On April 5-7, the virtual Middle East DNS Forum 2021 brought together the region’s experts to discuss the latest developments on the global domain market and ways to promote the DNS industry in the Middle East.
The third day of the forum, April 7, was completely dedicated to Universal Acceptance and the development of IDNs. The panel session and following discussions were not only attended by experts from the Middle East, but also representatives of other regions, as well as international organizations. This shows that Universal Acceptance does not only concern countries using non-Latin alphabets. The forum highlighted local initiatives for Universal Acceptance and the activities of UA ambassadors, as well as the possibilities and approaches to organizing UA initiatives in the Middle East.
Participants in the session noted that UA was an important element in ensuring an inclusive internet that is accessible to all users in the language they prefer. Addressing tools such as domain names and email addresses, consisting of characters from various alphabets and using new top-level domains, must be treated equally by all internet applications, devices and systems in compliance with the developed internet standards.
Emily Taylor, CEO of Oxford Information Labs (OXIL), gave a report on the latest data from the IDN World Report. Last year, the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ became a partner of the report. Emily Taylor presented statistics on IDN registrations all over the world, talked about their correlation with the language of web content on the internet, and also showed modern trends in this area.
Maria Kolesnikova, chief analyst at the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ and chair of the Communications WG at the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG), spoke at the section dedicated to the development of local initiatives in the region. She talked about the most important software and technology stack for UA support that the UASG was working with, presented the results of the latest projects, and shared the UASG’s plans for 2021. Maria Kolesnikova also touched upon events and projects organized by the UA Local Initiative for CIS and East Europe, including the activities of the Russian Universal Acceptance Working Group.
“We are glad to share our expertise, both the successes and difficulties local initiatives have to face when promoting the concept of Universal Acceptance in their countries, such as China, Thailand, India and our region. We hope this will help to inspire our colleagues from the Middle East to create new initiatives and develop existing projects, like in Turkey and Egypt,” Maria Kolesnikova noted.
