APTLD
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| Industry: | Internet / Top Level Domains |
| Founded: | 1988 |
| Headquarters: | APTLD Secretariat, Unit 2002-2005, 20/F ING Tower, 308 Des Voeux, Road Central, Sheung Wan, HONG KONG |
| Website: | aptld.org |
| Twitter: |  @APTLDnews
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| Key People | |
| Lim Choon Sai (SGNIC), Chair Ting Chen (CNNIC), Vice Chair Leonid Todorov, General Manager | |
APTLD is an abbreviation for the the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Name Association. It is an organization for the country-code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) registries in the Asia Pacific region, first established in 1988 and incorporated as a not-for-profit in Malaysia in 2003.[1] Presently, APTLD has 45 full and associate members.
Objectives
APTLD has the following objectives:
- To promote skills development and information exchange related to Internet domain names amongst members.
- To provide a forum to discuss policy matters affecting Internet domain name related entities
- To act as an interface with Internet coordination bodies and other bodies involved in the Internet domain name operation
Working of APTLD
The main function of the APTLD is to serve as a forum for information exchange regarding issues concerning the operation of the Internet and related technology in the Asia Pacific region. It also works as an interface between other Internet coordinating bodies and encourages the participation of Asia Pacific regional ccTLDs at the international levels. APTLD is a membership-based organization; much of its activities are funded through the fees it obtains from its members.[1]
Involvement in ICANN
Though APTLD is not a part of the ICANN structure, many of the members of APTLD are members of ICANN’s supporting organizations. One supporting organization of ICANN that the APTLD is involved with is the Country Code Names Supporting Organizations (ccNSO).
The APTLD pledged its full support of the Joint Process Agreement (JPA), which transitioned the handling of DNS responsibilities, earlier handled by the U.S Department of Commerce (DOC) on behalf of the U.S government, to a private organization such as Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It also acknowledged the progress of ICANN in reaching the objective of fulfilling its limited mandate of technical coordination of the Internet’s naming and numbering resources.
It had also supported the independent functioning of ICANN without the direct oversight of the U.S government after the expiry of the JPA on 30th September 2009.[2]
In 2007, the APTLD also urged ICANN to implement a limited introduction of top level IDNs by taking some simple steps. The steps recommended were as follows:
- Allow every existing ccTLD to manage one additional territory or country specific ccTLD in a recognized non-ASCII script of their territory or country. The task of determining the name of the ccTLD should be handed to the local Internet community.
- It also urged ICANN to manage a six-month comment period so that the international community would get a chance to comment on and object to the chosen IDN ccTLDs, if they seemed at all irrelevant to the ccTLD. This was mostly done to avoid spurious names for ccTLDs.[3]
APTLD, CoCCA, and AusRegistry
In October 2012, APTLD submitted a comment to AuDA in support of keeping the longstanding .au ccTLD contract with AusRegistry. CoCCA withdrew from APTLD after the submission of this proposal, asserting that APTLD backed AusRegistry on the basis of AusRegistry being one of its largest donors. Despite CoCCA's complaints, however, CoCCA Direct Garth Miller's view seems to be the minority view. Under the consultation of AuDA, numerous other registrars have supported the recommendation for AusRegistry to keep the contract.[4]