Thanks for the link, Roberto.
I did not watch the whole seven hours but I did extract a number of highlights. Clearly embedded within the session are the reasons for the failures to date of UA.
- Sally said in her session: "We need all the Internet users in the world, ideally, able to access all the Internet content in the world".
That is absolutely true. But her comments expose the conceit that ICANN and its community have had since the day it was created.... that memorable domains are the primary means through which people access Internet content and services. That may have been true 25 years ago at ICANN's birth, but it isn't now. Certainly not this decade, and it's been on a steady decline since the Chrome browser introduced the Omnibox in 2008. And yet the conceit remains unaltered.
- In his opening remarks, ICANN Board Vice-Chair Danko Jevtović
said the quiet part out loud: "UA success is critical for the next round of gTLDs". Meaning ICANN, which profits from both registry application fees and domain rentals, has a deep stake in maximizing the proliferation of IDNs. So it, and the registries and registrars that act as its sales channel, have a direct and explicit financial interest ... which renders their message of public benefit highly suspect and clearly self-serving. So when the ICANN community talks to itself as it did so splendidly on UA Day, few on the outside pay attention. No awareness is being spread; just because you're speaking does not mean anyone is listening.
- Less than a day's drive from Belgrade there's a very active war going on, and both belligerent parties speak languages that use the same Cyrillic script as Serbia. There is no shortage of content being created and accessed in these languages through an assortment of media. An information seeker needs not a single domain name, Latin or Cyrillic, to get to any of it. I wouldn't even know where to start, so (before) search engines and (now) ChatGPT help me locate what I need (and now Copilot is coming to every Windows desktop). That process can also be done in any mobile device in any of the many languages supported by the relevant apps. The domains containing the content could all be [hexadecimal number].com and it wouldn't matter. One needs no more-timely evidence that domain names are not a requirement of multilingual Internet access in critical situations.
- Plenary 2, at which Roberto spoke, was about challenges in local communities. It was overloaded with registries. Why wasn't there a single actual local group on that panel? There was NOBODY there that wasn't involved with ICANN somehow, not even an ISOC chapter. This presents a view (seen from the outside) that ICANN and its community is telling local communities what they need rather than asking them. Again, a demonstration of conceit ... and not a good way to influence.
- The technical session came close to recognition that end-user demand is not sufficient to drive UA implementation as a priority among app developers.
- How much did that logo cost to design? It's a perfect -- and illustrative -- example of something that has meaning to domain insiders but not the public.
Further thought on the issue suggests that a number of conditions need to be met for ICANN to even try to realize its UA goals:
- Acceptance by the ICANN community that IDNs are not, as
Jevtović asserted, a "technical requirement" of the Internet. This is proven by the widespread everyday Internet communications of people in every language while UA is still not ... universal. A new strategy must factor that IDNs can be a very useful option in many circumstances, but are not critical infrastructure without which the Internet as we know it would fall apart.
- Find a politically-strong co-advocate that does not financially benefit from the greater use of IDNs. The ITU would be a perfect fit for this but that bridge may be burnt. Maybe ISOC? W3C? IGF? Even IETF? It is here that ICANN will find out if it has any friends in the greater IG world.
- Focus on bottom-up and public consultation, research, and lose the conceit.
- If UA is about human rights and increasing equitable access
(as Roberto said in his session), civil society should be jumping to the front of its advocacy. Better multilingual communications supports multiple UN SDGs. Is all of NCSG even onboard? If the awareness campaign doesn't work on ICANN's own civil society constituency, what hope does it have with the public?
Cheers,
- Evan