The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> OWEN FLETCHER: Can everyone hear me hopefully? I'm seeing thumbs up. And hopefully people in Zoom can hear me as well. Thanks for lating a couple of minutes to let anyone else trickle in. Thanks for the online thumbs up. I think Weir ready. No? Audio problem?
No?...
Okay. Proceeding.
Thank you so much for joining our open forum on "challenges and opportunities for a multilingual internet."
I am Owen Fletcher from the United States Department of Commerce. Specific think National Telecommunications and Information Administration. We've co organised this open forum with our colleagues from the governments of Egypt, India and the United Kingdom.
I will be moderating and introducing our speakers. We are going to start with opening remarks from Jaisha Wray, our associate administrator within my office, the office of international affairs at NTIA.
Thank you.
>> JAISHA WRAY: Can you hear me now? Okay great.
Thank you thank you for that introduction Owen. And thank you all for joining us either in person or as part of our online audience. Also thank you to our hosts, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and for IGF for the e.
Access to a digital sphere that is diverse, inclusive and serves needs in order to create this, we must acknowledge the fundamental role that language plays on the internet. We also know that additional work to improve multilingualism on the internet is critically needed. There are over 7,000 languages and dialects used globally. But only about 10 of those languages have any substantial online presence.
The multi stakeholder community has developed technical solutions to enable a more multilingual internet. One goal of our discussion today is to highlight that governments can do more to advance the implementation of those solutions.
Now, a number of challenges must be addressed in order to reach our goal of a truly multilingual internet. An important place to start is ensuring that everyone can navigate the internet in their own language. But to do this, we need domain names in all languages. And we need those domain names to work in the same way that English domain names do now.
This means software applications must treat all top level domains equally, regardless of the script they are in. And this is really the basis of the term universal acceptance. The multi stakeholder internet community must work together to build policy that encouraging the university acceptance of all domain names.
And e mail addresses.
Namely those that are not based in the Latin alphabet character set.
In addition to the issue of universal acceptance, we need a better understanding of the market dynamics impacting the uptake of internationalized domain names or IDNs. As we continue to pursue progress towards a multilingual internet we must consider where the technical solutions are succeeding and where more work is needed.
Finally, local language content. The delivery of which is enabled by IDNs and universal acceptance, is also a key element of the multilingual internet. And requires its own policy interventions. Today's government represents from Egypt, India and the United Kingdom will promote on their activities to promote multilingualism on the internet. Including efforts to promote universal acceptance, the uptake of internationalized domain names and local content development.
During last year's IGF in Kyoto, NTIA held a workshop. We recognised the important role of domain names in promoting lingtic diversity online T connection between meaningful connectivity and multilingualism. And that universal acceptance is really a foundational requirement for a multilingual internet.
This year by focuses on the role that governments can play in the pursuit of internet multilingualism, our intent that this open forum continues to build momentum and raise awareness of this critical issue. We aim to highlight the lessons learned so far and look ahead to next steps.
I'll also note that many offed folks working on these issues are with us here today. And we are very pleased that you are here and actively contributing to the discussions and we'd really encourage you to engage in the discussions following the presentations because we're interested in your reflections on government efforts to raise awareness and accelerate adoption.
Now through the efforts of all of us and all stakeholders, improved multilingualism on the internet will provide a Gateway to the next billion of internet users. With that I'll turn it back to Owen Fletcher. Our moderator today. Who will introduce our case study presenters.
Thank you.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you Jaisha. Hitting the next slide button.
Okay. So we will have three case studies presented. Our first is from Mr. Pradeep Kumar VERMA. Pradeep please go ahead.
>> Thank you Owen. I'll be presenting two cases today from India. One is Bhashanet portal and the other is...
First of all, I will. India has 22 official languages that covers 15 IDNs. Under 11 scripts. And thing is all the domain name has been started for all 22 official language.
First of all I would like to say that under this 22 scheduled languages, (?). That means one script may have covered 8 languages. One language may cover two scripts. So that is the diversity and the strength of the Indian languages.
Ly take a tour on the global universal acceptance day.
So in 2023, India took a lead in officially launching of global UA Day. On March 28th. After that the regional UA Day in 2024. India launched Bhashanet portal. Promoting the multilingual internet. So this initiative equips developers and other technical communities with the necessary tools and the processes, documents and how this would go with the universal acceptance.
This is some highlights of the Bhashanet portal. This portal covers all 22 languages. The portal itself cover all domain names.
Basically this portal covers the SOP for for the technical community, the start ups. Frequently asked questions. The UA code samples in the Java, python and other languages. And also provided ticketing system for the support. If anyone wants to come and develop their portal in their native language for their IDN.
So can just raise a ticket. And can communicate with the language tech expert. And the expert who is working in the IDN field.
This is snapshot of the portal.
Next, I will come to the Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar. The villages have their identity. And domain name and covered under the zone MGMD and the respective languages.
So this is the important parameters. Each domain name will have. All things will be displayed under this portal. So this covers significantly the inclusivity from the diverse society of India.
