By the UASG Communications Working Group

The Universal Acceptance (UA) Community Update during ICANN71 Prep Week (1-3 June 2021) – which preceded the ICANN Virtual Policy Forum on 14 June – featured renown panelists from across the Internet and domain name ecosystem, including those who lead various ICANN Supporting Organizations (SOs) and Advisory Committees (ACs). In addition to receiving an update on UA training, research, and outreach efforts, session participants had the chance to hear pragmatic insights from each panelist on what they believe is needed to achieve an #Internet4All.

To summarize the key takeaways, session moderator Maria Kolesnikova, Chair of the UASG Communications Working Group, asked each panelist to share their opinions regarding how the UASG can collaborate with SOs and ACs to promote and achieve UA-readiness. The following is an excerpt overview of their responses and closing thoughts on the topic – these suggestions and insights will be taken into consideration for upcoming UASG planning initiatives. The entire session is available to watch, here.

AKINORI MAEMURA

Chair, ICANN Board Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) and Universal Acceptance (UA) Working Group

“The UASG has been doing a great job, but there are still areas to enhance activities, such as marketing and expanding the available guides for registries to get ready for Universal Acceptance. This kind of input will be really helpful for the UASG and ICANN overall for the advancement of Universal Acceptance (UA).”

ALEJANDRA REYNOSO

Chair, Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO)

“There are many local and regional Universal Acceptance (UA) initiatives within the country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) and their communities, but a good way of moving UA forward is through sharing experiences – and providing a space to have these important discussions – so others can see how to achieve UA. UA is very localized and could be siloed because it depends on the scripts used, and putting people together will be helpful to avoid isolation. UA-readiness will help everyone make a better Internet.”

CHERYL LANGDON-ORR

Co-Chair, Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group

“The Supporting Organizations ( SOs) and Advisory Committees (ACs) need to find more ways of working in partnership, as we’re clearly starting to do. In the case of the At-Large Community, the opportunity for on-the-ground outreach and engagement with business and end-users is a perfect nexus. The UASG and the At-Large Community – via the ALAC and regional At-Large organizations – can work hand-in-glove in that. Additionally, it would be good to have more off-the-shelf material for our end-user community that is doing outreach to make sure the message about Universal Acceptance (UA) is from the right page and at the right pitch.”

JEFFREY J. NEUMAN

Co-Chair, Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group

“At lot of materials on the UASG site are either very basic on why Universal Acceptance is important, or on the other hand, are very technical as to the coding. As we move towards the next round [of new generic top-level domains], it would help to develop a guide for new registries with ways that they can help promote Universal Acceptance (UA) other than redirecting to the UASG.tech site – practical, real actions they can do with their top-level domain to promote UA-readiness.”

SATISH BABU

Chair, At-Large Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Working Group, and Chair, Asia-Pacific Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO)

“One of the difficulties that we face when we go to companies asking them to fix the Universal Acceptance (UA) gap, is they want to know the numbers of the users who would be using the functionality. If there’s any way that the Advisory Committees and Supporting Organizations, particularly the At-Large Committee, can help us mobilize the popular opinion indicating they want Universal Acceptance for their script or language, that will help us to engage with the technical service providers.”

At the end of the session, Ajay Data, Chair of the UASG, left all session participants with this simple, but crucial, call to action to help further UA-readiness – one that each reader of this blog can also implement.

AJAY DATA

Chair, Universal Acceptance Steering Group

“I want to leave everyone with one task – you are all connected to one website, whether you own it or run it for an organization. Can you test to see if it is Universal Acceptance (UA)-ready and determine how to make it UA-ready? If you take this one step, it will be a big support for furthering the entirety of UA.”

Anyone who would like support evaluating or updating their website or system to support UA-readiness can connect with the UASG (info@uasg.tech) for guidance and materials. Additional resources, guides, and testing materials are also available here, https://uasg.tech/.