On May 13, 2016, Policy & Resource Working Committee of the Internet Society of China (ISC) held a symposium on setting standards for International Domain Names (IDNs) in Tibetan in Beijing, in which 18 experts from 11 units participated. These units include the Information Communications Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the PRC, the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China, China Ethnic Languages Translation Bureau, the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Minzu University of China, Northwest University for Nationalities, Internet Domain Name System Beijing Engineering Research Center and the China Tibet Online.

IDN (also known as Multilingual Domain Name) is a general term for non-English-speaking countries and regions to promote the domain name systems in their own languages. For example, domain names containing Chinese are called Chinese domain names, and those containing Korean are Korean domain names. At present, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved IDNs in 22 languages, including Chinese, Arabian and Armenian and so on. Many countries and regions are actively applying for IDNs. At the beginning of 2015, the government of the Kingdom of Bhutan and China applied to ICANN for including Tibetan in the working scope of IDNs, respectively.

This symposium mainly studied and discussed the key problems and difficulties in setting standards for IDNs in Tibetan, involving Tibetan linguistics, Tibetan coding technique, Tibetan information processing technology, domain name technology, standards for IDNs, and the application of domain names in Tibetan. The experts participating in the symposium all believed that the endeavor to implement IDNs in Tibetan would facilitate the application and promotion of Internet Tibetan communities and the economic and social development of Tibetan-speaking regions, and suggested that ISC organize experts in the Tibetan communities of China and the field of domain names to actively join TSGP of ICANN, to push forward the work with global Internet communities.

(Stev)