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A “top-level” domain,TLD, is what comes after the last dot in a domain name. The most commonly known top-level domains are .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO and .BIZ. There are also country-specific top-level domains, such as .NG for Nigeria, .EG for Egypt and .AO for Angola.

How are new top-level domains coming to market

On June 26, 2008  ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers,  a non-profit organization formed to manage the technical concerns of the Internet) adopted the policy recommendations of the gNSO(generic Names Supporting Organization, one of the groups that coordinate global internet policy at ICANN ) for the establishment of the new gTLDs and announced the “Biggest Domain Name Expansion” in the history of the Internet. Thus opening the domain space to allow any public or private organization from anywhere in the world to register any string of letters as a gTLD (Generic Top Level Domain).

On June 20th 2011, the ICANN Board of Directors approved the new gTLD program that will allow brands, organizations ,regions and communities to turn their own brands or names into Top Level Domain name extensions or create broad generic strings like .car .cafe etc.

“ICANN has opened the Internet’s addressing system to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination. No one can predict where this historic decision will take us,” said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN during the occasion.

Who is DotConnectAfrica?

DotConnectAfrica (DCA) is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization registered in Mauritius, Africa, Reg.ID CT8710DCA90, which was inspired to come to fruition to coordinate the implementation of the .Africa initiative.At the same time, to address the lack of adequate internet policy in Africa and and acknowledgment of the impact of the policy in widening the gaps of the digital divide.
DCA seeks to assist in the strategic coordination of government internet policies, establish policy priorities, offer new policy choices, and ensure that the implications of internet policy options are fully considered.DCA encourages all stakeholders to participate in this dialogue, in particular the African Diaspora.

What is the governance structure of DotConnectAfrica?

The governance structure for DotConnectAfrica is made up of a consortium of public-private partnership to include sponsor organizations and co-sponsor members, businesses, non-profit – NGOs and other relevant African organizations and individuals in the region. Read More

Why should I or my  organization join DotConnectAfrica’s  initiative?

There are many reasons that you or your organisation should join DCA’s DotAfrica initiative.Please read our mission and accomplishments.

What should we do if we want to join the DotConnectAfrica’s initiative?

If your affiliated organisation would like to join DCA’s initiative, please contact eoi@dotconnectafrica.org. If you would like to join as an individual, email us at yes2dotafrica@dotconnectafrica.org .

When can I get a .Africa Domain?

The process of application for New Top Level Domains will begin on 12th, January 2012 and end on 12th April, 2012. You can refer to the “Timeline” below for information about the Process:

Photo Courtesy ICANN

Photo Courtesy United Domains

Can I Pre-Register a .Africa Domain?

Names cannot be registered until the DotConnectAfrica Registry has started to work, so pre-registration of names is not possible in the .africa Top Level Domain.

DotConnectAfrica however understands that some registrars are already offering to “pre-register” or “reserve” .africa domain names by offering to make registration applications as soon as the registration process formally begins. These services are not illegal but cannot be considered exactly as “pre-registrations” since they are nonbinding and do not grant any rights to the applicants.

Given a risk of confusion and even fraud, consumers and companies are encouraged to check exactly what is and what is not being offered. In case in doubt, please contact us for further clarification.

How much will a domain name cost?

Each ICANN accredited registrar (domain retailer) determines its own prices and policies for domain name registrations. In addition, most registrars offer additional services, such as Web site hosting, that may be of interest to you.

Where will I get a .AFRICA domain name when it’s available?

You will be able to register .AFRICA domain names through any .africa accredited registrars (domain retailers). These will be announced at the appropriate time.

What are the valid characters and valid lengths for domain names?

.AFRICA names can contain the English-language letters A through Z, and the digits 0 through 9. You can also use hyphens, but hyphens cannot begin or end your domain name. Spaces and special characters (such as !, $, &, ? and so on) are never permitted. The minimum length is 3 characters, and the maximum length is 63 characters

Who can register names under .AFRICA TLD?

Legal entities within the African region (defined by ICANN as Africa region; see http://www.icann.org/montreal/geo-regions-topic.htm) can register names under .AFRICA TLD.

Even as we increasingly discover that every facet of our modern lives now revolve around, and are dependent on the Internet, for which reason its availability, functionality, safety, stability and security are now of great and continuing concern to all of us. These issues have a profound impact on its overall governance.

