Nameshop from India is awaiting ICANN’s approval for .Internet. Nameshop has been working through the ICANN redressal process for the past few years. This is a new purposeful Top Level Domain – one that is rooted in Global Public Interest and would serve the DNS well.
On how .Internet would help the Community's efforts to preserve the Internet as One Internet
Domain Names are mostly in ASCII script (let's say English Language) as of today. The next billions of users will start using the Internet with the introduction of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), which are actually Domain Names in different languages, as it becomes easier for non-English speaking users to register or use domain names in their native languages.
The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is in the process of rolling out International Domain Names in non-ASCII scripts (let's say Domain Names written in local languages, such as Tamil, Hindi, Chinese, Korean, Japnese or any of the world's languages). ICANN's purpose of introducing domain names in the languages of the World is to make it easier for people of different language communities to use the Internet.
However, it is not easy for users from OTHER language communities to understand or even type domain names in an unfamiliar language. An English or Hindi user would not understand or even type a domain name in Chinese or Korean. A Chinese user would find a domain name in Tamil or Swahili unusable. Users of one language may have to be confined to the International Domain Name space of their own language community. Also, the content created in one Internationalized Domain Name space, such as Chinese content created in the Chinese Domain space will stay confined to Chinese users as the Domain Name that points to that space is in Chinese script.
Nameshop's Business idea is to offer an ASCII domain name (let's say English Domain Name) for every Registrant (user) of an Internationalized Domain Name (domain name in a non-English language).
How does the Chinese user convey the Domain Name to a Tamil or Hindi or English user? Even if he or she manages to send a picture of the Chinese Domain name or manages to type the Chinese name in a form that can be copied and pasted, how would the Tamil or Hindi or English user would trust the Domain Name?
Nameshop's Business idea is that the Chinese user would take an English Domain Name, (as originally applied, with the .IDN extension, now changed to .INTERNET extension) to represent the Chinese Domain Name in ASCII script (let's say English) as Motorcycle.Internet or Motorcycle.Factory.Internet. The Tamil and Hindi Domain users would take up a similar .internet on top of their Tamil or Hindi Domain.
Some Examples of how .Internet would connect IDN webspaces across language barriers:
Motorcycle.Internet or Motorcycle.Factory.Internet points to 摩托车 . 工厂
Narayanan.Internet or Narayanan.Teacher.Internet points to நாராயணன் . ஆசிரியர்
Silk.Internet or Silk.Cloth.Internet points to रेशम . कपड़ा
The .internet name would be the IDN Regisrant's (user of the local language domain name) domain name of their IDN web in the Internet space. The .internet name would be the bridge between the local language user and the rest of the internet.
.Internet would be a bridge for the Internationalized Domain Name Registrants to open up their Web spaces for users beyond their own language communities.
The idea is to offer .Internet to the registrants of various IDN domain names as an additional ASCII domain name that would point to their IDN space, which is otherwise a space with a domain name in a local script, not intelligible, hence out of reach for those outside their language space. The TLD .Internet would have far greater uses in and for the Domain Name System.
The string .Internet is applied for, with the larger purpose of building global Trust over Internationalized Domain Names and making the IDN web spaces accessible across their local scripts thereby contributing to the Internet Community's efforts to keep the Internet as One Internet as a global space. Over the years of waiting, the purpose has expanded significantly, which are reflected in Nameshop's reaffirmed and expanded public interest commitments documented severally, with the assertion that Nameshop commits to implement its Public Interest Commitments for the good of the Internet, whether or not there is a process in place to make the Public Interest Commitments legally binding and enforceable.