UASG Welcomes Six New UA Ambassadors

By Ajay Data, Chair of the UASG

The Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) is proud to welcome six new UA Ambassadors into the UASG Ambassador Program for FY21 (July 2020-June 2021). These individuals have a wide range of expertise and experience in the domain name industry, IT, engineering, software development, and technical research, and will help support UA efforts in Benin, India, Nigeria, South Africa, and Turkey. The UA Ambassador Program now has a total of 13 ambassadors from nine different countries representing the Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and North America (NA) regions. View the full list of UA Ambassadors and their bios, here.

Universal Acceptance (UA) ensures that all domain names and email addresses, regardless of language/script or character length (e.g., .рф, .photography), are accepted by all Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems. Technically, they must accept, validate, store, process, and display all domain names and email addresses equally, consistently, and correctly. Until UA is achieved, it is not possible to provide a consistent and positive experience for all Internet users and limits the ability for businesses and organizations to connect with global users in their chosen online identities.

The UASG Ambassador Program was created in 2018 to recruit industry leaders and UA experts who are committed to raising awareness around UA and Email Address Internationalization (EAI) within their respective spheres and to target audiences. UA Ambassadors host and attend local UA events, engage in general outreach activities, and help support the mission of the UASG. UA Ambassadors are selected by the UASG Coordination Working Group on a yearly basis. If you are interested in becoming an Ambassador or wish to learn more, click here.

Get to Know Our New Ambassadors!

View Bios

Cengiz Acarturk

Cyber security researcher based in Turkey.
Has been involved in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as a user, researcher, and developer, and plans to run applied research on various states of UA readiness.

Malick Alassane

IT Security Analyst based in Benin.
Extensive experience in the domain name industry, web development, Internet network measurement, and Internet security.

Mark Elkins

Lives in South Africa and helped create the CO.ZA top-level domain (TLD) in 1995.
Runs his own ISP, teaches classes on the DNS, enjoys DNSSEC, and is a member of the DNSSEC ICANN Workshop committee. Was an AfriNIC Board Member for six years and a key member of the ICANN DNS Study for Africa.

Aman Masjide

Leads the Anti-Abuse and Universal Acceptance efforts at Radix in India, and has 14 years of experience in the anti-abuse field of the domain name industry.
At Radix, currently leads an internal project testing UA readiness of website signup and contact forms.

Abdulkarim Ayopo Oloyede

Based in Nigeria; teaches wireless telecommunications, Internet protocol, and Internet governance at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria and the University of York, UK.
Co-Chair of the AFRINIC Policy Development Working Group (PDWG), member of the ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), Vice Chairman of the ITU- D Telecommunication Development Advisory Group (TDAG).

Sushanta Sinha

Based in Kolkata, India; has been involved in the IT industry for 25 years and currently works at a large global IT organization as an Enterprise Agile Coach.
A Fellow of Institute of Engineers (FIE) India, patron for Computer Society of India, and is the Secretary of the Internet Society of India, Kolkata Chapter. Currently the Chair of the Vernacular Internet Ecosystem Working Group (VIEW Group) formed under the India Internet Foundation (IIFON), working to promote UA.