To most of us, during the past three decades, the Internet has always been available, stable, afforable and open; and it should continue this way even as it is controlled and administered in a secure manner – and we should all have a say on how it should be governed – based on a largely consensus-driven, multi-stakeholder process. The current debate over the architecture of current and future Internet governance would indeed affect how the Internet evolves and shapes up in the coming years. We all have a stake in that expected outcome.

Some governments continue to push for an ITU-led Internet governance model that is subject to the direct oversight of the multilateral United Nations, and its overarching General Assembly of 193 countries and nation-states. The countries pushing for this would like to see an end to the present model that is entirely a U.S.-government led process (overseen by the NTIA of the Department of Commerce) largely pivoted on U.S.-based institutions such as ICANN, IANA, etc. that is considered too ‘open’ and ‘hegemonic’ – that is, by viewing the U.S. as a ‘global Internet hegemon’, and believing rightly or wrongly that its ‘governance’ or ‘dominance’ role over the Internet should be severely curtailed.

The argument in support of the status quo is that U.S.-based organizations such as ICANN already try their utmost to serve a global public interest with a Board of Directors and other Policy Advisory Bodies and Councils that are multistakeholder in composition, and having their membership drawn from many countries and different regions of the world, thus giving global citizens an opportunity to participate in global Internet Governance, for example, in the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and At-Large Organizations.

If the United States House of Representatives is now introducing legislation to bar the UN Regulation of the Internet, then it only implies one thing. The Empire is fighting back!
It is quite apparent that the U.S. would view UN governance of the Internet as ‘anathema’. The U.S. invented the Internet and its potential as an America public diplomacy tool has grown over the years, to the chagrin of those countries that are clamoring for U.N. oversight of global Internet Governance.

Moreover, the Internet is already viewed as the birthright of every American, and to subject that right to the external oversight of the UN, and the ‘regulatory’ voices of other countries would be deemed unacceptable by the U.S. Congress. The battle lines are already drawn.

Irrespective of the geo-political calculations that underpin the intricacies of these global affairs issues, I urge we should remains fully committed to the multi-stakeholder model of Internet Governance and should continue to rally unconditional support for it.

I believe that this is the only guarantee for an open, stable, secure, and scalable Internet that has already evolved and will continue to evolve and expand to meet the diverse needs of a globalized 21st century society, and this paradigm should be preserved and protected and defended.

An open, inclusive, participatory, multi-stakeholder Internet goes beyond ordinary ‘Internet governance’, and is really about whether people should be free in a global society.

It is all about the Universal Right to Freedom, and the UN, the main guarantor of Human and People’s Rights, should not be unwittingly used as a tool to rein in that sacrosanct freedom bestowed on people everywhere by a Free Internet in the name of an ITU-led and controlled Internet governance architecture.

Is it not ironic that a multi-lateral UN-ITU led Internet governance process is not aimed at guaranteeing a multi-stakeholder Internet?

On one hand this should be worrisome, but on the other hand, is a food for thought as we all try to follow, and formulate our different opinions in this global debate over the governance of a resource that affects all our lives.

During the recent ICANN International Meeting at Costa Rica which I had attended, Mr. Hartmut Glaser, the LACNIC representative and Executive Secretary of CGI had remarked in his opening address: “I believe that Internet use should be steered by the principles of freedom of speech, individual privacy, and respect for human rights… “adding that “Internet governance must be transparent, multilateral, and democratic, with the participation of several segments of society preserving and fostering its collective creation nature.” Such a resonant view remains highly representative of the opinions of many in the global ICANN Internet Community who remain deeply committed to a multi-stakeholder Internet governance model anchored on a democratic ethos and the core principles of human and societal freedoms.

Finally, if the Internet was built by the tireless efforts of committed mutistakeholders who contributed millions of ‘comments’ that resulted in the rapid and sustainable development of its core ‘RFC’ technologies, architecture and standards, then its governance should also remain perpetually multi-stakeholder-based. Anything short of this would go against the very spirit of the Internet.

This Commentary is originally published on CircleID

With the latest applicant record falling at 290 in the TAS , there is critical information that applicants needed to gather and from the New gTLD Program Update session here are just a few of the information that you might just need to go as you go on with your application:

An interesting factor among the new application round is the existence of a defensive gTLD application: this is defined as an application that is designed with protections for certain interests and rights, this type of application may not necessarily be a commercial entity but will only be applied to protect interests that are regarded as closed to a certain group of persons or community.

