I’m delighted to be presenting, once again, to the 45th Internationalization and Unicode Conference (IUC45).  The conference is the gathering of my “tribe”, people who are as enthusiastic about language, text, and software as I am. If you like this stuff, it’s the best place in the world to be for those three days. Or, given the pandemic, the conference might be partially or completely virtual, so that webcast is the best UDP session in the world. In either case, please register and join us there.

My presentation is, Top issues in Universal Acceptance of non-Latin email addresses and domain names. Here’s the abstract:

The next one billion internet users use a wide variety of languages and scripts. They will demand email addresses, and domain names, in scripts they can easily read. This challenges apps and systems to provide Universal Acceptance (UA) — of all domain names and email addresses, from http://普遍适用测试.我爱你 to تجربة-بريد-الكتروني@تجربة-القبول-الشامل.موريتانيا to सार्वभौमिक-स्वीकृति-परीक्षण.संगठन . We explain the most troubling obstacles and the most inspiring successes in Universal Acceptance encountered by the Universal Acceptance Steering Group. From major email platforms launching support of internationalized addresses to improving support by programming languages and libraries, it has been an exciting year.

Abstract, Top issues in Universal Acceptance of non-Latin email addresses and domain names, by Jim DeLaHunt, for IUC45

Universal Acceptance (UA) is a cause to which I have been applying my volunteer efforts for a few years recently. Universal Acceptance means that URLs and email addresses which are not Latin limited (not “ASCII”) are fully accepted and usable in all software, systems, websites, and processes. I have mostly been applying my efforts via the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG).

I firmly believe that the advent of globally inclusive URLs and email addresses, and the state of Universal Acceptance, should front of mind for the Unicode Conference audience. I recall that adoption of the Unicode Standard for text encoding was a continuing topic at Unicode Conferences 20-25 years ago. I see parallels with the adoption process, and the forces at play, for Universal Acceptance today. I’m glad to have a chance to keep this topic on the conference agenda

The “top issues” structure in particular will be my chance to take stock of how the Universal Acceptance efforts are going, and what the big picture of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are. Much of the concrete work of the UASG is on focussed projects, and tactics. The broad view should be a fun change. And, perhaps I can spark conversations about this with the other UASG participants. They are interesting people, and should have good insights.

The Internationalization and Unicode Conference takes place October 13-15, 2021, at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Santa Clara, California, USA… and/or, pandemic willing, in some online format. My session is on Wednesday morning.

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