[EURO-Discuss] [At-Large] UA Days

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Mon, Apr 1, 2024 at 10:18 AM <alberto at soto.net.ar> wrote:

> Without doing much analysis, there are hundreds of places in the world
> that require IDN.
>

Sorry, but I do not take such an assertion at face value, and neither
should anyone here.
*What is the evidence?* All I encounter is guesswork and wishful thinking.

The preface "without doing much analysis" speaks volumes about acting on
faith rather than fact. Said analysis is desperately needed.

And precisely those places are the most populated in the world and where
> the vast majority are "disconnected." There is no AI there.
>

I do not understand this assertion, it seems to me outrageous and likely
ill-informed.

If you have Internet, you have access to AI. (And, more ominously, it has
access to you -- but that's a very different discussion.)
If you don't have Internet, the problem is not domain names but lack of
physical infrastructure -- cables, towers, satellite receivers, affordable
devices, etc.
Let's please be accurate here; domain names are an insignificant component
of connecting the unconnected.

For two years I had a UN contract where the job task was literally
connecting the unconnected. In that time I observed that many in the
barely-connected world have access to little more than Facebook and
WhatsApp, which meet many needs in local languages. This situation, not
without controversy, is accelerated by initiatives such as Meta's Free
Basics <https://www.facebook.com/connectivity/solutions/free-basics/> which
provide funding for physical infrastructure in return for monopolizing the
user experience of those connected. Mobile money and microfinance are more
likely to be done by SMS than Internet. In these environments knowledge of
domains -- ASCII or IDN -- is absolutely irrelevant. I witnessed this
myself first-hand in environments where many tens of thousands of people
had to share a single 3G cell tower.

I invite you to *prove* me wrong. Sure there is use for IDNs, but framing
them as an international development issue is IMO disingenuous and not
backed by evidence.

- Evan
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