APTLD
APTLD is an abbreviation for the Council of the Asia Pacific country code Top Level Domains or 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. It was first established in the year 1988 and was also legally established in the year 2003 in Malaysia. [1]
Objectives
The main objective of APTLD is to assist its members regarding the operation of the world class ccTLDs. [2]
Apart from this, the APTLD has the following objectives:
- To serve as a forum wherein policy matters concerning the Internet domain name related entities can be discussed.
- To promote exchange of information and skills development related to the Internet domain names amongst the members of APTLD.
- To serve as an interface with Internet co-ordination bodies and other bodies associated with the Internet domain name operation. [1]
Working of APTLD
The main function of APTLD is to serve as a forum of information exchange regarding issues concerning the operation and technology in the Asia Pacific region can be discussed. It also works as an interface between the other Internet coordinating bodies. It encourages the participation of APccTLDs at the international levels. APTLD is a membership based organization and 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 the members of ICANN’s supporting organizations. One such supporting organization of ICANN wherein the APTLD is involved is the Country Code Names Supporting Organizations (ccNSO). Owing to this, the APTLD commented on the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) signed between the U.S. Department of Commerce DOC and ICANN. The APTLD has pledged its full support to the transition of JPA to the private sector over coordination of DNS responsibilities, which were earlier handled by the US government. It also acknowledged the progress of ICANN in reaching its 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 the year 2007, APTLD had also urged ICANN to implement a limited introduction of top level IDNs by taking some simple steps. These steps recommended by APTLD to ICANN 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 ccTLDs should be handed to the local Internet community.
- It also urged ICANN to manage a six-month comment period so that the international community gets a chance to comment and lodge substantial objections related to the chosen names if at all they are irrelevant for the ccTLD. This was mostly done to avoid spurious names for ccTLDs. [3]
References