12 with representation from all Regions ( 2 members from EU,  Africa, North and South America and 3 members from Asia and Australia, ICANN ..ect ).

This proposal will open the door for serious proposals for the future of internet management, and i think Obama administration will try to find a compromise solution that can allow other governments to participate in the role managing the internet infrastructure . in September ICANN-US Government Agreement will be expired, its seems EU is throw its suggestions in the table .

Clearly ITU is not a favored entity to be responsible for managing the internet root, many objections from the technical community and EU as well ..

View EU ICT Commissioner Vivane Reding Videoblog – Explaining her sugestion for G12 to manage the Internet Infrastrcuture

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To main event that dominated ICANN LA meeting was the stepping down of Dr.Vint G.Cerf Chairman of ICANN board after his successful leadership of ICANN during the last 8 years, Vint will be focusing now on his Google Job as VP and Internet Evangelist

As the internet changed and still changes our life everyday, no one has had changed the internet as Dr.Vint G.Cerf, he had the vision of creating a computer connected world which lead to ARPAnet project in which he participated and co-designed TCP/IP protocol.

Dr.Vint continues contributions had lead to building an online nation of 1.2billion internet users, a nation called the internet without borders, a free and innovative space, billions of thinks to vint from the netizens of the internet .

Vint has been very supportive to our efforts in the developing countries to expand the internet access and usage to empower more people, and personally i had wonderful time with the humble, kind and funny vint during ICANN meetings, its a pleasure and honor to meet, talk and work with vint .
THANK YOU VINT CERF ..

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Tribute to Vint Cerf .

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Unlocked 8GB IPhone is operational in Zain Network
The Worlds hottest gadget is reached Sudan, all functions ( Google maps, Youtube, Weather, iTunes, Safari, ..ect are working )

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Sudan Internet Society (Sudan ISOC Chapter) has successfully published its First issue of a weekly newspaper focusing on information technology and internet .

After many moths of preparations Sudan Internet Society “Sudan ISOC Chapter” has published the first issue of it’s “ICT” newspaper on Monday 22th October 2007 , ICT is the first Sudanese Free Weekly newspaper focusing on Information and Communications Technologies issues , “ICT” main objective is to creating awareness among the ordinary Sudanese citizens towards the importance of ICT in the soci-economic development, ICT is distrubited free of cost to the readers .

ICT is targeting a mass audience, 30,000 copies is weekly printed with a collaboration with a leading Sudanese daily newspaper.

A web site has been created for ICT newspaper “www.ict.sd” and an electronic version of the newspaper is published every week, the web site contain interactive tools like pools and forums . ICT is managed by a group of interested Sudan Internet Society members with support of 2 journalist from AL Ahdath newspaper .

Sudan ISOC is working to attract funding and support for Telcom operators and internet service providers “ISPs” in Sudan “e.g in the form of newspaper advertisements” inorder to sustain and support the project .

Reference :
The Internet Society of Sudan is dedicated to identifying and surfacing the potential effective and efficient applications of the Internet throughout the Sudanese community. It is to provide support and information on all Internet related-issues in Sudan to enable individuals, businesses, professionals, and organizations achieve their goals more effectively.

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African Top Level Domains Org. “AfTLD” successfully organized the first African ccTLD workshop in Cairo, which is planned to be an annual ccTLDs event .

The workshop title was building a local internet community, the focus was to promote best practices among African country code “domain” managers which will lead toward better running of country TLD “top level domains” and will promote local internet services and industry as a result. the workshop was attending by 35 participants from 15 countries, its was amazing to listen to different models of administration from all over Africa, from closed restricted and very tough domain registration policies to open dynamic registries .

one of my biggest concerns which i did express during the workshop is the lack of an automated registry systems, its no longer easy to run a manual registrations process, we did invite .cz registry to present their FRED registry system beside review some of the available registry systems .

all presentations are available in www.aftld.org/cairo2007/

Bravo AfTLD .. keep the good work ..

AfTLD Excom At the AGM ..

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in 30th Aril 2007 a great progress in building at-large structure within ICANN and their role to reflect the voices of internet users and provide advice to the board. my organization was the third accredited at-large certified structure or ALS as on ICANN terminology in 2003 but i was disappointed from the slow progress in building at-large structures that time.

Finally in Dec 2006 the Latin American ALSs have managed to form their regional at-large organization “LACRLO” and signed an MOU with ICANN Brazil meeting, and later in 2007 the African & European internet organizations had meetings in Lisbon to establish their regional at-large organizations and elect new members representing the two regions to ICANN at-Large advisory committee ‘ALAC” which was important step toward building structured forum to provide input/comments in ICANN policy developments in a bottom-up process .

The challenge for ALAC and at-large regional organization is to provide the needed tools that could facilitate and ensure participation of internet users in ICANN policy discussions, local at-large structures “ALS” should be encouraged and supported to provide local awareness on issues related to ICANN issues .