So this also breech the linguistic barrier.
For the website. The government services are displayed. So one can browse in their domain names.
Thank you.
Now Owen.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you Pradeep. Our next case study will be presented by Ms. Manal Ismail. The chief expert for internet policies in national telecom regulatory authority of Egypt. Please go ahead.
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Thank you very much Owen. I hope you hear me well. And apologies for not being present in person with you and thanks for the opportunity and invitation to speak.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Sorry, Manal, we can't hear you. We're trying to fix it.
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Can you hear me better now?
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Manal, try saying something, maybe.
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Can you hear me now?
>> OWEN FLETCHER: I still don't hear Manal.
>> MANAL ISMAIL: I see colleagues online are hearing me well.
They can hear me online.
Hello.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Sorry. Everyone could hear Nigel right? Nigel is muted. Can you try saying something for me?
>> NIGEL HICKSON: Yeah sure. I can say something, yay.
>> ANDREW FLAVIN: Can you hear me?
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Working on it. Sorry.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Nigel and Manal, can you try speaking again.
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Can you hear me any better now?
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Still no. Nope.
>> NIGEL HICKSON: Or me?
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Nigel, we can hear you online.
>> NIGEL HICKSON: We could just have a conversation amongst ourselves, really.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you for your patience. Our tech support is still working on it.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Please try again, Manal and Nigel.
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Can you hear me now?
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Not hearing Manal. Nigel.
>> NIGEL HICKSON: I can speak, yes. Can you hear me at all?
>> OWEN FLETCHER: So I think we're going oh...
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Hello?
>> OWEN FLETCHER: So while we wait for tech support to thanks everyone.
So tech support will keep trying to resolve...
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Can you hear me now?
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Hello?
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Okay. Nigel could you mute for me.
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Owen can you hear me.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Yes. And snow with one of you muted and one of you not, I think we're on track. Thank you for everyone's patience. We'll go back to our normal programme.
And Manal, I think we're ready for you. Thank you.
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Great. Thank you very much Owen. I was just saying that I regret not being able to join you in person. But thanks for the opportunity to speak. And thanks to Saudi Arabia for hosting this year's IGF and availing remote participation.
So with one third of the world population still being offline, we need to think about the reasons and how to make sure that the technology is really serving humanity in that respect.
One important reason for this is language being access barrier to those who can only communicate if their model tongue. And with the digital inclusion being a top priority A truly multilingual internet becomes necessity to have the next billion internet users connect meaningfully to the internet.
To enable multilingual access to the internet, we have to work on all its components equally. Namely the multilingual local content, internationalised domain names, e mail address, internationalisation. And a universal acceptance as Jaisha already mentioned in her opening remarks as well.
So universal acceptance is the missing piece of the puzzle needed to complement ongoing efforts on IDN delegations and creation of multilingual online content. Needed to ensure a smooth, seamless end to end multilingual experience on the internet. That allows users around the world to navigate the internet entirely in their local languages.
Universal acceptance aims at making all valid domain names and e mail addresses work seamlessly in all internet applications, devices and systems. Irrespective of their script language or length. And by work here we mean that internet applications and systems must accept, validate, store, process and display all domain names in a predictable and consistent manner.
We have now more than 1200. Around 100 of which are IDNs. And we have around 60 IDN country code top level domains. We have mailboxes now that are no longer just in ASCII. And we have another round of new GTLDs on its way. This makes universal acceptance a requirement for unleashing the full potential of IDNs and internationalized e mail addresses and providing truly multilingual and digitally inclusive internet.
I would like to start by providing quick highlights from the recently published URIT, IDN world report 2024, which provides insights into the stats and trends of the global market of IDNs.
And estimated 85% of CCTLDs and estimated 41% of GTLDs currently support IDN registrations. Yet while a significant number of CCTLDs, 85% offered IDN registrations, the actual number of IDN registrations remains low at 1.2%. Highlighting the limited penetration of I IDNs. Additionally, they are also a concentrated among only a handful of CCTLDs.
Moreover, despite apparent availability of IDN registrations and how they seem to be well supported, the actual uptake of IDNs has been remarkably slow over the years. In fact, per the URID report. Only three CCTLDs witnessed notable growth in their IDN registrations over the past year. While the majority experienced minimum or no growth can (?) total IDN registrations.
Moving to our case in Egypt from our experience with Egypt's IDN CCTLD, it really aligns with the findings of the URID report. So Egypt IDN CCTLD among the first batch of IDN delegations in 2010. Along with Saudi Arabia, united Arab Emirates and Russia. And upon launch we reached around 40 or 50% of the dot registrations in a few weeks.
Yet over the years we suffered very low renewal rates, resulting in significant reduction in the number of registered domain names under the IDN CCTLD. And we currently stand at 1/10 the number we started with in 2010.
The main reason for this very low renewal rate under Egypt IDN CCTLD was identified to be the malfunctions of internationalized e mail addresses. Which is attributed to the lack of wide deployment of universal acceptance. Even if users successfully register an IDN they may encounter issues when attempting to use that domain name in e mail addresses, some web browsers or other online services. Leading to frustration and confusion of end users.
