Hi Everyone, As mentioned in our meeting during ICANN San Francisco, please find below a draft of a response to the proposed IDN VIP studies: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#idn-variant-tld The public comment period closes April 6 (next Wednesday). May I propose that we follow the suggested time frame of calling for a review and suggestion for edits for 3 days (until end of this week), upon which, I can help to consolidate/integrate any comments into a final version by next Monday (April 3) for a last call circulation of 3 days, thereupon if no further objection, we would submit the comment into the public comments. Your thoughts/comments will be most welcome. Edmon =================================== APRALO Response on Draft Proposal for the Study of Issues Related to the Delegation of IDN Variant TLDs APRALO welcomes the proposed studies on IDN Variant TLDs. IDN TLDs are critical for the Asia Pacific Internet community. Without the delegation of preferred IDN Variants, the IDN TLD process is incomplete. The IDN Variant TLD issue is well understood in the Asia Pacific Internet community. Comprehensive studies for Chinese, Indic and Arabic have been conducted. Especially for the Chinese community, the issue has studied for over a decade since 2000, and there is ample IDN Variant policy implementation and operational experience. While we are encouraged that ICANN is finally recognizing the criticality of the delegation of IDN Variant TLDs, we also encourage ICANN to recognize the work that is already done by the community. Most importantly, we strongly suggest to ICANN to complete its adoption of bottom-up developed IDN Variant policies for the language communities where policy and operational experience is already mature and proven. Regarding the proposed studies, the separation of the work into different case studies provides an appropriate direction. We expect this would help pave the way to ensure that delays or complications for one (or more) cases will not impede the progress for the others. Finally, the composition of the case study teams would be crucial to the success of the studies. The policy and operational expertise from the Asia Pacific community, who has been working on the IDN Variant issue for an extended period of time should be leveraged by all study teams. We believe that the APRALO should be consulted to identify appropriate members to participate in the case studies. Furthermore, whereas a reasonable size for the teams is important to ensure workable efficiency and effectiveness, an inclusive approach, especially for observers would also be essential for the completeness and support of the work produced.