Universal Acceptance Will Enable a More Inclusive Internet

29/10/2020

Universal Acceptance is a concept that involves the various components of Internet governance so that users can browse the Internet in their local languages, Mark Datysgeld shared during his presentation organized within the framework of LACNIC 34 LACNOG 2020.

Member of the ICANN GNSO Council and with a master’s degree in International Relations with a focus on Internet Governance and the impacts of technology on the formulation of public and private policy, Datysgeld’s presentation addressed Universal Acceptance and its implications.

Universal Acceptance is the principle of accepting, validating, storing, processing, and displaying domain names and email addresses correctly and consistently across all devices, systems and applications. It is an essential requirement for a fully multilingual Internet where users across the world can browse the web completely in their local language, Datysgeld observed.

The expert then made a distinction between script and language. “Scripts are something else and they are very specific. A script comprises a set of elements, bases or symbols, but in certain languages they have a completely different representation,” he explained.

He pointed out that the different forms and means of communicating depend on each region and country. “How does Universal Acceptance work? It is made possible by the creation of URLs using different characters,” he added. He noted that there is a universally accepted structure which allows a browser to accept the javascript web structure and store it in its database.

Universal Acceptance is the best practice to ensure that all applications, devices and systems that use the Internet can process all domain names and their associated email addresses regardless of their language, script or number of characters.

Datysgeld presented the results of a global survey conducted with a group of experts on the 1000 most visited websites worldwide. “Basically, we visited 1000 websites and created email addresses in different ways, from the simplest to the most complex. We used Arabic and the results were very interesting, considering that there was a change in relation to new domain names that do not involve different scripts between the first survey conducted in 2017 and the one conducted in 2019,” the expert said.

The full implementation of Universal Acceptance will allow users with valid credentials to take advantage of all the benefits that the Internet has to offer. These impediments often lead to frustration and disparate experiences, while limiting organizations’ ability to connect with their users around the world.

Datysgeld expressed his desire to promote Universal Acceptance and called on the LACNIC community to continue working for the benefit of all.