Email Address Internationalization (eai)
----------------------------------------

 Charter
 Last Modified: 2007-03-29

 Current Status: Active Working Group

 Chair(s):
     Harald Alvestrand  <harald@alvestrand.no>
     XiaoDong Lee  <lee@cnnic.cn>

 Applications Area Director(s):
     Chris Newman  <chris.newman@sun.com>
     Lisa Dusseault  <lisa@osafoundation.org>

 Applications Area Advisor:
     Chris Newman  <chris.newman@sun.com>

 Mailing Lists: 
     General Discussion:ima@ietf.org
     To Subscribe:      https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ima
     Archive:           http://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ima/index.html

Description of Working Group:

Since early in the effort to internationalize domain names, which
resulted in the standards associated with IDNA, it has been
understood that internationalization of email address local parts is
required. At the same time, email address internationalization poses
a series of special problems. Constraints on the interpretation of 
local-parts by any system other than the final delivery one make 
address encoding nearly impossible. The need to use addresses in both 
the email envelope and in header fields, and to do so in ways that are 
at least compatible, suggests that this is not a simple and isolated 
problem.

This working group will address one basic approach to email
internationalization. That approach is based on the use of an SMTP
extension to enable both the use of UTF-8 in envelope address local-
parts and optionally in domain-parts and the use of UTF-8 in mail
headers -- both in address contexts and wherever encoded-words are
permitted today. Its initial target will be a set of experimental
RFCs that specify the details of this approach and provide the basis
for generating and testing interoperable implementations. Its work
will include examining whether "downgrading" -- transforming an
internationalized message to one that is compatible with unextended
SMTP clients and servers and unextended MUAs -- is feasible and
appropriate and, if it is, specifying a way to do so. If it is not,
the WG will evaluate whether the effort is worth taking forward.
Other approaches may be considered by the formation of other
working groups.

Key parts of this effort include extended analyses and, if necessary,
proof of concept in three areas in addition to smooth operation when
all systems and components along a message path have been upgraded to
support the new facilities. They are

o Examination of scenarios for the appearance of these facilities to
users, including ways in which alternate addresses may be
specified if those are needed for downgrading.
o Examination of different locations at which downgrading might be
required and accomplished, differentiating between requirements
and capabilities at the point of origin (at or before the
submission server), those that exist while the message is in
transit, and those that apply after SMTP "final delivery" or in
the logical vicinity or an IMAP or POP server.
o Examination of the "mailing list question", i.e., how a mixture of
traditional and internationalized addresses on a mailing list will
impact message flows, error reports, and delivery notifications in
all plausible combinations of servers and addresses, including
internationalizated and traditional reverse paths.

Once the Experimental RFCs are completed and implemented, the
experience gathered will be evaluated. If the approach is found to
have been successful (using criteria the WG will establish as an
early work item), the WG will be rechartered to update the documents
for processing onto the standards track.

1.6. Deliverables

The following deliverables are foreseen in this charter. The WG
chairs may structure the deliverables into specific documents
or document sets as needed. Adding or removing documents
outside of these deliverables will require a charter update.

o Overview and architecture (Info)
o Interworking scenarios, including the "mailing list question"
(Info)
o SMTP extensions specification (Exp)
o Header format specification (Exp)
o Downgrading specification in SMTP (Exp)
o Downgrading specification in POP servers (Exp)
o Downgrading specificatio
n in IMAP servers (Exp)
o Results and evaluation of experiment (Info)

Going forward, it is possible that the SMTP downgrading specification
will go for Informational due to the difficulty of fully specifying
all necessary behavior.

Additional possible documents suggested:
Advice for MUA implementors (Info)

 Goals and Milestones:

   Done         Overview/architecture draft first 

   Done         Interworking scenarios first draft 

   Done         SMTP Extensions first draft 

   Done         Header format first draft 

   Done         Downgrading in IMAP first draft 

   Done         Downgrading in SMTP first draft 

   Jun 2006       Overview/architecture draft to IESG 

   Jun 2006       Interworking scenarios to IESG 

   Done         Downgrading in POP first draft 

   Sep 2006       SMTP Extensions to IESG 

   Sep 2006       Header format to IESG 

   Sep 2006       Downgrading in SMTP to IESG 

   Sep 2006       Downgrading in POP to IESG 

   Sep 2006       Downgrading in IMAP to IESG 

   Dec 2006       Results and evaluation first draft 

   Mar 2007       Results and evaluation to IESG 

   Mar 2007       Group recharter for standards track 


 Internet-Drafts:

Posted Revised         I-D Title   <Filename>
------ ------- --------------------------------------------
May 2006 Mar 2007   <draft-ietf-eai-smtpext-04.txt>
                SMTP extension for internationalized email address 

May 2006 Feb 2007   <draft-ietf-eai-scenarios-02.txt>
                UTF-8 Mail: Scenarios 

May 2006 Feb 2007   <draft-ietf-eai-framework-05.txt>
                Overview and Framework for Internationalized Email 

May 2006 Mar 2007   <draft-ietf-eai-downgrade-03.txt>
                Downgrading mechanism for Email Address Internationalization 

May 2006 Mar 2007   <draft-ietf-eai-imap-utf8-01.txt>
                IMAP Support for UTF-8 

Jun 2006 Mar 2007   <draft-ietf-eai-utf8headers-04.txt>
                Internationalized Email Headers 

Jun 2006 Jan 2007   <draft-ietf-eai-mailinglist-01.txt>
                Mailing Lists and Internationalized Email Addresses 

Jun 2006 Jan 2007   <draft-ietf-eai-pop-01.txt>
                POP3 Support for UTF-8 

Jan 2007 Jan 2007   <draft-ietf-eai-dsn-00.txt>
                International Delivery and Disposition Notifications 

 Request For Comments:

  None to date.