Thailand UA Local Initiative
Supported by ICANN’s UA Local Initiatives Working Group, Thailand UA Local Initiative has been established on September 2020.
Motivation
Allowing only a restricted character set (ASCII a to z, 0 to 9, and the hyphen) within the Internet Domain Name System causes difficulty for non-English to learn a new character set to send emails or access to websites. The emergence of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and Internationalized Email address (EAI) made an effective step to achieving a multilingual Internet. However, some websites, software, and applications remain unable to accept and process the domain names and email addresses as valid names. Web addresses cannot be resolved to the intended resource on the website. Mail systems cannot send mails to expected recipients.
We aim to increase the awareness of its significance and educate related parties to ensure that IDNs and EAI email addresses can be accepted and used faultlessly.
Current Stakeholders
| No. | Name | Organization | Role | Expertise |
| 1. | Pensri Arunwattanamongkol | THNIC Foundation | Proposed Chair | DNS and IDNA expert, TLD registrar |
| 2. | Parkpoom Tripatana | Thai Name Server Co., Ltd. | Proposed Co-Chair | DNS and IDNA expert, TLD registry |
| 3. | Photchanan Ratanajaipan | THNIC Foundation | Coordinator | IDNA, Academia, Communications |
| 4. | Wiliawan Phanarin | T.H.NIC Co., Ltd. | Member | Marketing, TLD registrar |
| 5. | Thaniya Wongsuanoom | T.H.NIC Co., Ltd. | Member | Software/web Developers |
| 6. | Titipong Pak-insri | Thai Name Server Co., Ltd. | Member | DNS and IDNA expert, System Administrators |
| 7. | Atsadawat Netcharadsang | DotArai Co., Ltd. | Member | System Administrator, Software/web Developer |
| 8. | Thanop Somprasong | Thaiware Co., Ltd. | Member | Software Development |
| 9. | Krissada Chalermsook | Olearning Co., Ltd. | Member | Programming Expert, Software Development |
| 10. | Siranatcha Wuttipraphanphong | T.H.NIC Co., Ltd. | Member | Communications |
| 11. | ThaiMooc | Member | Massive Open Online Courseware | |
| 12. | ETDA | Member | Electronic Transaction Development | |
| 13. | Department of Cultural Promotion | Member | Language and Culture Promotion | |
| 14. | Sabrina Lim | ICANN GSE | Observer | Communication |
| 15 | Pitinan Kooarmornpatana | ICANN IDN Program | Observer | Unicode and/or Localization Expert |
Overall Plan
- Setup an APAC EAI implementation group mailing list and help moderate the list
- Develop EAI training materials in local language
- Participate ICANN’s train the trainer program on the EAI implementation topics
- Develop local training materials as a series of video clips
- Publish training materials to various online learning platforms
- Communicate to local stakeholders about the training materials
- Organize 2 webinars by influencers
- Organize 2 online trainings
- Organize 1 hackathon to setup EAI email servers
- Organize 1 hackathon to apply internationalized email address in applications e.g. for identity validation
- Organize 1 hackathon for Java programmers to develop UA-compliant Java applications
- Maintain and enhance local Thai online resource e.g. on the website. Promotion Content: รู้จัก.ไทย (https://xn--12cn4frcvb5f.xn--o3cw4h/), Technical Content: English wiki (wiki.thnic.or.th/en)
- Communicate to stakeholders and outreach, focusing on fixing popular websites that are not EAI ready
Dominant of English in Internet use is a digital divide that restricts Thai users who use non-English characters or scripts to access data and information as well as to use Internet services.