It is also related to compatibility issues with many existing software apologies and systems, which were designed with the assumption that domain names would only contain ASCII characters. And sometimes even with the assumption of certain lengths.
Consequently, users may opt for ASCII domain names to avoid potential compatibility issues, even if an IDN would better represent their language or culture identity. Regarding the wide deployment of universal acceptance, there are of course challenges and this includes the need to aware and convince both the supply and the demand sides at the same time.
There is no appealing product to attract demand. And there is no pressing demand to trigger supply. So it is a really unique situation.
Also universal acceptance needs to be very widely deployed before it starts to bear its fruits.
And another reason could be that users with no language barrier finds that everything is working fine. And those who are offline because of language barrier, they are taking it for granted and they are not aware there is a solution to this problem.
Another thing could be the business model itself may not be pressing or that appealing today. But of course the counterargument to this is that the driement is straightforward. It is future professor, provides a marked edge and expected to trigger demand and open up a new market.
And finally, it is a multi stakeholder issue. So it has technical strategic, commercial and cultural dimensions. And hence, it needs the buy in of all the relevant stakeholders. Focuses more on why governments should care on working universal acceptance strategies and internet multilingualism, this of course serves the governments efforts and objectives on digital transformation as well as digital and social inclusion. Preserving culture and advancing digital identity. Ensuring government online services are reaching citizens nationwide. Stimulating growth of local IDNs market and online multilingual content by increasing competition and fostering innovation. Providing more customer choice. Availing internationalized e mail addresses which have been hindering uptake of IDNs for some time now.
And driving the use of local IDN domains and e mail addresses, as opposed to ASCII ones hosted off borders.
It also serves government efforts in increasing internet penetration and bridging the digital divide, promoting digital literacy and facilitating meekful access to the internet. And last but not least, acquiring future proof systems and applications.
So in Egypt, have been trying to promote awareness on universal acceptance and work on its deployment. We have started with the government as key stakeholder and main driver for government digital transformation projects. We are trying to align with the governmental prujts and initiatives. Reaching out the software companies to get them involved. Setting pilots for proof of concept. And also working with academia on graduation projects, conducting hack a thons on universal acceptance and hands on training on deployment of e mail addresses.
We're also trying to reach out to survey identify and prioritise platforms and tools that are most commonly used in order to assess the UA readiness.
And accordingly, organise engagement activities with the relevant stakeholder.
Beyond that, it is great to see multilingualism, universality and meaningful access to the internet on global agendas. Including the U.N. SDGs, sustainable development goals. ITU, UNESCO and most recent by the packet pact of the future global and digital compact.
We looking forward to availing truly multilingual internet experience. As we owe it to those who need it.
Apologies if I exceeded the ten minutes and I leave it at this and pass the floor back to you Owen and look forward to the rest of our discussion. Thank you.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you, Manal. I think we've had two very interesting presentations so far with lots of ideas that we can dig into in the discussion session.
Before that, let's have our third case study. Coming from Nigel Hickson of the United Kingdom where he is senior advisor on internet governance and the domain name system for the department for science, innovation and technology.
Nigel go ahead.
>> NIGEL HICKSON: Yes, and good afternoon. Thank you Owen. Can you hear me? I suppose I ought to ask that given the
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you. We're good now.
>> NIGEL HICKSON: It's all good.
Well it is an absolute delight to take part in this session. I would like apologise for not being there. I very much wanded to be in Riyadh but unfortunately not on this occasion.
I've been a great advocate and fan if you like of the U.N. IGF. And I'm delighted it is in Saudi Arabia. It is such an important year for the U.N. IGF. And I hope everyone is having a great time. I'm sure you are.
And I've managed to listen in to a number of sessions and there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm in the hallways so to speak.
And thank you also to the U.S. NTIA for putting all this session. I think it is incredibly timely. And asthmaal said, this is an issue that if you like, rising up the international agenda or has become, if you like, more prominent as it should be than perhaps it was a few years ago. And perhaps in our discussions to follow the session, we can reflect on what more can be done to promote the importance of multilingualism on the internet. And the problems of universal acceptance.
So I'm going to be fairly short in my presentation. On behalf of the UK government. The UK has always, if you like, recognised the importance of the importance of multilingualism. We have a very diverse multilingual population in the UK. And in terms of citizens and residents applying for government services. We recognise the importance of providing not only government services in very many languages so people can understand what they are applying for and what they are entitled for in terms of public benefits and schooling and hospitalization and lots of other things connected with the health service.
And but also that they can they can use their own scripts. And so it is very important. And I believe it is important, you know, for all countries. And therefore you know, in addition to the technical in addition to the technical work that we have to do to ensure that we can use international domain names and scripts in non Latin characters, we also have to ensure that our citizens and residents and other people know that they can use different languages and different scripts in their communication with government.
I'll come on to that in a second.
But I think that is an area we really do need to concentrate.
