We have just passed two thousand IDN delegations in com.ua as I write this.
This is second stage - so-called landrush - but in UA registry it differs only by minimal term of ten years, the price of registration is the same as before.
It started on November 21st, and a month after (three weeks) we would switch to regular registrations, as was originally planned. Overall, 1% increase is small -- nothing comparing to, say, recent .РФ launch.
Even though Russian Federation domain was first ever in Cyrillic alphabet, and well-thought multiple stages strategy had provisions for different stakeholders,
it still had its share of issues. Hopefully, those would be resolved.
I am not a great enthusiast of changing the basics of Internet protocols - many things have to be re-done in order to implement IDN support on all levels, starting with email and going on to search engines, traffic counters, mobile devices, etc.
But those are issues that exist with adaption of any new technology. Perhaps it is the fact that DNS mode operation was, for long time, basically unchanged, that we started to think of it as something immutable. But it is going to change, together with general update to internet infrastructure that is taking place right now.
This makes me realize that DNS operation - stability, responsiveness, accuracy - was never as important as today. Let's strive for that to be a constant goal.
By the way - UA operations have just passed 18-year anniversary yesterday, December 1st 2010. What a long way, and we have never been as busy as now.
