1. EAI: Email Address Internationalization Harald Alvestrand Xiaodong Lee

2. Purpose Specify an experimental protocol extension for SMTP that allows –Äccënt@særetegn.no as an email addressÄccënt@særetegn.no –”plain” UTF-8 representation of text in message headers Corresponding changes to headers, POP, IMAP, mailing lists as needed Gateway spec between SMTP and the ”new world”

3. Mechanism Label for work: UTF8SMTP Use a SMTP extension to keep extended messages inside the UTF8SMTP context Specify downgrading of messages Specify address handling at downgrade –Do NOT specify an address conversion algorithm –Instead, send along an ”alternate address”

4. Status of work ”Framework” document nearly finished –Describes overview and principles Mechanism drafts for SMTP extension, header extension, downgrade, IMAP, POP, mailing lists in progress Some early implementation work done –No deeply dangerous issues uncovered so far

5. Controversial aspects Alt-address vs ”encoded” address –Decided on alt-address only Encapsulation vs conversion at downgrade –Decided on conversion Exact format for alt-address representation – > current leader Representation of ”lost” info after downgrade

6. Timeline Original plan: Finished by October Current plan: Finished before March –Dependent on quality of mailing list discussion –More people experimenting would be nice Next meeting: Thursday at 1300