In the UK, its been a very much of an incremental approach in terms of ensuring for government services there is universal acceptance, that people can use their own characters. And they can use international domain names.. Responsibility of a UK cabinet office who are responsible, large team responsible for GOV.DOT UK. The single portal people go to access government services. Gov.uk, can accept IDNs like without having to convert the e mail addresses and the content back to the underlying ASCII equivalent scripts, which is the way that it's still done in some areas. But that obviously is not the ideal way forward.
But that leads me onto the second point. Because as well as the, if you like, the technical approaches that are being taken and have been taken in many areas already to ensure the acceptability issue. We also have to ensure that people understand that they can do this. And I was struck by Manal's example that the use of the use of the CCTLD, the IDN CCTLD. You know, the usage has gone down to 10% of what it was when it launched or in the early days. And to an extent, I think this comes down to, you know, lack of confidence.
When I was doing a bit of research for this presentation this morning, and talking to some people responsible for our own services in the UK, they said that many users would not know how to use an IDN. Although if you like an IDN in various Indian script ores other scripts might be a much better way for them to communicate. Because it would be easier for them. They would not necessarily have the confidence or the knowledge to do that. And therefore, you know, tend to go back to the Latin script alternative. Perhaps using a mixture of their own scripts and Latin scripts.
So I think we do have a lot to do in this area. To ensure that users understand the availability of systems to other scripts.
I have an example from Wales, which is a part of the UK, which is a fairly large region in the UK. And has its own dot Wales as an domain. But in the use of that domain, we only have 15 examples of where advantage has been taken of the ability to use welsh (?). So we do have a problem in promoting this ability of people promoting the ability of people to use IDNs.
So I see, you know, and I hope you can go further on this in discussion. I see three critical challenges, if you like, for us.
The first is, is the lack of confidence that people necessarily have perhaps to use international domain names. And we need to do more to promote them. That they can be used. We know there are problems of course with universal acceptance. But it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation.
In that if a public authorities and if other institutions feel anyway there is no real use of these international domain names, and they are not seeing a problem, then they might not be taking the steps to ensure that they can be used on their systems.
Secondly, the criticality of universal acceptance ahead of the next round for generic top level domains. Manal and I and others and Santhosh are involved in much of the ICANN work. ICANN has done some incredible work for multilingualism on the internet through the universal acceptance steering group. And the UA Day that has been institutionalized.
But going into the next round of generic top level domains where we're going to hopefully have more and more applications for IDNs, we must indeed do all we can to ensure that there is this further work and they are accepted. And we must be honest with applicants for generic top level domains. That there are still issues with universal acceptance.
And the third point, which I think I've covered to large extent is that governments can do a lot more. We're not suggesting we all should go out and regulate or pass laws or make regulations. Or, you know, sort of bang... you know it is not a case of discipline. It is not necessarily a case of passing legislation. What it is is it is a case of working with the private sector. It is a case of working with local authorities. It is a case of working with educational institutions.
So people can understand what they can do already. Because if we're going to really have multilingualism on the internet, people need to be confident to use their own languages. And not to, if you like, have to use English language as a substitution. Far too often, we read case studies where people have come to the UK and understandably are still, you know, trying to understand the English work on things, too worried to go online and instead get their friends and relations to apply for government services for them. And that is something we want to stop. I've talked for too long but this is really important work that we're discussing here. Thank you.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Okay. Nigel and all of our speakers, thank you. Nobody spoke for too long. I think that was all very useful. And I'm sliding to officially enter the discussion phase. So during our brief delay earlier, I already spoke to a couple of people who I know who have comments.
There are a lot of stakeholders in the room, physically. Hopefully also on Zoom or also very actively engaged on this issue. I'm going to invite Theresa or anyone else from ICANN who would like to speak first. As we were talking about it first. I'll bring you the microphone.
>> Thank you so much. Wow, it is a privilege to be here and also to hear the speakers. And thank you very much for organising this event.
The power to be able to engage on the internet in your own language or script is incredibly important. And something I think we often don't appreciate. We'd like to speak in our own language. We'd like to read in our own language. We'd like to communicate in our own language. And we should be able to do that on the internet as well. And we should have a choice of the extensions to the right of the dot or to the left of the dot and how that works.
So with that sort of bridging of internationalized domain domain names and universal acceptance, from our perspective and ICANN's limited mandate and mission, we play our part in trying to ensure a truly inclusive internet on all levels.
And to achieve this digital inclusivity, it takes more than just getting the people online. And the speakers and their case studies observed this. It requires addressing some of the unique barriers, such as the geographical or linguistical diversity. So with that the internationalized domain names and technical aspect and coding aspect of that can play a role in breaking down the barriers.
But you can fully unlock the IDN part. But unless you can actually communicate on that, hence the universal acceptance. That has to be a priority. And while we don't have a mission in that, we certainly play a role in trying to help with that. Around that.
And with that it means to ensure that all valid domain names and e mail addresses, regardless of script can work seamlessly across the internet.
On any device. And that's WhatsApp, whatever you might be using that day of the week.
