LOS ANGELES - ICANN announced in a press release the formation of the Generation Panel to develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules (LGR) for Lao script.

Following the Call for Generation Panels to Develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules, on 9 September 2015 the Lao script community submitted to ICANN the Proposal for the Generation Panel for the Lao Script Label Generation Ruleset for the Root Zone [PDF, 511 KB]. ICANN staff has reviewed the proposal including panel composition and scope, to ensure that requirements set forth in the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB], and in particular the criteria set forth in the Call for Generation Panels to Develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules, are fulfilled.

"On behalf of ICANN we are grateful to the Lao script community for volunteering to develop the Lao LGR proposal for the Root Zone," said Sarmad Hussain from the IDN Program at ICANN, "and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication of Laos for hosting the panel."

With composition and work plan approved, the Lao Generation Panel will start its work on the label generation rules. According to the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB], the starting point of any Generation Panel's work is the Maximal Starting Repertoire (MSR), with its second version (MSR-2) released on 27 April 2015. The full specification of Generation Panel's tasks can be found in the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB] in particular, Section B.3 "Variant Rule Generation Procedure".

ICANN has provided a central public workspace on the project website where Lao Generation Panel composition, work plan updates, public reports, contact details, and any other relevant information will be included.

As a reminder, and to highlight the importance of script community involvement required in the development of the IDN Root Zone LGR, we would like to reiterate the Call for Generation Panels to Develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules. A successful development of the Root Zone LGR depends on having Generation Panels for each script represented in the Root Zone. In addition to ongoing efforts with the Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Japanese, Khmer, Lao and Neo-Brahmi, Generation Panel formation is expected to cover other scripts including Cyrillic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Korean, Latin, Myanmar, Sinhala, Thai and Tibetan.

For further information on how to form a Generation Panel, please refer to the Call for Generation Panels to Develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules and to the additional supporting documentation provided on the Root Zone LGR Project website. Individual interests may be emailed to idntlds@icann.org.