Just when I finally get my head around the Internet it gonna change
From ICANN (The Internet controller)
It has now been agreed to let the internet addresses to be in not Latin
Script. Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic, etc
They say that is to enfranchise the 1.6 current non Latin script users and widen the net. (source BBC Technology)

Apart from the conversion for processing there will be other issues!

Any comments?

"It has now been agreed to let the internet addresses to be in not Latin
Script. Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic, etc
They say that is to enfranchise the 1.6 current non Latin script users and widen the net. (source BBC Technology)"

Firstly, thank you for the meaningful thread title. Not quite sure what 1.6 users means, but Mongolian Cyrillic et al. might help to further the ultimate goals of the World-Wide Web, because the current anglocentric system is not really much more than a drop in the ocean.

ERRATUM ERRATUM

WRONG VERSION SENT.... SORRY (BC Before Coffee)

It should have read

Just when I finally get my head around the Internet it gonna change
From ICANN (The Internet controllING BODY)
It has now been agreed to let the internet addresses to be in not ONLY Latin script. e.g. Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic, etc
They say that is to enfranchise the 1.6 BILLION current non Latin script users and widen the net. (source BBC Technology)

Apart from the conversion for processing there will be other issues!

Any comments?

Not a comment as such, but a question.

>>Apart from the conversion for processing there will be other issues!<<

For whom?

Pericles,
None for me.
However O/S comment are concerned about internal community fragmentation.(assimilation reduction issues?)(US web site)
Was one that caught my eye.
The rest of what I bothered to read were more xenophobic, racist or pro it helping aunty Maude type.

I have NO IDEA what you're on about.

Dear StG,

It is pretty simple. Just imagine if the Chinese had invented the internet and you wanted access to the OLO site. While you could type in onlineopinion in english script you would have to know Chinese for com and au.

The same if you were greek or russian.

I don't know how many of you access OLO through your mobile phone but I do, just to read not to contribute. Especially the forum which google strips down to plain text for mobile use so it uses very little of the very expensive bandwidth.

It gives me a chance to catch up with discussions while travelling.

Well this week some of the test has been coming up with Chinese characters. Not much to go on but I am assuming some form of testing is occurring.

Has anyone else experienced the same?

As to the proposed changes I think we will become even more reliant on google especially their translation capabilities but it is a fair move.

examinator wrote 3 November 2009 8:40:12 AM:

>... ICANN ... internet addresses ... Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic ...

There will be some difficulties with allowing other scripts, but these can be lived with. The implementation chosen may also create some opportunities for scammers to play tricks with the way the non-Latn script is represented.

It is impressive that ICANN managed o get through the complex international politics involved. In 2001 I attended the Internet Global Summit, where some of the politics played out: http://www.tomw.net.au/2001/inet/

As with the Unicode, which was supposed to create a level playing field for all the world's scripts, Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) adopted by ICANN, still has bias making it easier to use with Latin scripts. The non-Latin web addresses will be represented in ASCII characters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalized_domain_name#Internationalizing_Domain_Names_in_Applications

ps: UTF-8, the most common Unicode encoding has ASCII built in, giving English speakers an advantage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8

csteele: "I don't know how many of you access OLO through your mobile phone but I do"

I do the same thing.

It is a wild guess on my part, but I don't think these non-latin scripts are going to cause me much trouble. Web pages with non-latin URL's are almost certainly not going to be in English. In fact, they probably aren't even going to be a European language. That makes them utterly useless to me. So the fact that entering the ideograms for some East Asian language on a normal keyboard requires something near a PhD to master won't matter - I won't be entering them. In fact, it is probably an advantage. If I see a non-latin URL, I won't waste time clicking on it.

It will be interesting to see how much these non-latin scripts will be used. It was just dumb luck that our alphabet is so computer friendly - meaning it is easy to type. (The Arabs were similarly lucky). But it is, and I can't help but wonder if there will be a lot of resistance to using a language that is hard to type for something that is typed rather frequently - URL's. In fact the Japanese now use romaji, a translation of the Japanese language into the Latin character set for most computer work. Learning romaji has been compulsory in Japanese schools for decades. I can't help but wonder if the traditional Japanese idographic script will die out over the generations.

csteele,

Ah k, thank you.

In my view it is international politically based due to resistance of the NWO. United Nations controlled that is.
The decision to open a new system for US government only with some excess for corporations who have a hand in US government's till and elections.
Therefore websites that promote resistance wont be able to resist NWO anymore.
Just wait what the Copenhagen meeting brings with our own PM being a signature to it's rules.

eftfnc: "In my view it is international politically based due to resistance of the NWO."

*twitch*

Rstuart,
Interesting comment.

Cyrillic relates to much of the Balkans too.

I wonder if it will mean all Aussie addresses will be in Latin script.
I see issues with Aussies contacting say Japan, Turkey, Thailand etc (multiple keyboards?) Monkey see monkey do typing. The number of whoops will be extraordinary.

The article mentioned (ISPs?) needing very expensive conversion software.

Again I wonder how it will work given Cyrillic has more letters in their Alphabet than Latin. The Asian languages clearly different numbers too Hindi/Urdu come to mind. I'm glad I'm not trying to cut the code.....