There's been a lot of work around this. My colleagues are online, they are the versed experts on this. So if anybody has a question beyond my bandwidth or knowledge, please let's bring them in.
But progress has been made. But we have a lot of gaps. For instance, if we look at any of the testing right now, it shows that only about 11% of the top 1,000 global websites can accept internationalized e mail addresses. And just 22.2 of e mail servers can support them.
That is not a lot.
Not given the world population and the numbers of languages and scripts and administrations to the right or to the left of the dot. So these challenges highlight the urgent need for universal acceptance to become a technical and operational reality. That platform providers, that other providers, whether it is tech op organisations, content management systems, e mail tools, web hosting tools, can enable this.
But it is not just a technical requirement. It is essential really for the expansion and to provide a Gateway for the next billion internet users to navigate the interpret in a meaningful way.
IDNs already being used in diverse sectors including government services. We've heard some presentations here. Health tourism, business, open source software and big techs applications begin to embrace local languages but we still have a lot to do.
In the context of ICANN we're also looking at this as we look to open the next round. We anticipate or we would hope that we get interest for people to have their identity whether it is a visible identity or a source that they go to through an application to have that ability to be in the language or the script or in the extension to to the right or the left of the dot in the way they want.
So in partnership with others we have a lot of work to do. And some of it is just showing how somebody can code something. And other things are, you know, creating awareness at university levels in various other programmes that are there.
But the partnerships are important. And thank you for taking the initiative on the awareness here.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: (?) also I think has a comment ready.
>> Thank you very much Owen. Can you hear me?
Okay. So hi I'm Keith.
(audio fading in and out)
Little bit of VERASIGN's history and IDNs.
(audio fading in and out)
Second level. Dotcom would have remained ASCII back in the 2,000. My current boss, now senior vice president in the company started out as IDN product manager. So Verasign .
(audio fading in and out)
Nine in dotcom and three in dot net. Transliteration would be for example in (?) the way it sounds in script. Verasign is very much committed to supporting and promoting IDNs. And in fact we about two and a half weeks ago
(audio fading in and out)
and uptake of multilingual characters. IDNs. Within the ICANN process. So we're to helping promote multilingualism uptake on IDNs on the internet.
I do want .
Is that better?
Okay. Sorry about that.
Hope you got some of that.
I won't repeat myself. But I think it is important to underscore what's been said but a fie others. In that the registration, the residence (no audio).
further up the stack, if you will. Where the application layer. We have a real challenge where the application such as e mail services or browsers or other services that rely on the DNS is where the conflict exists. And I think that is where we have quite a bit more work to do in terms of the universal acceptance aspect.
And a member of my team has been a member of the universal acceptance steering group. We continue to see value in that initiative. So more work to be done. There is more policy work and implementation work going on in ICANN right now around the topic of IDN variants, for example. But functionally they work at the DNS level. It is a quell of making sure they are applicable at the application layer.
Thank you.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you. Now I see hands up. Thank you. So we're going to have a good discussion. I wanted to go to a chat question they think we had in Zoom first.
Then I'll open it up.
>> ANDREW FLAVIN: We have a question for Manal that came in online. And the question is, would you be able to elaborate more about the challenges that are specific for right to left languages like Arabic and farsi.
>> NIGEL HICKSON: Thank you, for the question. And as Teresa mentions and also others. There are even more challenges with the right to left scripts than the usual left to right scripts.
I'm not a technical expert, but I have one of my colleagues in the room. So if you don't mind, we can pass this question to abdominal. Currently in person in the room and maybe in better position to answer this technical question.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Yep, please.
>> This is. For the record, I am working for the telecommunicator of Egypt to maintain and upgrade the IDN CCTLD in Arabic one. Actually there are lot of issues related to the Arabic language. Especially the first one is context.
When you right a domain name inside the browser, it is a protocol. Which is English. HTT...ich Arabic naming. And it will be reflected. So how could you read it. You could read it from the left side or the right side. And one of the the display issues.
Assume that you have an e mail address that have a domain name in Arabic and the mailbox name itself in English. How could the application, how could you as a human read this e mail address? From right or from left? If you read it from right, you will see that the domain name at this moment is actual mailbox name. And the left side is the domain name.
If you read it from the left to right, you will have first bar to be the mailbox and second bar is the domain name. This is one of the issues.
The time you are trying to write the dot inside your keyboard, which you have the context of the keyboard in right to left, it will differ from the other one when you press the dot, which is left to right context at your keyboard. It is not limited for our script.
Another one which affect the security is related to (?) attacks. There are some letters inside Arabic script that could be several different code for the same shape of the letter. So if me, for example, use one of the domain names that have one of the letters, which one of the code letter and ignore the others, could be some kind form of attack.
Maybe someone will go and just as domain name maybe in other language. So it is one of the security issues. That is related to some of the issues or some the issues or related to right to left script.
