Even though the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) rejected the .xxx top-level domain (TLD) for the third and final time on March 30, 2007, the organization still has TLD issues to tend to, among others.
ICANN began a week-long meeting on Monday held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where discussions will revolve around generic TLDs (gTLDs), internationalized domain names (IDNs), expansion of the current Internet Protocol (IP) address format, as well as the organization’s transparency.
A drafted policy for unveiling new gTLDs, which has run into difficulties, is slated to be discussed during the international public meeting.
IDN discussions will probe the possibility of altering the current domain name system (DNS) in order to support domain names that could use languages and alphabets that are unable to be conveyed with the ASCII character group.
A tutorial of the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) initiative will also be featured at the meeting. This will discuss the effort to drastically expand the available space for IP addresses, which currently use the IPv4 format. Though estimates vary by big amounts, the IPv4 format is expected to run out of available space within the next few years at the earliest.
ICANN also wants to make sure that the general public has better access to the organization’s information, including quicker updates about its meetings and proposals. A major hurdle to this end is the organization’s close ties with the U.S. government. ICANN’s close relation with the U.S. Commerce Department was renewed for three years in September.
The meeting in San Juan is the second of three scheduled international meetings planned by ICANN.
Source:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133397-c,
internetnetworking/article.html#
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