IGF 2012 Workshop Proposal :: (No: 126) EURid/UNESCO World Report on IDN Deployment 2012 – opportunities and challenges associated with IDNs and online multilingualism

Status:

IGF Theme(s) for workshop: Access and Diversity

Main theme question address by workshop: Question 7: How do language barriers impact access to the Internet? Question 8: What opportunities and challenges are presented

Concise description of the proposed workshop:

Following on from the EURid/UNESCO report "IDNs, State of Play" published in Q2 2011 and presented at the IGF 2011 workshop 69 in Nairobi, IGF 2011, the 2012 World Report on IDNs deployment has expanded the evidence base and will cover some of the IDNs experiences of Top Level Domains. We will hear from EURid and UNESCO as well as other participants of the workshop about the opportunities and challenges of studying, measuring and promoting multilingualism on the Internet; an overview of progress worldwide from EURid towards deployment of IDNs, and the opportunities and challenges they present for the goal of multilingualism Internet. The workshop plans to talk about IDNs from the private sector angle too as well as civil society and international organisations working in this area. Invited speakers from geographically diverse regions and stakeholder groups will bring different perspectives on the experiences of IDN deployment, the role that IDNs play in fostering local language content, and opportunities and challenges following from lessons learned to date.

Background Paper: Insightsreport-IDNStateofplay-15062011.pdf

 

Name of the organiser(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:

EURid – private sector, technical community
UNESCO – IGO

 

Have you, or any of your co-organisers, organised an IGF workshop before?: Yes

Please provide link(s) to workshop(s) or report(s):

EURid’s Giovanni Seppia, currently Chair of the CENTR IGF Working Group, has co-organised ICANN and CENTR’s workshops at previous IGFs, including the ICANN workshop at the first IGF in Athens (2006), “Towards a multilingual global Internet” in cooperation with UNESCO and the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Egypt (NTRA).

UNESCO has organised the following workshops at the IGF: 96. Economic Aspects of Local Content Creation and Local Internet Infrastructure

Furthermore, the collaboration between EURid and UNESCO on IDNs 2011 was presented in workshop 69 at the 2011 IGF, organised by Dot-Nxt, Inc.

2006, “Towards a Multilingual Internet” http://info.intgovforum.org/wksp57.php

Workshop 69, Nairobi 2011: http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=…

Workshop 96, Nairobi 2011:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/ne…
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-pro…

Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:

Giovanni Seppia, External Relations Manager, EURid (Technical Community, Europe)
UNESCO speaker (TBC) (IGO)
European Commission Speaker (TBC) (Government, Europe)
ISOC speaker (TBC) (Civil Society – technical community)
Emily Taylor, Emily Taylor Consultancy Ltd (Private sector – technical community, UK) (Moderator)
Representatives from IDN ccTLD registries from diverse geographic and linguistic backgrounds

 

Name of Remote Moderator(s):

Irmgarda Kasinskaite, UNESCO