If you successfully apply and you qualify you will get a fee reduction to $47,000 or staggered payment option where the payment method is more flexible until the finalization, according to ICANN there are 14 such  organizations and individuals seeking  support from Senegal, Ecuador, Germany, British Virgin Islands, India, USA, Canada, Cameroon, and South Africa . The body in charge of the support deployment is the Independent Support Applicant Review Panel (SARP) who will review applications

ICANN board has authorized $2,000,000 for an initial 14 applicants whose eligibility will be determined by the panel selected. This session elicited many questions with delegates specifically asking how the selection process for the 14 qualifying applicants for the grants would be selected, however it remains to be when who will qualify .

The EOI was in published 3 February and runs through to 31st  March , this EOI Seeks individuals from ICANN’s community and independent experts , and the actual number of panelists based on applications

The eminent panel member selection and training will be implemented in collaboration with JAS WG  Since the number of applications is expected to be well over 500, ICANN will use batching to schedule the applications, and the exact way to batch hasn’t been yet reached, however there will be a variety of ways to be considered i.e.  Random selection, Auction, First come, first served, Online batching system (“Secondary Timestamp”) .However, Will be used if natural batches cannot be created a three criteria to determine batches. i.e.  Applicant’s batching preference (i.e., an opt-in/opt-out mechanism); A non-random priority number assigned in a secondary registration; and Geographic diversity.

This is a critical fact that following the discussions we believe that ICANN is well prepared to handle the matters that will arise during this application period and especially now that there will be a huge upsurge of numbers within which ICANN will have to properly batch to be able to fully handle the applications.

Our favorite quotes at the opening speech of ICANN:

” I believe that Internet use should be steered by the principles of freedom of speech, individual privacy, and respect for human rights… “adding that “Internet governance must be transparent, multilateral, and democratic, with the participation of several segments of society preserving and fostering its collective creation nature.” Mr. HARTMUT GLASER,  LACNIC representative and Chief Executive Secretary of CGI.br

Dr. Steve Crocker, Chairman of the Board of ICANN:

Dr.Crocker singled out the expansive growth that has been the culture attributed to the successful startup initiatives that have been created by people, individuals that have revolutionized the internet portal saying “ He traces the evolution of WWW from its inception exclaiming …”.the Worldwide Web was created by physicists in Switzerland, that eBay revolutionized auctions, Amazon revolutionized the retail sales of books first and then many other things. Google revolutionized search. Skype and Twitter and Facebook would all come about from individual initiatives in the least expected places.” This only goes to show the unlimited nature of online activity and the benefits of entrepreneurship that has blasted organizations to multibillionaires.”

ICANN Costa Rica

Delegates from all parts of the world have this month gathered in San Jose Costa Rica. The host country in Central America.Costa Rica, which means “Rich Coast”, which means “Rich Coast”, has an interesting history having constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949.

It’s one of the greenest countries in the world thriving with a rich ecosystem that could not escape ICANN CEO ,Rod Beckstrom’s opening speech saying  “Few places on earth can rival Costa Rica and its vast variety of plants, animals, and insects. Despite its relatively small size, it is home to almost 5% of the world’s species including more than a thousand species of butterflies alone”.

The meeting which hosted delegates from all over the world was also attended by our very own Director and founder of DCA, Ms. Sophia Bekele who had the opportunity to attend and participate in discussions.  She was one of the delegates representing the African continent. This is the 43rd convention organized since the inception of ICANN.

Mr Rod beckstrom recognized and thanked AFRALO the main organizes of Dakar 42 meeting hosted in Senegal Africa terming it spectacular saying that Participation in the monthly AFRALO teleconferences has risen 30% since Dakar.

Her Excellency President, Laura Chinchilla who days before the ICANN 43 meeting declared meeting as a public interest event in Costa Rica, calling government agencies and the private sector alike to collaborate . She noted that the meeting was taking place at an important time in history where a new address regime IPv6 had been introduced and urged its adoption.

She recognized the rapid development of the web 2.0 and the concerns about the attempts to regulate internet saying in part “The legitimate concerns on the field of privacy, security, and protection of intellectual property should not become an excuse to justify trends seeking to exercise highly restrictive controls on cyberspace.”

Massacre the dissidents but don't Show wrong doing on this DotAfrica thing

The attention of the Yes2DotAfrica Campaign has been drawn to various media reports published on Internet web sites (for example, www.mybroadband.co.za and www.businessdailyafrica.com regarding the putative selection of UniForum S.A. as the registry operator of the DotAfrica gTLD by the African Union Commission (AUC).  Some other Internet media reports also mention that UniForum has received an ‘endorsement from the AU’ for the administration of the DotAfrica gTLD.

