NETWORK STANDARDS
English is the unofficial language of the Net, so the Roman alphabet has become its de facto standard right down to domain names. That's too bad for the billions of people worldwide who use other alphabets - like Chinese, Japanese, and Cyrillic - that Web servers can't read.
Taking steps to rectify the situation, Internet Names WorldWide (www.inww.com) - a McLean, Virginia, domain name registrar - is distributing free Unicode-based software to let servers recognize URLs spelled with Chinese characters. The software, developed by Silicon Valley-based i-DNS.net International (www.i-dns.net), will soon handle Japanese, Arabic, Thai, and Tamil alphabets, too.
But before everyone can give their native alphabet bit service, there's a standards problem to overcome. In their rush to cash in on the foreign market, i-DNS.net and other software developers are using technical standards that don't yet have the blessing of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
The IETF, a volunteer group of engineers that sets Internet standards, apparently doesn't move at Internet speed and has been slow to agree on a standard. Members say that deliberation is necessary because the group must come to a consensus. This process, sluggish though it may be, is intended to ensure that Internet browsing works equally well on any machine, from an iMac to a Unix mainframe.
"This is not a trivial technical problem," says Brian Carpenter, an IBM engineer and chair of the Internet Society. "A solution that works very well in French, which is relatively easy - there are just a few accent marks - may not work at all for Japanese or Korean." But compliance with the IETF is voluntary.
A company such as i-DNS.net is free to use its own specifications. And if enough people register with Internet Names WorldWide, the IETF is unlikely to pick a standard that's incompatible. In a world ideal for i-DNS.net, its software would become the standard based on widespread adoption, just like the Roman alphabet did.
MUST READ
The eBallot and the Bullet
Distance Makes the Heart Grow Stronger
MP3 Meets MPAA
Ask Dr. Bob
Caught in the Act
Now That's Slugging Percentage!
People
Jargon Watch
NASA's Backup Backup
DNS Gets Tongue Lashing
Virtual Viral Marketing Virus
The Weather Overground
Raw Data
