Tina Dam - IDN TLD Expert & gTLD Consultant - ICANN Internationalized Domain Names - IDNs ccTLD

Tina Dam, an Internet/DNS veteran and ex-ICANN Director, is the co-founder of MyTLD.com, a gTLD management and consulting company that specializes in launching and managing new ICANN Top-Level Domain (TLD) names,Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and Search Engine Optimized (SEO) TLD platforms for Fortune 500 Brands, Companies, Governments and Industries. Tina is also the COO of .MUSIC (dotMusic).

Tina Dam has been on the forefront of Internet technology and the domain industry for over a decade. Tina's leadership played a vital role in shaping the latest effort in transforming Internet architecture and the domain name name system into a truly global platform by launching Internationalized domain names in different languages and scripts. She was also named as one of the Top 10 Talents in IT by the leading Danish tech magazine Nyheds.

Tina Dam served as ICANN's Senior Director for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)s, where she developed and managed all IDN related projects at ICANN. She is considered the industry authority for launching new Internationalized Domain Names and played a pivotal role in launching new IDN ccTLDs (Country-Code Top-Level Domains). She was responsible for writing and executing the implementation of IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process.

The IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process enabled countries and territories, that use languages based on scripts other than Latin, to offer their Internet users domain names in non-Latin characters. Under guidance and expertise of Tina, the ICANN Board, and the technical community, ICANN has opened the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process to allow countries that use non-Latin based languages to also request top-level domains that reflect their country's name in local scripts. Under Tina's leadership, ICANN was successful in making history on the Internet by launching top-level domains in new languages and scripts for countries such as Russia [For example, http://президент.рф (president), http://правительство.рф (government). Currently 34 requests have been made to ICANN, representing 22 languages, and 35 new IDN ccTLDs have been inserted in the DNS root-zone so they can be used on the Internet.

New IDN ccTLDs that have launched include three using the Arabic alphabet, ‏مصر.‎, ‏السعودية.‎ and ‏امارات.‎ (for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, respectively), and one using Cyrillic, .рф (for Russia). Five new IDN ccTLDs using Chinese characters were approved in June 2010: .中国 with variant .中國 (for mainland China), .香港 (for Hong Kong), and .台灣 with variant .台湾 (for Taiwan). 

Tina joined ICANN in 2003 as Chief gTLD Registry Liaison at a time where ICANN was undergoing significant organizational changes. She was responsible for developing ICANN's gTLD Registry functions including defining, managing, and implementing processes in accordance with consensus policies and ICANN agreements for servicing the gTLD registries. Early on she took the challenge of introducing IDN  TLDs, which was completed in 2010.

Tina is a frequent speaker at Internet and DNS Industry events. Conferences include: ICANN meetings, Business Access meetings, and Regional Gatherings; Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) events; Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association (APTLD) events; Latin American and Caribbean TLD Association (LACTLD); DNS Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) Meetings; Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Meetings; Domain Round Tables events; and many more.

She also have developed IDN focused videos and provided presentations and tutorials for the U.S Department of Commerce, law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, universities, and all ICANN supporting organizations and advisory committees, such as Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), Country-Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO), Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC).

Prior to ICANN she worked with several companies in the DNS community, including ICANN-accredited registrar Ascio Technologies (formerly known as SpeedNames) where she oversaw the launches of the .biz, .info, and .name top-level domains, and managed the development of all related internal and external products and product marketing materials. At ASCIO all eligible ccTLDs were also implemented to cater to an international customer base. Prior to Ascio, Tina was Systems Architecture Engineer at Navision Software a/s, establishing the architecture design of the company's next generation of products.

Tina holds a Master of Science in Mathematics and Physics from the Aalborg University in Denmark and a BBA in Marketing Management and International Trade from Copenhagen Business School.

ICANN experience and accomplishments includes:

• Development the gTLD Registry Liaison Department at ICANN from the bottom up.
• Development and implementation of new DNS policies, including defining gTLD registry processes and procedures in accordance with ICANN Agreements.
• Documentation, development, and implementation of ICANN's early business processes which greatly increased the efficiency of the organization.
• Development of close and confidential relationships with ICANN partners globally.
• Management of training of gTLD Registry staff and ICANN colleagues in the legal framework under which the gTLD Registry Liaison Department operates.
• Management and implementation of ICANN required policies, including negotiations with Registries and presentations and advisories to the ICANN Board in their decision-making capacity.
• Development of the early ICANN Compliance Program.
• Managment of ICANN internal and external cross functional working groups and project teams, including development of ICANN's initial project management approach. 
• Project lead on internal and external projects such as, new gTLD analysis, re-assignment of .net, RFP for new sponsored TLD’s, Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy, strategy and policy for introduction of new TLDs, and other projects that included broad comunity and global participation.
• Assisted in strategic preparation for Governmental Hearings including preparation of reports, speeches and presentations.
• Management of all ICANN IDN workshops.
• Management and execution of all ICANN IDN programs and projects, including revision of IDN guidelines, development of the IANA repository for IDN TLD practices, technical IDN TLD experiments, review and authorization of registries and their IDN implementations, development of policies concerning the introduction of IDN TLDs, and so forth.
• Development and implementation of the ICANN IDN ccTLD Fast Track Program for introduction of new IDN ccTLDs for countries and territories.
• Execution and evaulation of received IDN ccTLD requests, resulting in the introduction of more than 35 IDN ccTLDs, representing over 20 languages for close to 30 countries and territories. These includes: Algeria, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE and many more.
• Liaison to various linguistic and technical committees and working groups in the IDN field, including IETF, IAB, SSAC, UTC, UNESCO, ARAB League, AFRNIC, and many more.

Tina has been featured in television, radio, online, and print media, including the CNN,BBC, CBS,CNET, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Associated Press,  Al-Jazeera, Inc, Techcrunch, Mashable, PC Mag, Computer World, ZDnet and other major media outlets and blogs across the world. 

Contact Tina: 

Email: tina@mytld.com
Mobile: +1-310-862-2026

Video's with Tina:

ICANN Director Tina Dam CNN Video Interview with Richard Quest on the Internationalized Domain Name (IDN ccTLD) Launch (2010) 

ICANN Director Tina Dam CNN Video Interview  on launching Internationalized Domain Names (IDN ccTLDs) (2010)

IDN Fellows Video, IDN TLD usability explanations, ICANN meeting South Korea, written by Tina Dam, produced by domaine.info, assisted by Janice Lange ICANN (2009).

Backstage recording of the IDN Fellows Video at ICANN South Korea meeting, written by Tina Dam, executed by Domaine.info, assisted by Janice Lange ICANN (2009).

ICANN Egypt meeting, Tina Dam and Karla Valente introduces new IDN TLDs activities (2008)

IDN TLD test launch with Tina Dam and ICANN (2007)

Introductions to IDNs and ICANN by Tina Dam (2007)

Virtual Tour of ICANN Office, Marina del Rey, CA, by Tina Dam with domaine.info (2007)