View source for IDN Guidelines Working Group

== Background ==

Historically, the [[IDN Implementation Guidelines]] have been updated when there was a change to relevant protocols or other demand from the community, but not on a regular basis.  Until the 2015 Call for Community Experts, there were five versions of the Guidelines, [https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/idn-guidelines-2011-09-02-en Version 3.0] being the most recent. 

Since publication of the latest version of the Guidelines in 2011, there had been changes in the terminology around IDNs and language tables, as well as a definition of the formal representation of the language tables to make them machine readable. Additional analysis and data were also available, including [https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/maximal-starting-repertoire-version-1-msr-1-for-the-development-of-label-generation-rules-for-the-root-zone-20-6-2014-en Maximal Starting Repertoire (MSR)], informational RFC 6912 and revised IANA IDNA tables for Unicode 6.3.0. Finally there have been recommendations for consistency and manageability of variants across different levels in a domain name, e.g. in the [https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/active-ux-21mar13-en.pdf User Experience Study] and related SSAC comments in [https://itp.cdn.icann.org/en/files/security-and-stability-advisory-committee-ssac-reports/sac-060-en.pdf SAC 60] report.

Based on the experience with implementing IDNs accumulated since 2011, GNSO Council and its members have asked ICANN to update these guidelines.<ref name="call"></ref>