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Technical Liaison Group (TLG) Review

The purpose of the Technical Liaison Group (TLG) is to connect the ICANN Board with appropriate sources of technical advice on specific matters pertinent to ICANN's activities.  The TLG consists of four organizations; each TLG organization is entitled to appoint two representatives. The eight TLG representatives are responsible for deciding where to direct a technical question from ICANN when ICANN does not ask a specific TLG organization directly.  For more information on the TLG, click here.

TLG Organizational Review

Although a review is not required, the Board determined that it would be a good practice to conduct a review in a manner consistent with the independent reviews conducted pursuant to Article IV, Section 4 of the ICANN Bylaws. A review of the TLG commenced in 2010 and concluded in 2011.

The graphic below illustrates phases and status of each review - a  indicates that all activities within a given phase have been completed.  The chart that follows the graphic provides further details of key activities and milestones within each phase – you can view these details by clicking on each of the phases in the graphic.  The table also contains links to relevant documents.

TLG

TLG
PhaseActivityDescriptionStart DateDocuments
Plan ReviewRFP for external consultantIndependent Expert Request for Proposals announcement
Conduct ReviewSelection of independent consultantAnnouncement of selection of independent consultant1 Aug 2010
Draft Final Report of Independent ConsultantReview of the Technical Liaison Group (TLG) Prepared for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – Public Discussion Draft #116 Oct 2010
Public Comment on Draft ReportPublic Comment on TLG Review – Independent External Reviewers’ Draft Report23 Oct 2010
Final Report of Independent ConsultantReview of the Technical Liaison Group (TLG) Prepared for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers3 Dec 2010
Public Comment on Independent Consultant’s Final ReportPublic Comment on TLG Review – Final Report10 Dec 2010
Final ReportFinal report submitted to ICANN Board22 Aug 2011
Board receipt of the Final ReportBoard action and resolution25 Aug 2011
Plan ImplementationPlan ImplementationReview and recommend Board accepts proposed Implementation Plan25 Aug 2011
Implement Improvements Details of Implementation and periodic updatesImprovements Implementation Plan25 Aug 2011
CharterCharter for Board Technical Relations Working Group5 Aug 2011

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Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."