MINC
From Wikidna.org
MINC Inc. (BVI) is a sole Directorship structure. Its Director is assisted by a Board of Advisors.
The MINC coalition completes the MINC with a dedicated WSIS-oriented lobbying and networked international structure (the MINC net).
Contents |
[edit] History
The Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC) first origins may be traced to a research project on multilingual Internet domain names initiated by Dr Tan Tin Wee, outgoing Head of Internet Research and Development Unit, (IRDU), National University of Singapore (NUS) in early 1998.
After years of working on the multilingualisation of Internet content and software with the vision of lowering linguistic barriers for non-native English speakers of the Asian region, his attention was drawn towards the naming problem.
In March 1998, he started working on this problem with Leong Kok Yong, a long time staff of IRDU, both of whom pioneered Tamil Internet (with N Govindasamy), Chinese Websites, Auto-Text-to-Image conversion for Chinese (GB, Big5, HZ) and Tamil encodings and Unicode, Java Keyboard Input Systems from 1995 to 1998.
Whereas content in the Internet was rapidly proliferating in native languages, the URLs, email addresses, hostnames and domain names, still did not support multilingual scripts.
A literature survey picked up an Internet Draft on UTF5 by Martin Duerst, who was then (and still) working at the W3C in Keio University, Japan. Using this draft which Martin wrote to prove detractors that it was possible to internationalize the domain name system (DNS), the two NUS researchers worked on designing and implementing the first multilingual internationalized domain name system - iDNS.
The first working prototype emerged in mid 1998 in the form of an iDNS proxy server.
Any change or upgrade of a fundamental service on the Internet such as the DNS entailed major and often long drawn transitions in the plethora of client applications, in the widely distributed DNS servers currently in operation, and in the root level systems of the DNS hierarchy.
To avoid any disruption of the current DNS operations, and still prove that iDNS can be implemented, the researchers created a proxy system which intercepts multilingual character strings sent out from multilingual enabled client applications such as Web browsers (by 1998, many web browsers were multilingual-enabled), and converts these characters into ASCII compatible encodings (later popularly known as ACE). These ACE forms of ASCII domain names can reside on any DNS records on any un-multilingualised DNS servers.
The iDNS proxy system prototype showed that multilingual forms of domain names can work and co-exist with the current existing uninternationalized DNS servers without breaking the system. It provided the impetus for an integrated approach towards the gradual internationalization of the DNS system worldwide, laid the basis and paved the way forward for further work on the Internationalization of Domain Names, which has now led to the formation of the Multilingual Internet Names Consortium.
[edit] MINC Organization
The structure of MINC is constantly evolving to meet the rapidly changing needs of the membership and the community deeply concerned with the internationalisation of Internet names. The current working organisational structure of MINC is described in this part.
[edit] Corporation
Business mail:
4 Kent Ridge Road
Singapore 119213
Legal mail:
c/o R Chockalingam & Associates
63 Robinson road #06-01
Afro Asia Bldg
Singapore 068894 - Singapore
Fax: (852) 2537 9507
updated: 16 Jun 2007
[edit] MINC Board
The Advisory Board of MINC comprises 9 members elected from the membership of MINC.
The Board meets regularly (at least four times a year physically) at MINC meetings and through teleconferencing. The Board is responsible for the decisions of MINC pursuant to the Bylaws of MINC, and is the highest decision making organ in MINC subject to the Corporate Director's veto.
[edit] Secretariat
The secretariat of MINC is currently carrying out the day-to-day affairs of MINC in accordance to decisions made by the MINC Board.
The Secretariat is led by a Secretariat administrative officer.
[edit] Membership Committee
The Membership Officer leads The Membership Committee whose task is to
- encourage new members to sign up as members of MINC
- collect and collate details of prospective members
- assign membership fee to prospective members
- maintain membership fee structure
- submit new members to Board for approval
- maintain and promote links with membership
[edit] Events Committee
The Event Officer leads the Events Committee whose task is to
- plan the Events Calendar of MINC
- coordinate the organisation of MINC events worldwide
- work closely with related organisations such as DNSO/ICANN to organise MINC events and promotion effectively.
[edit] Technical Committee
The Technical Officer leads the Technical Committee whose task is to
- coordinate the technical Working Groups of MINC
- attend to technical issues related to Multilingual Internet names
[edit] Policy and Legal Committee
The Legao Officer leads the Legal Committee whose task is to
- advise the Board on legal and policy issues related to MINC
[edit] Elections Committee
In matters pertaining to the Election of the MINC Inaugural Board, the Elections Committee has been empowered the Interim Board and the Founding Members to take charge of formulating the rules and procedures of the election, and to carry out the elections in an expeditious manner. Dr N Maruyama (VP, JPNIC, Japan) is the chairman of this committee 2000. For MINC Elections 2001 a new elections committee will be constituted.
[edit] Liaison Officers
MINC has a number of liaison officers whose roles are to maintain coordination and links with other international organisations such as IETF, APTLD, Asia Pacific Internet organisations, etc.
[edit] MULTILINGUAL INTERNET NETWORK COALITION
The MINC Coalition Statutes documents how the MINC national/specialised chapters form an open coalition within the International Governance Forum (IGF) framework.
[edit] MINC Working Groups and Mailing Lists
MINC conducts its activities among members through the vehicle of Working Groups and Mailing Lists.
[edit] MINC Membership
MINC Membership consists of members in various categories at Organisational and Individual levels who are entitled to participate through MINC Mailing lists and Working Groups.
[edit] Warning
MINC recently suffered from the illegal usage of the titles of "Member of the MINC Board of Advisors" or "Member of the MINC Board of Directors". This was, in the ICANN and ISO communities, to further the persons and projects that were unsupported, even opposed, by the MINC, and to proceed to operations that are incompatible with the non-profit nature of the MINC or are currently under investigation.
This called for a restoration and technical clarification plan that is quietly under way. As part of this plan, advisors will, or have already, resigned their position to permit a new election/selection process that is slated for later in 2008 (once the MINC site has been returned). The same, since 2006, former CEO Khaled Fattal, no longer has any resposibility within the MINC structure. Mrs. Debbie Garside who happened to be the holder of the MINC working site, is not a Member of the MINC, and had committed herself to neutrally keeping it frozen in the expectation of a harmonious common agreement or legal decision.
