New York, November 16, 2009 - The key accomplishment of the ICANN’s Seoul meeting was the approval of the Internationalized Domain Names ccTLD Fast Track application system that will, for the first time, enable non-English speakers across the globe to see Internet addresses completely in their own language - both before and after the dot. Access to the IDN ccTLD Fast Track online application system and all associated materials are now available here.
In the photo at right, Peter Dengate Thrush (left), ICANN Chair, and Connecting.nyc Inc.’s Thomas Lowenhaupt are shown holding a calligraphic presentation of potential Hangul (Korean) IDNs at the ICANN’s 36th Meeting Gala Event held at the National Museum of Korea on October 27, 2009. The top option says New York, the bottom says New York City. In addition to Korean, New York City can one day present itself in local markets around the world in Arabic, Cyrillic, Hebrew, and other scripts.
April 14, 2008 - Here’s a photo from a recent meeting between Dirk Krischenowski, CEO of the .berlin effort (left) and Tom Lowenhaupt from Connecting.nyc Inc.
Dirk was in the U.S. to visit with mayors and city managers of U.S. cities sharing the Berlin name, e.g., Berlin, Vermont.
On November 14, 2007 Connecting.nyc participated on a Broadening the Domain Name Space: Adding
TLDs for Cities and Regions panel at the U.N. sponsored Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio De Janeiro. The panel first heard about the positive experiences of three recently issued TLDs: .cat (for the Catalonia cultural), .asia (for use in the continent of Asia), and .eu (for use in the European Union).
The focus then turned to prospective TLDs with .nyc leading off the presentations. Panelist Thomas Lowenhaupt reviewed the basis for city-TLDs and recent organizing activities in support of Connecting.nyc’s application, including a recent favorable meeting with the city’s IT department. He also reiterated his concern, first raised at the ICANN meeting in Los Angeles, that a plethora of applications by Fortune 1000 firms for new TLDs might inundate the ICANN’s small staff and reduce the likelihood of city-TLDs being issued on a timely basis.
Panelist Sebastian Bacholet, appearing on behalf of the .paris TLD, reviewed the internationalization study initiated by developers of the .nyc, .berlin, and .paris TLDs at the ICANN Los Angeles meeting. He provided three instances where second level domain names might be developed in various languages - www.taxi.nyc, www.hotels.paris, and www.hospital.berlin. By way of example, he explained that when in need of health care, German or French speaking visitors to New York City might enter www.krankenhaus.nyc or www.hôpital.nyc in their respective languages and receive pages with the needed information.