In the developing countries this will be a big task bearing in mind that there is other hot burning issues related to ICT and internet developments in general, lack of internet access, expensive services costs, lack of local content development and a long list of issues that is considered more important than ICANN current policy debates, but i believe that we need to be available and participate effectively and have a voices heard .

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We have managed for the first time in Sudan to organization an IPv6 training in coperation with AfriNIC ( Africa IP address registry ), the training was attended by 70 network engineers from telecom providers, ISPs, academia and network operators .

We managed to have a dedicated IPv6 network in the training venue & IPv6 tunnel connection to an upstream provider “BT”. the training was very successful as immediately after it Sudatel order it’s first IPv6 range from AfricNIC and we had new entities whom proceeded to became an LIR “local internet registries”.

Up stream provides “Bandwidth provides” can play a major role in speeding up IPv6 transition as their networks support ipv6 and if they convienced their customers ( usually big local telecoms” they can either have dual stack or plan a transition on their backbone to IPv6. new studies now show that we might finishing up ipv4 ranges by 2010 0r 2011 and even some countries like mexico has already indicated that by 2011 they will stop assign ipv4 ranges and finsh complete transition to ipv6. more active work to be done on the transition policies and encouraging IT/Telecom sector to migrate to IPv6 .

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Year over year the african internet community is achieving progress in terms of engaging in the internet & domain names governance and standards organizations like ICANN, ISOC, IETF, ..ect .

AfTLD :
in 2006 we have managed to re-activate AfTLD “African ccTLD Organization” and managed to held a members meeting in ICANN Marrakech in Dec 2006, the outcome of the meeting was electing new executive committee “new bloods” in order to revamp the organization, i was one of the elected as VP handling the organization communitcations and out reach activities .

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Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers “ICANN”

As a private-public partnership, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and to developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes. ICANN, a public benefit, non-profit entity, is the international organization responsible for the management and oversight of the coordination of the Internets domain name system and its unique identifiers.

ICANN was created through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the U.S. Department of Commerce and ICANN to transition management of the Domain Name System (DNS) from the U.S. government to the global community. The most recently issued version of the MoU is intended to be the last and sets out a series of goals for ICANN that, when achieved, will result in a fully independent ICANN organization.

The two keys to success in this role are the full participation of the international community and collaborative nature of the bottom-up policy development process.

The International Nature of ICANN in Relation to the Global Internet Community

• Participation in ICANN is open to all who have an interest in global Internet policy as it relates to ICANN’s mission of technical coordination. ICANN holds public meetings throughout the year. Recent meetings have been held in Tunis, Bucharest, Montreal, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, and Accra. Future meetings will be held in Rome, Kuala Lumpur and Cape Town.
• The ICANN Board and staff reflect the international nature of the organization. The staff hails from seven different countries (Australia, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Niger, the United Kingdom, and the United States), exhibiting fluency in more than 14 languages. Similarly, the Board represents twelve nationalities and is fluent in many languages. ICANN has offices in Marina del Rey and Brussels. ICANN internationalization and outreach provide regional presences in Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East – and will include the Pacific Rim.
• The Supporting Organizations and Committees that lead the bottom-up policy development process are internationally based and populated. See the international complement of the Address Supporting Organization (ASO), the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) as indicative of the international nature of the effort supporting that process.
• The formation of the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) is further internationalizing participation in the ICANN policy development process and also improves the ccTLD’s (Country Code Managers’) voice on the ICANN Board of Directors since the ccNSO will directly elect two board members.
• The Internet is marvelously robust, with thousands of independent networks operating together to move traffic around the globe. ICANN inherently supports regional network development through its mission. European, Asian, Latin American and the African Internet communities are working effectively to build regional interconnections, belying the notion that all Internet traffic flows through North America.

ICANN Facilitation of DNS Policy Development through a Bottom-up, Collaborative Process

• ICANN does not create or make Internet policy. Rather, policy is created through a bottom-up, transparent process involving all necessary constituencies and stakeholders in the Internet Community.
• ICANN policy begins its development in the Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees. The recognition that a policy is needed may arise from anywhere in the Internet community, the international ICANN Supporting Organizations and Committees (such as the Regional Internet Registries (through the ASO), the GNSO, the ALAC or the GAC), or the Country Code Managers (ccTLDs).
• While ICANN is not an arm of any government, the ICANN by-laws provide specific mechanisms for soliciting, receiving and considering governmental inputs. That advice is received into the policy development process through the GAC.
• There are several redundancies built into the policy making process to ensure that new policy addresses the needs of the entire Internet community and not one special interest area or geographical region. The ICANN structure and policy development processes also ensure governmental input is received at many levels.
• ICANN’s independence enables rapid response to changes within the commercial, technical and geopolitical landscape of the Internet and DNS. While rapid and flexible, the ICANN process also requires and considers input from all interested and affected constituencies.

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