Most of these reports are quite misleading since a firm cannot be selected to administer a domain that has not yet been delegated, even as we understand the very impossibility of the African Union mainstreaming itself strategically within a particular proposal in a policy-oversight role whilst also playing the tactical role of a ‘self-endorsing’ entity in order to singularly control the fate of DotAfrica. It is therefore important to set the records straight in the global public interest

Against the backdrop that DCA already received the AU endorsement for DotAfrica since 2009, and despite several dishonest attempts to deny or invalidate and withdraw the endorsement through various acts of sabotage including using a forged letter of unknown provenance, DCA has remained steadfast and undaunted;  and has continued with its independent promotional campaign in pursuit of its objective of applying for DotAfrica through the ICANN new gTLD programme, .

Therefore, DCA would like to issue this statement in reaction to these misleading and deceptive news reports that have been published (or ‘planted’) on Internet web sites with the sole objective of manipulating public opinion and giving false momentum to UniForum’s DotAfrica application prospects.

1. 1. We hereby denounce the entire exercise as illegitimate and all those who are party to it, including the members of the AU Task Force on DotAfrica, have participated in an act of illegality. In the not too distant future, they will all be called to account fully for their actions.
2. 2. In addition to this public denunciation of a very illegitimate exercise that only gives credence to the fact that UniForum is now the principal beneficiary of wholesale illegality, we hereby warn any prospective collaborators not to associate themselves with this tainted process; and also use this opportunity to unequivocally warn SEDARI not to cooperate with them and allow  itself to be used to render any strategic, technical, or registry management services advise in connection with the DotAfrica gTLD; but to stay away from this initiative, and not soil its international image in a corrupt process that we believe is already associated with the selection of UniForum. By openly announcing its cooperation with UniForum in this matter, we believe that SEDARI will be joining itself to illegality by cooperating with UniForum, and the expected benefits of such cooperation will pale in comparison to the reputational risk that it will suffer.

3. The Yes2DotAfrica Campaign had already identified many problems with the AU RFP in December 2011, and DCA has decided at a very early stage not to participate in the AU RFP process to select an operator for the DotAfrica registry. For this reason, Yes2DotAfrica will not accept any questionable endorsement or selection of UniForum that is the putative outcome of a flawed and illegitimate exercise.

If it is generally accepted that the DotAfrica gTLD does not belong to the African Union (AU) but to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), how could the AU legitimately select a registry operator for a gTLD that it does not own?

4. If the as yet un-delegated gTLD namespace rightfully belonged to the African Union, then ICANN would have given it to them following their official request in Dakar Senegal to have the DotAfrica name, and similar strings in any language included in the Top-Level Reserved Names List for their sole benefit. In our view, the ICANN Board’s equable decision not to reserve this name for the AU was a total repudiation of the e-sovereignty concept. If ICANN by its very decision during the last quarter of 2011 not to reserve the DotAfrica name for the AU already determined, ipso facto, that the un-delegated DotAfrica gTLD does not belong to the African Union, why should we give any credence to the questionable selection of UniForum as the registry operator of DotAfrica in a process overseen by the AU DotAfrica Task Force acting under the aegis of the African Union?

5.  We strongly believe that the AU is simply one stakeholder in a multi-stakeholder process,  and cannot single-handedly outsource, or contract with any organization or participate in the process of selecting a registry operator for a DotAfrica gTLD that it does not own, nor is within its right to delegate. The AU cannot mainstream itself within a particular proposal and endorse the same proposal when it does not possess any sovereignty or ownership over DotAfrica gTLD as an Internet resource that belongs legally to ICANN.

6. We wish to inform the global public that the entire process was fraught with  irregularities and injustice, favoritism and conflict of interest, when critically examined from every angle, completely falls short of the proper ethical standards of probity and accountability. First, the executives of UniForum SA had attempted to use Domain Names Services (Pty) Ltd.  (DNS) (a company wholly owned by them) to perpetrate a questionable tie-up with Convergence Investment Partners (CIP) and consummate the formation of the African Registry Consortium (ARC), and when this was exposed by the Yes2DotAfrica Campaign as a potential BEE scam that reeked of rent-seeking and business opportunism, the ARC arrangement failed.

7.   The question that we should all ask is: how did the executives of UniForum who had attempted the formation of ARC with the BEE Group, and when that effort failed due to lack of community support and AU endorsement, the same executives are now claiming in the media that they have been selected and endorsed by the AU to run the DotAfrica registry? It is quite obvious that these same management – and  directors of DNS (Pty.) Ltd. – who failed in their potential BEE scam over ARC have now decided to run the gauntlet themselves and try to launder their image afresh with the African Union Commission.   These people should be thoroughly investigated, and not lionized for having been illegitimately selected to operate a DotAfrica registry that is not within the powers of the African Union to delegate.

