Subject: I-D ACTION:draft-iab-i18n-dns-00.txt

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 06:53:37 -0400

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.
This draft is a work item of the Internet Architecture Board Working Group of the IETF.

	Title		: A Tangled Web:  issues of I18N, domain names, and the 
                          other Internet protocols
	Author(s)	: L. Daigle
	Filename	: draft-iab-i18n-dns-00.txt
	Pages		: 
	Date		: 12-Apr-00
	
The goals of the work to 'internationalize' Internet protocols
include providing all users of the Internet with the capability of
using their own language and its standard character set to express
themselves, write names, and to navigate the network. This impacts 
the domain names visible in e-mail addresses and so many of today's 
URLs used to locate information on the World Wide Web, etc.  However,
domain names are used by Internet protocols that are used across
national boundaries. These services must interoperate worldwide, or 
we risk isolating components of the network from each other along 
locale boundaries.  This type of isolation could impede not only 
communications among people, but opportunities of the areas involved 
to participate effectively in e-commerce, distance learning, and
other activities at an international scale, thereby retarding
economic development.

There are several proposals for internationalizing domain names,
however it it is still to be determined whether any of them 
will ensure this interoperability and global reach while addressing 
visible-name representation.  Some of them obviously do not. This 
document does not attempt to review any specific proposals, as that 
is the work of the Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Working Group
of the IETF,  which is tasked with evaluating them in consideration 
of the continued global network interoperation that is the deserved 
expectation of all Internet users.

This document elaborates the scope of the problem outside of
the domain name system (DNS).

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