Another one I would like to highlight here. Universal accepts is not limited for domain names and e mail addresses that are inside the mailbox that are inside the mail application or inside the browser. There are large sect of the population who could even write their own local language. For example, assume for Arabic language. I couldn't write Ashe Arabic language. And I don't know how English well. How could I go online? There are plenty of application they could use open mic and I say that I want to go Google.com. I want to go something in Arabic.something in Arabic. But different accents for different people. And critical role here to make such application, you already as well in order to handle large segment of people, their own local language or even English.
Thank you.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Comment over here.
>> Hello everyone. My name is Abina. I'm from Mexico and in the dynamic coalition of accessibility and disability.
I think that one of the big challenges of the multilingual internet is how to include people with disabilities. I think about the sign language, that it recognised as language for the deaf community but I don't see it even mentioned in any of these forum. I think we should be thinking how to include people with all kind of disabilities in these discussions. And how to include other languages like the sign languages in the discussion.
Thank you.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Yeah. So while we're passing, I'm also going to invite questions for our speak.
Go ahead.
>> Hello. I'm Sadvi from the international telecommunication union. The ITU. Thank you for this very important discussion. Multilingualisation of IDNs is something that the ITU has been looking at for several years. As a fundamental driver of universal connectivity as we've heard. But also for building digital skills and literacy around the world. We received a mandate from our one 183 member states, now 194, through plenipotentiary conference several years ago and renewed at the last one 2022 to focus tonotopic particularly looking at it from the lens of technical solutions, but also capacity development. It is something that we also look at under the WSIS framework, under action line C8 I believe. On cultural and linguistic diversity and local content.
And through that work closely with other U.N. system entities as well. Including UNESCO. But also outside the system with ICANN and I thank Teresa for her great remarks earlier today.
I wanted to highlight we have a counsel working group on international internet related public policy issues. A bit of a mouthful. But CWG internet for surety. And Mr. Nigel Hickson who spoke earlier is a vice chair of that group as well.
Released or opened up a public consultation in October which is going to be running until the 11th of January on the topic of role of public policy on the multilingualisation of the internet. I warmly welcome all of you to take a look at our website. And encourage, you know, organisations and stakeholders that you know who might be interested to contribute to that conversation. And also present their contributions to the member states of the CWG internet at our meeting. The as hybrid meeting in February.
Thank you.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Can you raise your hand so Andrew yeah.
>> Thank you. I'm Rom mohan. And I worked in this area area for a little while. So I want to focus my energy on governments and some of the things that governments ought to be thinking about.
Governments want to provide services to their populations. That's fundamentally one of the things they want to do. And they want and they are moving to provide these services, you know, online. To make a lot of their services accessible online.
Now, connectivity, and even meaningful connectivity requires language to become a core component of design and planning. Often when governments plan services and plan rollout of services, you find that the language component is sometimes in the design phase. But often you will find that when they it is only when it comes to the rollout that they recognise that language is now what excludes their populations from having agency online.
So I think that the important thing here, in addition to universal acceptance and having internationalised domain name, we need to understand that accessibility in your own language to services, and the ability to navigate the internet in your own language is really a crucial table stakes kind of a basic requirement. The internet has become a significant utility in the world. When you have people in the global south, but anywhere in the world, when people have money, in addition to food and other essentials, they absolutely subscribe to having internet access. Right?
But what use internet access if you cannot have that access convert to meaningfulness in your own language? Right?
So the language accessibility is really where I think we need to have the next stage of development. The problems that the panel and all of you have been talking about on universal acceptance and internationalized domain names, they are no longer technical problems. The technical problems are long solved. They are long done.
The real problems have to do with policymakers. Not just having the will or the intent. But actually getting a tool kit that allows them to say I do have an intent to deploy language and to deploy language services. But how do I go about doing that?
So.
So I think the creation of tool kits, the creation of methods that allow for the the tool providers and the service providers, as well as governments, who want to make those services accessible. We need something that pulls all of these folks together. Right?
Because you have silos. The UNICO consortium knows how to take any language or any script and make it accessible online. But how does somebody in the United States, how does a chair Kei know how to take the Cherokee language and get that converted to unicode. And you need that to that local population. And that is a kind of thing that governments ought to be starting to think about.
Thank you.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: As the conversation goes on we're getting more and more interesting aspects of this complicated situation. Jen, I see your hand up. I'll go to you in a second. I wanted to ask Pradeep and Manal or Nigel if you would like to comment too about content generation for domain, or for websites using the IDNs that we've spoken about.
It sounds like provision of government services is a common theme. But in addition, or that there are types of content available on the existing IDNs which you have spoken about.
>> PRADEEP VERMA: Thank you Owen. For, so just I like to highlight that in India we have 22 (?). There is many other dialects. And many accents spoken throughout India. Maybe numbers of 500.
So but for the you ask about the (?). Most of the information (?). So government for their government services and website, already the contained in the local (?). And we have already developed some tools, even in the (?) programme. Where we are providing support in the AI based model. So that even local people can generate (no audio).
they are more comparable.
Yeah.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you. Manal or Nigel, did you have anything? It is optional.
