MINUTES OF THE NBGP INDUSTRY ONBOARD MEETING & ACTION PLAN
The half-a-day NBGP Meeting to discuss how industry, and especially members of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) could actively and effectively contribute to the Neo-Brahmi Generation Panel’s work forward to development of Label Generation Rules to support local language IDNs at the top-level was held in Eros Hotel on 8th March 2017 10.30 AM onwards where members and invitees attended the meeting in person as well as online or from by remote telephonic participation.
Since the ICANN57 held in Hyderabad in November 2016, there has been increased interest in Internationalized Domain Names and proliferation of Indic content in India, and the NBGP was pleased to find four members of the industry participating in person - beginning with Ms Chitrita Chatterji, the President of IAMAI, Dr Ajay Data, Ms Sukriti Gupta of the Jagaran Digital group and Vijayananda Prabhu of the Reverie, Bangalore. Hosting the meeting were Samiran Gupta assisted by Gangesh Verma) and Sarmad Hussain, and there were Akshat Joshi from C-DAC as well as Dr U.V. Pavanaja who joined online. The meeting was chaired by Professor Udaya Narayana Singh.
The key outcomes were as follows:
1. Akshat Joshi (C-DAC) informed all that NBGP is almost ready with the first-cut of the Devanagari LGR document which has been initially checked by the Integration Panel members. He would now do the following:
a. Send a mail to the panel advising current status of work on Devanagari and proposed next steps.
b. share updated report (which is now “80% done”) with the panel members within seven days for their inputs and comments to take it to 95% completion.
c. Soon after the initial reactions and comments, the Report will be sent again to the Integration Panel as well as put in the public domains for comments and criticisms.
2. It was also agreed that NBGP will have a Co-Chair, preferably from the relevant Industry, in this case, from IAMAI to accelerate the task of the panel.
3. It was also agreed to induct more members from the IAMAI - for which the proposals would be received and acted upon. The would request an addition of three new members to the panel, perhaps the following:
i. Sukriti Gupta from Jagran Digital
ii. Someone from Times Internet
iii. Perrhaps Vijayananda from Reverie
4. IAMAI will internally discuss and return to the Panel Chair with their suggestion on the Co-chair within the next seven days. Sarmad to help on-board the co-chair if required.
5. When the four as above is done within the next week, the NBGP will call a meeting over the next 15 days or so to discuss and plan next steps. ICANN: Sarmad/IDN team to support meeting management for calls as required.
6. Once we are through with the Devanagari LGR, we can treat that as a guiding document and start working on other scripts on similar lines. However, it is not assumed that Devanagari case will be able to address all the nuances that are there among all other Brahmi-based scripts. We will definitely need to take up each script separately. But the Devanagari LGR document should present a clear picture of the template to be followed. Also, in this way, at least 11 languages using Devanagari would be onboard using/testing/commenting on a part of what the NBGP has done.
7. We should also aim for regular online meetings of the panel to make progress and involve the panel members.
The meeting ended with thanks to all.
Professor Udaya Narayana Singh
Chair, NBGP
Cell: +91-98301-32234 & 94340-50218
Formerly, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan &
Former Director, Central Inst of Indian Languages (CIIL)
Dear Members,
I am pleased to share with you that since the ICANN57 meeting held in Hyderabad in November 2016, there has been increased interest in Internationalized Domain Names and proliferation of Indic content in India. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) hosted a session on Proliferation of Indic Computing at ICANN57 which was well-attended by members of government, industry, academia and civil society. Over the past few months, we have seen growing interest by those in Indic computing, to participate in the Neo Brahmi Generation Panel (NBGP). Apart from that, the Government of India is very keen for the early development of Indic computing resources, to facilitate greater penetration of Indic computing.
Therefore, with that in mind, ICANN is organizing a half-day session, particularly for members of IAMAI on 8th March 2017, in New Delhi. The full agenda for this meeting follows below. NBGP members are invited to a meeting with IAMAI to discuss how industry can actively and effectively contribute to NBGP in taking the Generation Panel’s work forward to develop the Neo-Brahmi Label Generation Rules to support local language IDNs at the top-level. You may like to join this meeting in person, if deputed by your institution or project/programme, or alternatively, by remote telephonic participation.
I request those who wish to join - either in person or by phone - to please send a line of confirmation by 6th March to Mr Samiran Gupta, Head, ICANN-India at : +91 99902 18198, E-mail: samiran.gupta@icann. org Skype: samiran.gupta.icann.
