As panellists of a workshop themed around Internet access and diversity, EURid and UNESCO will also discuss the opportunities and challenges faced when measuring and promoting online multilingualism. Internationalised Domain Names form a vital part of the ecosystem necessary to foster the growth of local languages online and consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Cyrillic.

The 7th IGF meeting will be held at the Baku Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre, from 6 to 9 November 2012. The Workshop titled “EURid-UNESCO World report on IDN deployment 2012 – opportunities and challenges associated with IDNs and online multilingualism” will take place on 6 November at 2.30 p.m. local time. It will be animated by the following panellists: Vint Cerf, Google; Baher Esmat, ICANN; Anne Rachel Inne, Afrinic; Janis Karklins, UNESCO; Markus Kummer, ISOC; Minjung Park, KISA; Giovanni Seppia and Emily Taylor, EURid.

The IGF brings people together from various stakeholder groups to discuss public policy issues relating to the Internet. The IGF is an open forum and is convened under a mandate from the United Nations. While there is no negotiated outcome, the IGF informs and inspires those with policy-making power in both the public and private sectors. Discussion topics cover the Internet’s sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development. .eu representatives have attended IGF sessions since the organization was founded in 2006.

Giovanni Seppia from EURid and Janis Karklins from UNESCO are available during the convention for interviews. For more information, please contact press(at)eurid.eu.

The .eu domain ranks among the largest top-level domains in the world, connecting 500 million people in 27 EU countries to one Internet identity. More than 3.5 million .eu names have been registered since the domain opened for registration in 2005. EURid is the not-for-profit organisation that operates the .eu top-level domain, following the appointment by the European Commission. EURid works with over 850 accredited registrars and provides support in the 23 official EU languages. More information can be found at: http://www.eurid.eu.