Opening the web to non-Latin script
If your instinctive reaction is that the work of global strategists such as Tom Barnett is correct and that future security and wealth creation rely on the engagement and integration of the established and developing nations, then the latest Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will be music to your ears. Some of us believe that the greatest channel for interaction between nations, religions and ethnicities is via the Internet. It is the great social lubricant. Though its content is of variable (and sometimes queasily horrid) standard, it is a great democratization tool; it allows free and open discourse between geographical remote parties. It allows all to observe foreign society and concepts. It is a wealth of information that some administrations seek to deny to their populace.
One of the limiting aspects of access beyond infrastructure challenges and censor attempts is the issue of language. How can a native Arabic or Chinese speaker with limited English skills move around a medium where site addresses can only be accessed through unfamiliar Latin language addresses? All of that can now change as ICANN opens up access to the use of Hebrew, Hindi, Korean and other scripts not based on Latin characters. Anything that opens access to the sharing of information and the pooling of thought process is a step further towards integration and freer information exchange.
That has meant Internet users with little or no knowledge of English might still have to type in Latin characters to access Web pages in Chinese or Arabic. Although search engines can sometimes help users reach those sites, companies still need to include Latin characters on billboards and other advertisements.
Now, ICANN is allowing those same technical tricks to apply to the suffix as well, allowing the Internet to be truly multilingual.
Many of the estimated 1.5 billion people online use languages such as Chinese, Thai, Arabic and Japanese, which have writing systems entirely different from English, French, German, Indonesian, Swahili and others that use Latin characters.
“This is absolutely delightful news,” said Edward Yu, CEO of Analysys International, an Internet research and consulting firm in Beijing.
The Internet would become more accessible to users with lower incomes and education, said Yu, who was speaking before the widely expected decision.
Countries can only request one suffix for each of their official languages, and the suffix must somehow reflect the name of the country or its abbreviation.
Non-Latin versions of “.com” and “.org” won’t be permitted for at least a few more years as ICANN considers broader policy questions such as whether the incumbent operator of “.com” should automatically get a Chinese version, or whether that more properly goes to China, as its government insists.
ICANN also is initially prohibiting Latin suffixes that go beyond the 37 already-permitted characters. That means suffixes won’t be able to include tildes, accent marks and other special characters.
And software developers still have to make sure their applications work with the non-Latin scripts. Major Web browsers already support them, but not all e-mail programs do.
Associated Press: Hebrew, Hindi, other scripts get Web address nod
