Presentation Title

Universal Acceptance of All TLDsALAC24 June 20122What is Universal Acceptance?Ensure that software on the Internet universally accepts all domains, ASCII and IDN

Does not cover policy aspects of what domains should be allowed or restrictedUniversal Acceptance of All TLDs is an on-going effort. The goal is to raise awareness about the diversity of domains to ensure that software on the Internet universally accepts all domains, ASCII and IDN, regardless of the time they were implemented in the root zone or the script they are written in.

The project is not policy-related and does not cover discussions of what domains should be allowed or restricted based on policies in place in specific organizations or countries. 23

Acceptability Issues ExamplesHat tip: http://domainincite.com/8978-google-chrome-handles-new-tlds-badly

These are acceptability issues examples: one is a screen shot of a skype session. When a user types a URL with the familiar extension, the software recognizes it as a valid link and highlights it as such. In case of a newer 3 character ASCII gTLD as well as with IDNs (both U-label and A-label) software does not recognize these as valid URLs even when they are prefixed with the URL scheme, so it should be clear that these are URLs.

The other screen shot is a search result that was returned in Google Chrome. When a user types a domain name (without the URL prefix) with the recently delegated ASCII ccTLD, software does not recognize it as a valid domain and returns search results listing several possible options including suggesting the full URL.34Acceptability Issues Example

This is another example of acceptability issue: this is a screen shot of an on-line form which has a drop down menu with very limited number of domain endings (there are only 14 top-level domains listed here as opposed to over 300 top-level domains that are currently delegated). This implies that the user who is filling out this online form is expected to have an email with one of these 14 extensions. 45Examples of CausesImproper logic in software for checking valid domains

Lack of IDNA support

Old software that is not yet upgraded

Issues caused by publicsuffix.org?Examples of Causes that weve observed or weve been informed of include: Improper logic in software for checking valid domains, i.e. relying on a hard-coded TLD list that is not being updated regularly, or, for example, assuming that a valid TLD is 2 or 3 characters long. Lack of IDNA support: the software does not support IDNs.Old software that is not yet upgraded: there are instances when older versions of software are being used as the time the software was implemented, it did not include certain functionality. More recent versions of the same software may be able to address some acceptability issues. Users need to make sure they are using more recent versions of software.There can be certain acceptability issues that might be caused by the white list maintained by publicsuffix.org in cases when the valid domains are not included in this list. 5

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Example of Hard-Coded ListThese are examples of hard-coded TLD lists used by some software: some of them list TLDs that are no longer in the root zone, like .cs for Czechoslovakia, and some list some TLDs that never were in the root zone??!!67

Example of String Length CheckThis is an example of a formula, known as a regular expression, which is used for searching for a valid email address. In the encoding, it requires a TLD that is between 2 to 4 ASCII characters long. This is problematic for a small number of currently existent gTLDs, and also disallows every single IDN TLD.78So how does oneuniversally acceptdomains?9Checking TLDsDo you need to check domain validity?If not, dont do it. Rethink why you do it.e.g. if it is an email that needs to opt-in, will be caught that wayIf so, is it an online application?If so, use a DNS query which is instant and up-to-date, dont rely on a fixed list.Last case scenarioUse a fixed list of TLDs, but make sure it has an update mechanism (e.g. once per day)These are the technical recommendations that should be considered: 910Dont forget IDNsMultiple representations of the same domain

New concepts like right-to-left

Not just in the domain name field, can be in email addresses, web addresses, name servers, and elsewhere.Internationalized domain names require additional considerations as there are multiple representations of the same domain. Some scripts, for example, Arabic, represent a new concept of being spelled from right to left. And, this covers not only domain name field, but also email addresses, web addresses, name servers, etc.1011

Here is an example of multiple representation of the same domain in U-label and A-label.1112Activities to dateCreated discussion forum and dedicated webpage: http://www.icann.org/en/resources/tld-acceptance Posted TLD verification tool at:https://github.com/icann Consultations with ICANN stakeholdersJIG WG initial reportTechnical recommendationsOutreach campaign

Universal Acceptance of All TLDs is an on-going effort within ICANN. Weve created a discussion forum as well as a webpage dedicated webpage which can be viewed at this link. We also put together a sample TLD verification tool which can be used as a guidance by software developers. It is available on our website as well as on github. We also conducted consultations with ICANN stakeholders, including TLD registries operators and collected some feedback from end users. Based on these consultations, we organized an informational session in Costa Rica where experts and the community provided us with valuable input on what can be done on this effort. Joing ccNSO-GNSO working group has recently published an initial report on Universal Acceptance of IDN TLDs in which they provided multiple considerations and suggestions on the topic. ICANN put together technical recommendations and is continuing to work on the outreach campaign to raise awareness about the diversity of the domains.1213Going ForwardOutreach campaign

Improve TLD verification libraries

Informational and educational materials

Your suggestion?

We are looking at various events where we can make presentations on the topic as well as identifying various organizations collaboration with which may be beneficial. We will also be updating the current TLD verification libraries and are looking into adding more libraries in other programming languages as well. We are working on updating informational and educational materials to provide with comprehensive information on this topic. If you have any ideas or suggestions on what you think ICANN should do, please let us know. If you are aware of any organizations or interest groups that should be informed of this effort, you are welcome to share this information with us. If you encountered any acceptability issues and would like to report these issues, please contact us. 1314How can you help??Check your software do all your applications properly support all domains?

Inform and educate software developers and others

Contact us at:tld-acceptance@icann.org

What you can do: Check your software to ensure that your applications properly support all domains.

If you are aware that someone is relying on outdated logic in their software or is not aware or knowledgeable enough about DNS, share the knowledge you have, inform others of the diversity of the domains. Or advise them to contact us and we will be happy to inform and educate them.

With any ideas or suggestions, contact us. 14Thank YouQuestions16