Re: FYI: BOF on Internationalized Email Addresses (IEA)

Mark Crispin scripsit:

> Is ASCII formally abolished as the lingua franca of email addresses,
> meaning that some people will be unable to use ASCII addresses?

All email addresses will continue to have an ASCII *representation*, which
will not, for most people, have mnemonic value.  It may therefore be useful
to have two email addresses, one which can be decoded into a non-ASCII
representation and is good for fellow-countrymen, and another which cannot
be decoded, but has mnemonic value for those who use the Latin script.

> If so, how many email addresses will a diplomat (or any other individual
> engaged in multinational business) need?

That's like asking how many languages should appear on your business card.
As many as the different kinds of people with whom you habitually interact.

> If not, doesn't that create a two tier world of persons who have usable
> international addresses and those who have domestic-only addresses?  It is
> not difficult to envision that in many countries, an ASCII address would
> be a privilege available only to select individuals (much as a phone line
> with international dialing).

No address is quite domestic-only, though it may be a meaningless jumble
to people who are interacting with the ASCII representation.  Still,
a good friend of mine has the already very annoying email address of
<Onederful111s@[censored].net>, yes lower-case ell followed by three
digit ones.  Go figure.

> Many decades ago, one of my professors told me something that I have
> always kept in mind since: "you have to learn to walk before you learn to
> run."

Actually, running before walking is quite possible in child development.  :-)

-- 
I marvel at the creature: so secret and         John Cowan
so sly as he is, to come sporting in the pool   [email protected]
before our very window.  Does he think that     http://www.reutershealth.com
Men sleep without watch all night?  --Faramir   http://www.ccil.org/~cowan