[idn] FW: IANA Selection of IDNA Prefix

["IANA" <iana@iana.org>]

IDN Working Group--

This is the final version of the Protocol and Schedule for 
Selecting the IDNA Prefix.   	

Best regards,

Michelle S. Cotton
IANA Administrator


This document sets forth the protocol by which the IANA will select 
a two-character code to be used as the first two characters of
the ACE prefix referred to as "IESG--" in Section 5 of
draft-ietf-idn-idna-14.txt. It also specifies the schedule for
the selection.

This document is based on the IANA's proposed Protocol and Schedule
distributed on 30 January 2003 and reflects changes to address 
comments received by 6 February 2003.  The IANA thanks Adam Costello
and Simon Josefsson for their comments.

A. Protocol

The following steps will be used to select the two-character code:

1. The code will be selected from among a subset of the entries on
the ISO 3166-1:1997, clause 8.1.3 User-assigned alpha-2 code elements:
AA, QM to QZ, XA to XZ, and ZZ.  The selection is limited to these 
codes because of the following:

  a)  The use of numeric characters, while permitted by the 
      Internet-Draft, would create visual ambiguities concerning the 
      digits "0", "1", and "5".  (For similar reasons, codes including
      the letters O, I, L, and S are eliminated in step 3.)

  b)  The use of ISO 3166-1 the user-assigned elements removes the 
      possibility that the code will duplicate a present or future 
      ccTLD code.

2. An eligible subset of that list of 42 entries will be determined
by eliminating the following codes due to their use, in one or more
top-level domain zone files that have been reviewed, as the first two
characters of second-level domain labels that have hyphens in their
third and fourth character positions:
AA, QM to QZ, XA, XZ, and ZZ.

3. This leaves the following subset of twenty-four candidate codes:
XB, XC, XD, XE, XF, XG, XH, XI, XJ, XK, XL, XM, XN, XO, XP, XQ, XR, XS,
XT, XU, XV, XW, XX, and XY.  Of those codes, XI, XL, XO, and XS are
eliminated due to potential confusion with X1, X1, X0, and X5, and XU 
and XV are eliminated due to potential confusion with each other. 
This leaves eighteen candidate codes.

4. A random selection will be made from among the eighteen
candidates. The algorithm for the random selection will generally
follow that stated in RFC 2777.

First, the eighteen candidates will be arranged in an ordered list 
as follows:

1. XB   7. XH  13. XQ 
2. XC   8. XJ  14. XR
3. XD   9. XK  15. XT 
4. XE  10. XM  16. XW 
5. XF  11. XN  17. XX 
6. XG  12. XP  18. XY

Next, the trading volume of twelve stocks on the Reference Day (see
schedule below), as listed in the U.S. National Edition of the Wall
Street Journal on the Selection Day (see schedule below), will be used
to generate a key string in the manner specified on page 5 of RFC 2777.
The twelve stocks are:

(NYSE) IMS Hlth RX
(NYSE) IL Tool ITW
(NYSE) IntRectifr IRF
(NYSE) IBM IBM
(NYSE) IntPaper IP
(NYSE) Interpublic IPG
(NASDAQ) Inamed IMDC
(NASDAQ) Informatica INFA
(NASDAQ) Inktomi INKT
(NASDAQ) i2 Tch ITWO
(NASDAQ) IDEC Pharm IDPH
(NASDAQ) Intel INTC

Although the IANA's investigation indicates that all copies of the U.S.
National Edition (on any day other than a Wednesday) of the Wall Street
Journal should be identical, to eliminate any ambiguity the IANA will
purchase a copy, which will be authoritative, on the morning of the
Selection Day at a local store.

In the event that the trading volume of any of the above twelve stocks
is not reported in that paper, the value 0 will be used for that stock.
In the event that more than six of the stocks then have a zero value,
the selection will be deemed invalid and re-run in a manner decided
according to the circumstances.

A key string will be constructed with the numeric trading volumes of the
twelve stocks (denoted in 100s and not including any
thousands-separating punctuation), in the order stated above, according 
to page 5 of RFC 2777.  An MD5 hash [RFC 1321] of the string, prefixed 
and suffixed with a zero byte, will be calculated.  That value will be 
divided by eighteen, and the remainder of the division plus one will be 
the position of the selected candidate in the ordered list above. (Note: 
The Wall Street Journal currently reports share volumes in 100s. Thus, 
a volume of 7,660,900 shares would be reported in the Wall Street 
Journal as "76609" and would be represented as "76609" within the key.)  
The selection mechanism uses the reference implementation in RFC 2777 
and the reference MD5 implementation from RFC 1321.

5. A message will be sent to the IETF Announce list to announce
the selected code as well as the details of the selection. This 
message will be sent immediately after the selection is made on 
the Selection Day, according to the schedule described below.

6. If anyone disagrees with the computation of the result under the 
above protocol as announced by the IANA on the Selection Day, please 
send a note to <iana@iana.org> no later than the day before the 
Notification Day.  The RFC Editor will be notified of the selected code 
on the Notification Day.

B. Schedule

The following schedule will be followed for the selection process:

30 January 2003 - Protocol and Schedule published, including to IETF
Announce list. Comments invited to <iana@iana.org>.

6 February 2003 - Last day for comments.

10 February 2003 (Monday) - Reference Day (see above).

11 February 2003 (Tuesday) - Selection Day (see above).

14 February 2003 (Friday) - Notification Day.