Jordan has become the most recent nation or territory to launch an internationalised top-level domain (IDN) as part of ICANNs IDN FastTrack process. The nation’s Information Technology Centre (NITC) has announced the launch of the Arabic IDN .الاردن. (.alordon).

The launch of the new TLD will help increase internet penetration in the country from 30 per cent currently to 50 per cent by the beginning of 2012, NITC General Manager Nabeel Al Fayoumi told The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the MENA ICT Forum 2010, which concluded Monday.

“By launching the domain in Arabic, we will be able to reach a larger number of people and encourage them to use the Internet. Currently, those who do not know English might find it difficult to surf certain websites, but when the domains are in Arabic, they will find it more convenient to use the web,” Fayoumi said.

The first Arabic domain name launched in Jordan is His Majesty King Abdullah’s website, adding that all websites of ministries and public agencies and educational institutions will soon have Arabic domain names, the report continued.

“Jordan is the fourth Arab state to launch domains in Arabic,” Fayoumi told The Jordan Times, adding that the plan is to have about 9,000 websites with Arabic domain names by the end of 2011.

IDNs use non-Latin language scripts (i.e., Arabic, Cyrillic, etc.) in the TLD portion of an Internet address.

In the news story, Al Fayoumi said, “By launching the domain in Arabic, we will be able to reach a larger number of people and encourage them to use the Internet. Currently, those who do not know English might find it difficult to surf certain websites, but when the domains are in Arabic, they will find it more convenient to use the web.”

The first use of the new IDN is on Jordans King Abdullahs website, with Al Fayoumi adding that all websites of Jordanian ministries and public agencies and educational institutions will soon have Arabic domain names.

ICANN is pleased to announce the successful completion of String Evaluation on proposed a IDN ccTLD string for Jordan. Details of the successful evaluation are provided here: icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/string-evaluation-completion-en.htm

The IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) ccTLD Fast Track Process was approved by the ICANN Board at its annual meeting in Seoul, South Korea on 30 October 2009. First requests were received starting 16 November 2009. The process enables countries and territories to submit requests to ICANN for IDN ccTLDs, representing their respective country or territory names in scripts other than Latin. IDN ccTLD requesters must fulfil a number of requirements:

• the script used to represent the IDN ccTLDs must be non-Latin;
• the languages used to express the IDN ccTLDs must be official in the corresponding country or territory; and
• a specific set of technical requirements must be met (as evaluated by an external DNS Stability Panel comprised of DNS and IDN experts).

The request and evaluation processes entail three steps:

1. Preparation (by the requester in the country / territory). Community consensus is built for which IDN ccTLD to apply for, how it is run, and which organization will be running it, along with preparing and gathering all the required supporting documentation.
2. String Evaluation: incoming requests to ICANN in accordance with the criteria described above: the technical and linguistic requirements for the IDN ccTLD string(s). Applications are received through an online system available together with additional material supporting the process at: icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/
3. String Delegation: requests successfully meeting string evaluation criteria are eligible to apply for delegation following the same ICANN IANA process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs. String delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management.

At this time ICANN has received a total of 21 requests for IDN ccTLD(s) through the String Evaluation process, representing 11 languages. A total of 13 requests have successfully passed through the String Evaluation and are hence ready for the requesting country or territory to initiate the application for String Delegation.

ICANN is looking forward to enabling the availability of all these strings in the DNS root zone, by completion of the String Delegation function, as well as finalizing the remaining received requests in String Evaluation, and receiving additional new requests in the Fast Track Process. A staff support function is available to help all countries and territories interested in participating in the Fast Track Process. Please email idncctldrequests@icann.org for any inquiries for participation.

Updates about received numbers of applications and the number of completions will continue to be provided on the Fast Track Process web page at: icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

About ICANN:

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer—a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers. ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: icann.org/

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-21apr10-en.htm