here's the official announcement of the User Experience report. again -- a great report and worthy of our comment, in my view mikey Begin forwarded message:

From: "ICANN News Alert" <communications@icann.org> Subject: ICANN News Alert -- Webinar: Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Variant: Examining the User Experience Implication of the Active Variant TLDs Date: February 1, 2013 7:18:39 PM CST To: <mike@haven2.com>

News Alert

http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-01feb13-en.htm

Webinar: Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Variant: Examining the User Experience Implication of the Active Variant TLDs 1 February 2013 Date: 13 February 2013 Time: 13:00 – 14:50 UTC (5:00am – 6:30am PST) Adobe Connect: http://icann.adobeconnect.com/idnvarianttld/ Dial In: 1-800-550-6865 or 1-213-233-3193 International numbers available here Meeting ID: 46389

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) serve as powerful tools for broadening the Internet's capacity and accessibility; however, they also raise novel issues. One important issue concerns "variants" which occur when a single character can be identified with two or more different Unicode Code Points with graphic representations that may or may not be visually similar. IDN variants contain one or more such characters and therefore, if not handled correctly, might result in user confusion or a poor user experience.

In an effort to develop potential solutions for the delegation of IDN variant Top-Level Domains (TLDs), IDN Variant Project Teams, consisting of volunteers, subject matter expert consultants and ICANN staff, have conducted case studies in six scripts, produced an integrated report, and are currently underway to completing three projects investigating potential solutions for IDN Variant TLDs delegation.

One of these projects is called the Examining the User Experience Implications of Active Variant TLDs Project (P6). The purpose of the project is to gain an understanding of issues that could arise from activating IDN Variant TLDs and offer recommendations to users to avoid such issues. Examples of user roles that have been identified include registrants, registrars, registry operators, system administrators, network operators, application developers, and end users.

Project team has published for public comment the Draft Final Report for Examining the User Experience Implications of Active Variant TLDs and is seeking to establish a dialog with the community to refine proposed principles, impacts and recommendations of the study.

This webinar is offered to complement that process both by presenting the key concepts and gathering user input.

The IDN Variant TLDs Program team is looking forward to your participation.

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