https://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-3-21mar13-en.htm 21 March 2013 The IDN Variant TLD Program continues to progress towards a future secure and stable delegation of IDN variant TLDs. We are announcing today the conclusion of the third (out of four) phase of the Program with the publication of two reports: the IDN Root Label Generation Rules (LGR) Procedure, and the User Experience Study for Active Variant TLDs. The Root LGR Procedure defines the process for creating and maintaining the Label Generation Rules (LGR) for the DNS root zone. The project team consisted of a team of Internet community volunteers from across the globe representing multiple scripts and languages, as well as ICANN staff and expert consultants. Following two face-to-face meetings, conference and email work discussions, and numerous community input processes, including two Public Comment processes, the team produced the document entitled "Procedure to Develop and Maintain the Label Generation Rules for the DNS Root Zone in Respect of IDNA Labels<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/variant-tlds/draft-lgr-procedure-20ma...>" [PDF, 1.39 MB]. This document provides a procedure for establishing some of the Label Generation Rules for the root zone. The procedure provides a mechanism for creating and maintaining the rules with respect to IDN labels for the root. This mechanism can be used to determine which Unicode code points are permitted for use in U-labels in the root zone, what variants (if any) are possible to allocate in the root zone, and what variants (if any) are automatically blocked. The mechanism is not the last stage in making determinations about IDN labels for the root. Rather, its output is to be consumed by other ICANN procedures that actually determine whether a particular label is allocated to someone, and whether it is delegated in the root. The User Experience Study examines issues that end-users, system administrators, application developers, and other users might face when IDN variant TLDs are activated. Incorporating inputs from public sessions, a Webinar, and two Public Comment periods, ICANN staff and expert consultants produced the report entitled "Examining the User Experience Implications of Active Variant TLDs<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/variant-tlds/active-ux-21mar13-en.pdf>" [PDF, 1.38 MB]. The report: 1) summarizes and compares, from a user experience and registry management perspective, variant practices in several ccTLD registries; 2) proposes a set of guiding principles to define an acceptable user experience; and 3) identifies how various user communities (e.g., end users, system/network administrators, application developers, registrants, registrars and registries) will be impacted by active variant top-level domains, and 4) based on 1, 2, and 3, proposes a set of recommendations to ensure the security, stability and acceptable user experience for active variant top-level internationalized domains. These documents benefited from significant community participation. ICANN wishes to express its gratitude to all of the volunteers, reviewers, commentators, and the subject matter experts who contributed to these reports. ICANN is holding a public session<http://beijing46.icann.org/sched-overview> at the ICANN Beijing meeting on the IDN Variant TLD Program to explain the Procedure and the results from the Study. In the meantime, work continues to ensure a secure and stable delegation of IDN variant TLDs once the IDN Variant TLD Program has finished its work, which is expected by June 2014. The original plan is being followed as indicated by the Board resolution on 25 September 2010<https://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/documents/resolutions-25sep10-en.htm#2...> and the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/fast-track> Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org