Seoul, South Korea. 2009.10.30 - ICANN brings the languages of the world to the global Internet. Fast Track process for internationalized domain names launches November 16, 2009.
 

 
The first Internet addresses containing non-Latin characters from start to finish, will soon be online, thanks to today's approval of the new Internationalized Domain Name Fast Track Process by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board.
 
Reflecting the current immense emphasis on video, ICANN presented this announcement simultaneously with text, PDF and video.
 
"The coming introduction of non-Latin characters represents the biggest technical change to the Internet since it was created four decades ago," said ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush. "Right now Internet address endings are limited to Latin characters – A to Z. But the Fast Track Process is the first step in bringing the 100,000 characters of the languages of the world online for domain names."
 
Ryan Singel, writing in Wired magazine, states "The approval of Internationalised Domain Names will also likely lead to another boom in domain-name registrations. Currently, domain name endings (e.g. .com) can be composed only of the Latin letters A to Z, numbers and dashes. India, for instance, has 22 official languages and each could get its top-level domain."
 
ICANN's Fast Track Process launches on 16 November 2009. It will allow nations and territories to apply for Internet extensions reflecting their name – and made up of characters from their national language. If the applications meet criteria that includes government and community support and a stability evaluation, the applicants will be approved to start accepting registrations.
 
"This is only the first step, but it is an incredibly big one and an historic move toward the internationalization of the Internet ," said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's President and CEO. "The first countries that participate will not only be providing valuable information of the operation of IDNs in the domain name system, they are also going to help to bring the first of billions more people online – people who never use Roman characters in their daily lives."
 
IDNs have been a topic of discussion since before ICANN's inception. It's taken years of intense technical testing, policy development, and global co-operation to prepare the Fast Track process for its coming launch. The first non-Latin domain names will be live sometime in 2010.
 
About ICANN
ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers like domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .uk) and the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols that help computers reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability. ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit company.
 
Digital Tsunami founder Andrew W Morse states "Since our company's inception, we have advocated that the most effective means to present to any audience is speak in their own language. Our first website was duplicated in Chinese, English and Japanese.
 
In 1996, many content developers were reticent to attempt non-English language sites, but our long experience in multi-lingual filmmaking has enabled us to confidently deliver in any double-byte character set. The new IDNs will encourage corporations to utilise many double byte language scripts, e.g. Cyrillic and Indian character sets."
 
Morse continued, "Over the last 13 years we have delivered web and online video media in a diversity of languages including: Chinese (traditional and simplified Chinese character sets and spoken Cantonese, Hokkien, Taiwanese and Mandarin), Dutch, English, Flemish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese. Despite having major clients in the Gulf region, we are yet to produce content in Arabic. However, we certainly have the capability, and in addition, our Creative and Technical Director is fluent in Farsi!".
 
About Digital Tsunami
Digital Tsunami focuses on delivering efficient and innovative communications solutions across the disciplines of film, e.strategy, identity, interactive, photography and print. The company has delivered content to global brands including Citizen, Fujitsu, Heineken, Mercedes Benz and Merck, through its offices in Australia and Hong Kong, where it was founded in 1996.