For those joining by phone, dial-in details will be provided subsequently. Please note the agenda:
_____
ICANN NEO BRAHMI GENERATION PANEL INDUSTRY ONBOARDING MEETING
LUTYENS BALLROOM, EROS HOTEL, NEW DELHI, INDIA
AGENDA
8th March, 2017
10:00 – 13:30 Hrs
|
TIME
|
SUBJECT
|
LEAD
|
|
10:00 – 10:30
|
Refreshments
|
|
10:30 – 10:40
|
Welcome and Introductions; Introductions of remote participants
|
Samiran Gupta
|
|
10:40 – 10:50
|
Welcome address by Chair, NBGP
|
Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh
|
|
10:50 – 11:00
|
Introduction to IAMAI
|
IAMAI
|
|
11:00 – 11:25
|
Introduction to ICANN’s IDN TLD program
· Objective of IDN TLD Program
· The role of a GPs
· Role of community members
· Current state of progress of different GPs
· Scope of the NBGP
|
Sarmad Hussain
|
|
11:25 – 11:45
|
Update on NBGP progress and next steps
|
Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh Akshat Joshi, C-DAC
|
|
11:45 – 12:00
|
Tea/coffee break
|
|
12:00 – 13:30
|
· Participants’ discussion on role of industry and business community in the NBGP
· Conclusion and call to action
|
All participants
|
|
13:30
|
Lunch at Blooms Restaurant
|
With best wishes,
Professor Udaya Narayana Singh
Chair, Neo-Brahmi Panel (NBGP), ICANN
Cell: +91-98301-32234 & 94340-50218
Position | Name | Organization | Country | Language Expertise |
Chair | Udaya Narayana Singh | Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal | India | Bengali, Maithili,Hindi, English |
Member | Anupam Agrawal | Tata Consultancy Service | India | Hindi, Bengali |
| Member | Akshat S. Joshi | C-DAC | India | Hindi, Marathi |
| Member | Abhijit Dutta | Wikimedia | India | Bengali, Hindi |
| Member | Mahesh D. Kulkarni | C-DAC | India | Marathi, Hindi |
| Member | Neha Gupta | C-DAC | India | Hindi |
| Member | Nishit Jain | C-DAC | India | Hindi |
| Member | Prabhakar Pandey | C-DAC | India | Hindi |
| Member | Raiomond Doctor | NLP Consultant | India | English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati |
| Member | N. DeivaSundaram | NDS Lingsoft Solutions Pvt Ltd | India | Tamil |
| Member | Shantaram S. Warde Walawalikar | Independent Researcher | India | Konkani |
| Member | Bal Krishna Bal | Kathmandu University | Nepal | Nepali |
| Member | Ganesh Murmu | Ranchi University | India | Santali |
| Member | Balaram Prasain | Tribhuvan University | Nepal | Nepali |
| Member | Rajib Chakraborty | Society for Natural Language Technology Research | India | Bangla (Bengali) |
| Member | Gurpreet Singh Lehal | Punjabi University Patiala | India | Panjabi |
| Member | Saroja Bhate | University of Pune | India | Sanskrit |
| Member | Shambhu Kumar Singh | National Translation Misson, Mysore | India | Maithili |
| Member | SwarnaPrabha Chainary | Guwahati University | India | Bodo |
| Member | Ghanashyam Nepal | Benares Hindu University& University of North Bengal | India | Nepali |
| Member | Kalyan Vasudeo Kale | Formerly affiliated with University of Pune | India | Marathi |
| Member | Shashi Pathania | P.G.D. of Dogri, University of Jammu | India | Dogri |
| Member | Santhosh Thottingal | Wikimedia foundation | India | Malayalam, Sourashtra, Tamil |
| Member | Uma Maheshwar G | CALTS, Univ. of Hyderabad | India | Telugu |
| Member | | Language Technology Centre, Ravenshaw University | India | Odia |
| Member | K. C. Tikayat ray | Odia Bhasa Pratisthan | India | Odia |
| Member | DEBAJIT SHARMA | Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language Art and Culture | India | Assamese |
| Member | BASANTA KUMAR PANDA | Regional Institute of Education (NCERT) | India | Odia |
| Member | Arvind Bhandari | Gujarat University | India | Gujarati |
| Member | Harish Chowdhary | NIXI | India | Hindi |
| Member | Ajay Data | DATAINFOSYS | India | Hindi, others |
| Member | Chitrita Chatterjee | Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) | India | Multiple languages represented by members of IAMAI |
| Member | U.B. Pavanaja | http://vishvakannada.com/ | India | Kannada |
Contact and Additional Information