>> NIGEL HICKSON: Yes, if I may just very briefly, just to emphasise. I think the importance of what ram was saying about you know this has moved on from just being a sort of technical issue to a social policy issue. Anden, I've put in the chat, I think we just need to do more as governments. To ensure that citizens in our countries that are challenged with the native language can access public services on an equitable basis.
To those that use the native language.
We have to ensure the quality. What comes back to me, you know, having been around this game for, you know, too long to an extent is when we first had online services at all. Was the requirements that beput in place. Which are still there. Although they are being eroded to an extent. Where people accessing or wanting public services shouldn't have to it shouldn't be assumed that everyone has a smart phone. It shouldn't be assumed that everyone has a form of internet access.
We have to ensure that, you know, our marginalized communities can still have the benefit of being able to apply for grants or benefits or whatever the application is. On an equitable base.
So I think we need to do more to ensure that people can know that they can use their own scripts and their own dialects.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you. Let's go to Manal and then I see another hand up online.
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Thank you, Owen. And just to agree with what has been said so far. And also to echo what has been indicated from the floor that also accessibility issues need to be taken into consideration.
Definitely if you are saying no one should be left behind, then we really should mean no one should be left behind.
I fully agree that governments can do more. I have already went through a long list of strategic objectives. But in addition to that, governments could also work with other stakeholders on conducting awareness activities, organising workshops, hack a thons. Train the trainers. Activities. Pilots. Assist in stock taking efforts. Provide incentives to vendors. And favour systems, applications and platforms that are UA ready. Tenders or purchase orders.
Add a requirement for UA readiness where applicable in relevant licenses. Or contracts. And add a requirement for creating local presence or web pages or platforms or portals in local languages under the relevant IDN CCTLD for national projects, initiatives and events.
And of course lead by example. In that respect. And I would even add promoting the topic in relevant curricula and graduation projects. I leave it at this. Thank you.
And one last thing is that it is indeed a win win for all stakeholders. So for government, we have already went through the strategic objectives. For business, it is a marked edge and marked growth and addresses customer satisfaction. For the end user, it is definitely enhanced user experience and a seamless end to end multilingual experience.
And globally as was also mentioned. Caters for the needs of the next billion, bridging the digital divide, allows us to be more inclusive. Addresses as an aspect of human rights and contributes to achieving the global agendas we've already mentioned earlier.
I'll leave it at this. Thank you Owen.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you. Anneal Kumar Jane. If I'm saying the name correctly from the Zoom. And then back to Jen and then on to (?). Thank you.
I'm not hearing. Anything though.
And the Zoom disappeared from the screen.
>> Thank you. Anil Kumar Jain for the record. I'm chair of (?). I'm patiently listening to the panelist and the contributors after the panel discussion. Thank you very much. I think it is a wonderful discussion. And the awareness about universal accepts is catching up and not really ICANN but in United Nations ITU and other organisations.
Now the discussion which was being discussed is that the role of the government in implementing the universal acceptance. First of all I would like to thank Teresa and. Ram.
Now universal acceptance as problem implementability. Available. Workable. In addition to the government, what USG has recognised is that there are roles. Second one next to government is the Bic techs. Big techs like social media platforms. Google. Meta. And big techs like Apple. Who are able to reach to majority of the population.
So if they are able do that, I think acceptance of universal acceptance become reality. And I'm happy that Google, Meta, they have implementation of universal acceptance in their strategic plan.
The third is the universities. They are the young population. They are training the young population. In USG we have defined UA academic curricula. Which is of two grade. One is the basic one and second is advanced.
Universities can start introduction of UA in their existing I.T. programme. And then subsequently, develop this as a module and maybe as a course in future. This will help the future generation to adopt the UA and understand the importance of UA.
The fourth aspect which is the DNS participant. What are the DNS participant? As has been explained by Manal that 85% of CCTLD and . UA ready. Means that registries have adopted and made system available. But what about (?). What about the ISPs providing the connectivity? I think they are lls required to be UA ready. And they have to make their system UA ready.
So it is important that all the players are required to be there. And I am I understand that awareness about UA is well coordinated and conducted by the UA day programme which we are running for the last two years. But at the same time what Nigel haze said is that the lack of confidence. I think it is important. And thank you Nigel for bringing out this issue. We have to remove the fear that in case we're using a local language domain, either in browser or in e mail. We are able to reach to the right side. And that is important.
So good that lot of information has come to us. And I can assure the audience that UAG will take all appropriate steps to ensure that UA should be able to reach toe maximum population. And next one billion internet users should come from non English speaking population. Thank you.
>> Thanks, Owen. This is Jen Chung from dot Asia organisation. I look around the room in person and online, I see many faces that have been engaged deeply in this universal acceptance and international liesed domain names issues. For many, many years. I think Ram has spoken earlier. Really undersold himself. He's been in this for a little bit. No he's been in this since almost the very very beginning. If. For dot Asia of course we absolutely support all the efforts to achieve universal acceptance. Achieve EAI. Achieve more uptake of internationalized domain names. I think really when you are talking about the technical part of it, Ram has also stressed earlier. It had been solved.
