Since 2015, ICANN and the volunteer-led Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) have been working together to promote the Universal Acceptance (UA) of all valid domain names and email addresses. These include domain names and email addresses in different languages and scripts (also known as Internationalized Domain Names), and of varying length (long top-level domains). A large part of this work includes measuring the UA-readiness of various Internet applications, platforms, and technologies to determine an overall state of UA-readiness that can help direct and focus efforts. ICANN and the UASG have published the Universal Acceptance-Readiness Report FY23, which provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of UA adoption as well as the challenges and gaps that persist.
Thanks in large part to the efforts of the UASG and the ICANN community, especially through UA Day events and other outreach and training, UA awareness has grown in recent years. The focus of UA-related work is now shifting from awareness toward UA remediation and adoption, which involves identifying the underlying technical issues and gaps in specific applications and software and providing the solutions to help organizations become UA-ready.
FY23 report highlights:
- A summary of the scope of UA.
- Documentation of current gaps in technology and the UA-readiness of tested identity platforms, web hosting tools, websites, and more.
- An update on the remediation activities undertaken in FY23.
To achieve meaningful UA adoption around the world, the UASG and ICANN work with multiple stakeholders, including technology developers, email tools and services providers, tech companies, TLD registries and their registrars, and academia. The UA-Readiness Report is prepared annually based on the studies conducted by the UASG and ICANN.
The information provided in the report can help determine whether your systems are UA-ready and provide the current resources and training materials to address and fix UA-related issues. This report is a valuable resource for the entire UA community and anyone looking to make their systems UA-ready.
More details on the UA work being done are available at https://icann.org/ua and https://uasg.tech. If you are looking to get involved with the UASG, here are a few ways:
- Contact the UASG at https://uasg.tech/contact/ or email info@uasg.tech
- Meet the people of the UASG: https://uasg.tech/about/people/
- Join UASG working groups: https://uasg.tech/join/
- Participate in UA general discussions: https://uasg.tech/subscribe
- Report UA problems with other applications: https://uasg.tech/global-support-center/
- Follow the UASG on its social channels: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
This article was originally published on icann.org
By Sarmad Hussain, Sr Director IDN & UA Programs and Seda Akbulut, Universal Acceptance (UA) Program Manager
Source: https://uasg.tech/2023/10/fy23-report-captures-current-state-of-ua-readiness-in-technology/
