Second phase of consultation on implementation of French characters in .CA domain names opens

OTTAWA, Jan. 25, 2012 /CNW/ - The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is today launching the second and final phase of its consultation in the implementation of French characters (also known as Internationalized Domain Names, or IDNs) in .CA domain names.  .CA holders and Canadian Internet users are invited to provide their feedback on certain revisions to CIRA's proposed policy to help the organization finalize its plan for launching IDNs later this year.

CIRA received a tremendous amount of feedback in the first round of its public consultation held during twelve weeks last fall, with over 350 comments on the online forum and more than 50 submissions. CIRA engaged The Strategic Counsel to analyze all of the responses following the close of the public consultation.  They prepared a corresponding report which provides highlights of the responses and summarizes the key themes of the feedback received.  This report can be found on idnconsultation.ca.

"Internationalized Domain Names are critical to enable Canadians to register and access domain names in both of Canada's official languages," says Byron Holland, CIRA's President and CEO. "The level of response we received during the first phase of the consultation demonstrates how important this issue is to our Registrants."

Based on feedback received during the first round of the consultation, CIRA has revised its proposed policy for the launch of IDNs for the second round of consultations. The new proposal is available on idnconsultation.ca. .CA Members, Registrants, Registrars and Canadian Internet users are invited to comment online or to make submissions until February 24, 2012.

About CIRA

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority is the member-driven organization that manages Canada's .CA domain name registry, develops and implements policies that support Canada's Internet community, and represents the .CA registry internationally.

Jennifer Austin
Senior Manager, Communications and Marketing
613-237-5335 ext. 296
[e-mail]