IDNs: Straightforward Technical Problem or Machiavellian Nightmare?

Three of the leading figures trying to solve the technical aspect of internationalized domain names (IDNs) - Internet domain names containing non-ASCII characters, such as those used in Arabic or Chinese - have been alternately hopeful and pessimistic recently. Vint Cerf, chairman of the ICANN board, says he´s more optimistic about finally deploying a globally workable IDN solution than he´s been in a year. Cary Karp, director of Internet strategy and technology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, paints a darker picture of disingenuous and cynical maneuvering by parties with axes to grind. And John Klensin, former chairman of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), says his outlook on one of the global Internet community´s most vexing and longest-running problems depends on the developments on any given day