Prague, 20 November - Czech Internet users have refused to introduce diacritics into the system of .CZ domains for the third time in a row. It ensues from a public opinion survey which was carried out for the CZ.NIC association, the administrator of the Czech domain register, by Markent. 81 percent of the responding organizations and 66 percent of inquired ordinary users of the Internet have objected against the introduction of the IDN system (Internationalized Domain Names). In case of the former, the ratio is almost identical in comparison with the last survey taken in 2006 (80 percent), while the latter group evidenced an 11-percent increase of negative voices. The survey results represent a critical factor for the CZ.NIC association in terms of accepting or refusing IDN.
"We expected a repeated refusal of IDN. It was indicated by the results of the last two surveys, which showed a tendency towards an increasingly negative attitude towards IDN, further evidenced by ongoing responses to the www.háčkyčárky.cz project which we launched this May with the goal to inform about IDN and to start a discussion about the possibility of implementing such a system" said Ondřej Filip, executive manager of CZ.NIC association.
Among the most frequent spontaneously mentioned cons regarding IDN were incomprehensibility or inaccessibility for foreign visitors and more difficult searching. Complications for foreign visitors were mentioned by 21 percent of the responding individual users and 31 percent among organizations. More complex searching due to IDN was mentioned by 23 percent of individual users and by 20 percent of organizations.
It results from the survey that a typical supporter of IDN, considering individual users, is a woman over 50 who lives in the Czech Republic in a town with up to 20 thousand inhabitants who uses the Internet rather occasionally. Considering organizations, it concerns a Czech not-for-profit entity, with up to 100 employees, active in public administration, education or health sectors.
"Thanks to the results of the survey, the Háčkyčárky.cz project will continue. We cannot ignore the fact that IDN has already been introduced by a number of countries and that others are getting ready for such step. However, in this respect, the opinion of the Czech users of the Internet is most important for us." concluded Ondřej Filip.
Comprehensive reports of this year's and previous surveys are available at: www.háčkyčárky.cz.

On IDN

IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) is a system which makes it possible for Internet domains to contain characters of national alphabets. The fundamental idea which gave rise to the IDN system was to simplify communication and to make it possible to use the Internet for those whose written language contains characters which are not used in the English alphabet. Thus, IDN will be mostly used in countries such as China or Japan.
CZ.NIC has paid attention to IDN (in our case: the use of diacritics in domain names) for quite a time. Technically, the association is ready to introduce IDN. However, it will not be launched until the user community predominantly welcomes it.