<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:10pt"><h2>Spanish .ORG IDNs Registrations Available March 3rd</h2><h3>Feb 21, 2007 | Inside: <a href="http://www.circleid.com/industry/" class="graylight">Industry</a></h3><div class="pInfo"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td align="left">By <a href="http://www.circleid.com/member/home/1858/" class="primary"><strong>PIR</strong></a></td><td align="right"><a href="http://www.circleid.com/posts/print/spanish_org_idn_registrations/" class="primary"><strong>Print</strong></a><img src="http://www.circleid.com/images/px_print.gif" border="0" height="11" width="13"> | <a href="http://www.circleid.com/member/tellafriend/1563/" class="primary"><strong>Email</strong></a><img src="http://www.circleid.com/images/px_email.gif" border="0" height="11"
width="13"></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p>As
part of its ongoing efforts to improve the Internet and ensure access
for users worldwide, Public Interest Registry (PIR), the .ORG registry,
will make available Spanish Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) on 03
March 2007.</p><p>The Domain Name System originally was limited largely
to the characters used in English and the ASCII character set.
Technical standards will now enable the registration of Spanish IDNs
that use specific characters (e.g., �, �, �, �, �). These characters
are created using Punycode, a simple and efficient way to translate
non-ASCII characters into a string of characters allowed in host name
labels (ASCII letters, digits and hyphens) and back again.</p><p>Spanish
.ORG IDN registrations will be handled on a first-come, first-served
basis. Spanish IDNs registered during the first 30 days of
operation�specifically between 19:00 UTC, 03 March 2007 and 19:00 UTC,
02 April 2007�will be placed on Server Delete Prohibited, Server
Transfer Prohibited, Server Update Prohibited, Server Renew Prohibited
and Server Hold. These statuses will remain in effect until 02 May 2007
to allow intellectual property interests to file dispute resolution
actions, if warranted.</p><p>�With more than 100 million
Spanish-speaking Internet users in Latin America, enabling IDNs in
Spanish will bring .ORG and the power of the Internet to a significant
population, especially to the civil sector, that may not have had
adequate access before,� says Erick Iriarte Ahon, director of Alfa-Redi
and a .ORG Advisory Council member. In addition to Spanish IDNs, PIR
allows IDN registrations in several other scripts, including Danish,
German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean (Hangul), Latvian, Lithuanian,
Polish and Swedish.</p><p>See PIR�s Web site for more information on <a href="http://stage.pir.org/GetAOrg/IDN.aspx">IDNs</a> and to see the list of <a href="http://www.pir.org/GetAOrg/RegistrarList.aspx">.ORG registrars</a> that offer IDN registration.</p><p><em>The latest copy of Public Interest Registry�s (PIR) newsletter, �The World of .ORG� and free subscription form is <a href="http://www.pir.org/Publications/eNewsletter.aspx?id=7">available online</a>.</em></p><img src="http://www.circleid.com/images/px_note.gif" style="padding: 0pt 3px 0pt 2px; vertical-align: -5%;" border="0" height="12" width="12"><div> </div>Rebecca Wanjiku,<br>journalist,<br>p.o box 33515, <br>Nairobi.00600<br>Kenya.<br><br>Tel. 254 720 318 925<br><br><span>blog:<a target="_blank" href="http://beckyit.blogspot.com/">http://beckyit.blogspot.com/</a></span><div><br></div></div><br>
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