During the ICANN70 Virtual Community Forum (22-25 March) and Prep Week (8-11 March), two Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) sessions highlighted the progress being made towards achieving the Universal Acceptance (UA) of all valid domain names and email addresses in any length, language, or script. In total, 200-plus session participants joined from around the world to discuss UA activities and global advancement to date. In addition, UA continued to be a popular topic of conversation throughout ICANN70 including in At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO), Latin American and Caribbean (LAC), and Tech Day sessions.
For those who were unable to attend, below are key insights from each UASG-led session with links to presentation materials and recordings.
COMMUNITY UPDATE ON UNIVERSAL ACCEPTANCE READINESS
This session introduces the concept of UA, outlines the UASG’s objectives, and provides an update on progress to achieve UA readiness (session transcript and recording is available here, and presentation here). The session also features recent efforts from the UASG community, including UA Ambassadors (China) and Local Initiative leaders (China, Commonwealth of Independent States-Eastern Europe, India, and Thailand) to achieve an Internet for all. Notably:
- Since November 2020, there have been nearly 25 UA awareness webinars, presentations, and workshops organized for local, national, and international participants.
- Between Q4 2020 – Q1 2021 four in-depth UA reports and analysis were published, including:
- Considerations for Naming Internationalized Email Mailboxes (UASG028)
- Evaluation of EAI Support in Email Software and Services Report (UASG030)
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): UA Readiness of Programming Languages and Email Tools (UASG31)
- Universal Acceptance Compliance of Programming Language Libraries and Frameworks (UASG018A)
REMEDIATING UNIVERSAL ACCEPTANCE ISSUES
This session features updates from the UASG Measurement, Technology, and Email Address Internationalization (EAI) working groups regarding current UA gaps in technology (session transcript and recording is available here, and presentation here). The session also covers how to advance remediation efforts to address UA challenges. Notably:
- The UASG initiated Phase 1 of a “UA readiness of open-source code pilot program.” The goal is to determine the usage of domain name/email address validation procedures by applications available in the open-source code Github repository using Java and Python. Results to date indicate the vast majority of applications do not have an Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) library or validation method.
- Results of the 2021 Evaluation of EAI Support in Email Software and Services Report (UASG030)were encouraging as a handful of email systems – Apple iOS 14, Coremail, Courier, Exim, Postfix, Roundcube – showed positive EAI readiness; however, there’s still work to be done as there were a few email systems that did not pass any tests, and not a single system passed every aspect of the EAI testing. Details on this evaluation can be found here.
For more information about the UASG and ways you can get involved in supporting an #Internet4All, visit https://uasg.tech/, and follow, like, and share with the UASG on social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn).
