The annual meeting of the members of the Russian Working Group on Universal Acceptance was held at the office of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ on December 16 in a hybrid format. Participants discussed the results of the work of the working group over the past year, and also held a strategic session, during which they outlined plans for 2023. Based on the results of the meeting, the working group will prepare a detailed annual report and an action plan for the next year.
Maria Kolesnikova, Chairman of the Russian Working Group on Universal Acceptance, spoke about what was achieved through the joint efforts of the participants over the past year. The work was carried out in four main areas: technical cooperation on the implementation of Universal Acceptance, raising the level of knowledge in the field of Universal Acceptance, interaction with government agencies, and organizational issues.
“The working group completed the goals it had at the start of the year. And we continue to accumulate and share knowledge, expertise and practical experience in the field of ensuring work with internationalized Internet identifiers, primarily with Cyrillic ones. Multilingualism today is one of the integral aspects of the development of the global network, therefore, when developing any modern information systems, online services or applications, it is necessary to take into account the nuances of supporting the national languages of users. Members of the working group are ready to provide assistance in this area to all stakeholders,” said Maria.
Participants also presented their proposals on priority areas of activity and tasks of the working group for 2023. Suggestions include raising awareness of Universal Acceptance among stakeholders, including end users, expanding engagement with domestic software developers, and providing technical assistance in implementing support for internationalized domain names and email addresses.
According to the participants of the working group, more attention should be paid to internationalization issues at the state level, in particular, in the implementation of national programs and projects for software import substitution, the development of the digital economy and ensuring technological sovereignty.
The Russian Universal Acceptance Working Group was established in 2020 to assist in the implementation of technical standards in the field of supporting internationalized domain names and postal addresses and the implementation of the concept of Universal Acceptance.
The members of the working group are representatives of Russian organizations, as well as independent experts interested in improving the level of technical support for internationalized domain names and email addresses in all applications, systems and services in Russia. Today, the working group includes representatives of registries of Russian Cyrillic TLDs, accredited registrars, technical and cybersecurity specialists, lawyers, marketers and representatives of the scientific community.