But the real problem right now is getting these tool kits, getting these tools that the UASG, which I know has very very kindly, very in depth told us what they were trying to do and what materials they are providing for everyone to use. To the people who can use them. To the different companies. Service providers. ISPs. As a registry operator, we also have to do more as well.
I know that Keith has mentioned the many, many things that Verasign has done and also supported throughout the years. I Edmund and Pat, we're on the same IDN group. Almost 25 years ago now? I'm not really sure.
Ben whur talking to people who don't really understand what universal acceptance and I database is. You have I think if you say the words digital inclusion, everybody understands. Big corporations. Governments. They all have different budgets, different teams, looking at digital inclusion. And a multilingual internet is an essential foundation for digital inclusion.
The next billion coming online, do not have English as their native language. Maybe not even their second,s third or even fourth language.
So really that is a foundation of that and without universal acceptance, people who don't speak English as first language will forever remain second class citizens.
It is not as bleak as I mentioned. There is so much work done already and so much work. I did come in a little late to the session. But it is really encouraging to see the governments of the U.S., UK, Egypt, and India already showing all the good work and the case studies.
Both of successes and things we can return learn from and build upon. And the key message I think here also is it requires so many different stakeholders, cross sectors. And especially with government as a key driver. I'm going to stress for my last point is I think Manal put it really brilliantly. A requiring that as part of the government procurement services. The tendering. Leading by example. That is the biggest thing that the governments can do to lead this. And then of course private sector, industry will absolutely be right on the heels of providing that service and providing all those benefits that we can all see.
So that's just my two cents on that.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you, Jen. Great comment.
So on the screen, I'm only seeing Anil another. But I assume. Sarmad's hand is up as well. Let's go to Sarmad.
Still there?
Right. If you would select speak Sarmad
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Sarmad is saying in the chat that his unable to unmute.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: All right. Well, let's go to any other questions or comments for now.
Looking around the room. Ron, go ahead. I'll bring you this mic. It is working now.
>> Thank you Owen. I hope you can hear me with this microphone. Okay great.
This is Ram again.
I wanted to just briefly amplify and echo what Jen was just saying a few minutes ago.
The future forward, for and the future opportunity, you know, for a multilingual internet is to start speaking about this to have government, to have industry, to have civil society, academia start speaking about this problem. No longer as a problem. But as an opportunity for greater digital inclusion. Language is at the base of digital inclusion.
And you have to have language as a core component of digital inclusion. And we ought to start thinking about universal acceptance, internationalized domain names. These terms that in many ways actually do not translate well into many other languages. You know, try saying universal acceptance in Arabic.
Try saying universal acceptance in Chinese? It doesn't translate well.
So I think we really ought to also start thinking about transforming the semantics of what we're talking about. And starting to change this in to a semantics based on digital inclusion that has language as a core component.
Thanks.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you. All right. So Sarmad if you are able town mute at this point please go ahead. Otherwise do we have hands up in the room or excellents from Zoom.
>> This is Sarmad. Can you hear me?
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Yes go ahead.
>> Thank you. I wanted to follow up. Anil raised good points.
One of the key challenges which need to address is also capacity. Development.
Internationalisation for I guess in software development which is a key component on which internationalized domain domain names and internationalized e mail addresses are based. Is still not something which is taught in universities. And so students or professionals which are coming out of the universities, for example. This is still not a very comfortable skill.
So as anil also shared, one of the things we are actually working on is developing or integrating curriculum which integrates internationalisation, internationalized domain names and internationalized e mail concepts into the curriculum. So that once when the professionals, young professionals which come out of, they are aware of not only these concepts but they are also equipped with the skills to make sure that these are implemented in the technology.
Thank you.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: Thank you. So I haven't seen anyone else raise their hand in the room or on Zoom. If anyone has a final comment, now is your chance. Otherwise I'm going conclude for us by first of all thanking our presenters of case studies, again. Which provided the foundation I think for very interesting discussion. I think it is clear everyone here recognises the importance of making the internet more multilingual. And the value that will bring.
And the relevance of the issue to digital inclusion. Among other important priorities. It is also clear I think that there is not, you know, silver bullet single solution. And therefore I'm glad to see the active participation from this group. Because it is obvious that a lot of stakeholders will need to continue to work together to help advance us toward the end goals here.
So thank you, everybody, for coming. I'm hoping this leads to further discussions. I'll see you next time.
Wait. Wait.
Huh?...
Oh, sure.
Pradeep, Nigel, Manal, before closing, did you want to say anything in conclusion as well?
>> MANAL ISMAIL: Thank you Owen. To thank you, thank the host. And as mentioned earlier, we need to work collaboratively to achieve this. As we owe it to everyone who needs it.
Thank you.
>> NIGEL HICKSON: Just to echo that. Thank you Owen for organising this and also for the great discussion we've had on the chat and what people in the room have brought to this.
I think there is, I've made several notes. And I think we've all got work to do.
Thank you.
>> OWEN FLETCHER: That's the real end. Thank you everyone.