8. We believe that it is important to sensitize all those who believe in justice, truth, honesty and accountability all over the world to hold the AU up to the strictest ethical standards in this matter, and let them explain how this matter was handled that resulted in the selection of a discredited special interest group that comprises of potential BEE scammers and their cohorts  in the AU DotAfrica Task Force, a Cabal that, following the failure of the ARC proposal (‘Plan A’), is now using UniForum, a non-profit, as a convenient existing vehicle (‘Plan B’) to foster their illegitimate objectives  with a view to gaining respectability before the global public.

9. We urge the AU Commission, as a respected inter-governmental organization, to act like ICANN whose gTLD programme activities in the global public interest compels it to be transparent and accountable in its transactions including recording and publishing every necessary information such as Board discussions and minutes for the consumption of the global public.

10. Therefore, we hereby challenge the African Union to act immediately in the greater interest of global public transparency and accountability, to release forthwith, the details of the EOI process and the RFP;

1. indicate which firms and organizations participated in it,
2. what they had each proposed;
3. how they were evaluated,
4. what merit-based system was employed in the evaluation of the respective proposals,
5. the relative scores obtained by each evaluated participant,
6. the final rankings and how the decision was arrived at to select UniForum South Africa as ‘an African-based registry’;
7. the final evaluation committee minutes that were taken during the meeting to decide on the selection,
8. the names of those who assented to those minutes;
9. the decision of the AU Tenders Board to approve the selection of UniForum S.A.

10.  and the official signatories to that decision

11.  and finally make a full disclosure of all these through a public media announcement.

11.  We also call upon the ICANN Governmental Advisory Council (GAC) and all African governments including those represented at ICANN to hold the African Union Commission satisfy all these aspects of probity and insist that it conforms to these ideals of transparency and accountability over DotAfrica and make full disclosure as detailed under (10) above.

12. We reaffirm our faith in the ICANN-led process as the only transparent structure that we shall follow over DotAfrica, and insist that the eventual fate of DotAfrica can only be determined by ICANN, the only organization empowered to create DotAfrica and introduce it into the root zone of the Internet.

Until the application season is over, and all gTLD applications are subsequently evaluated and legitimate winners announced by ICANN, we believe that it is very premature for UniForum to presumptuously undertake any unnecessary self-promotion in the media that it has been selected to operate the DotAfrica registry by an inter-governmental organization that does not have the pertinent rights to the resource.

No one is fooled. Pride goeth before a fail.  If UniForum had indeed been selected by the African Union, then a formal announcement should have been made by AU. In the absence of any such official confirmation, we think UniForum has simply been seeking cheap publicity whilst engaging in media manipulation.

13.  We reiterate that the AU’s selection of a registry operator for a gTLD resource that it does not own is legally problematic, and does not in any way constitute a legitimate endorsement, and, as we shall continue to demonstrate, these types of activities by UniForum and their cohorts within the AU DotAfrica Task Force only highlight the difficult road ahead for DotAfrica.

14. We hereby call on all the supporters of DCA in Africa and other continents and regions to remain steadfast and unperturbed, since we remain totally committed to this struggle for the achievement of an open and independent DotAfrica gTLD and keep it free from the clutches and sinister influence of the Cabal which intends to hijack it by any means necessary.

Having therefore issued this open warning to UniForum and the AU to beware of wrongdoing over DotAfrica, if the eventual delegation of DotAfrica is continuously delayed, or Africans are denied the opportunity of realizing their vision of having the first ever geographic TLD for the benefit of the people of the continent, history will record the role played by these two organizations in this matter for the harsh judgment of posterity. We also believe that the executives of UniForum S.A. will be severally and collectively called to account and will not be spared the same harsh judgment for whatever role they have played in this saga.

The harshest judgment will be reserved for the members of AU DotAfrica Task Force who inveigled the AU to deviate from the right path over DotAfrica. First, they preached the idea of uniting all Africans under a community-driven agenda, but have now turned around instead to promote a South African agenda that is now represented by UniForum and its self-serving executives.

Public Communications Team

Yes2DotAfrica Campaign

Nairobi, Kenya, 05 March 2012

Read more on Press Release :

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs053/1102516344150/archive/1109462804750.html

http://www.dotconnectafrica.org/2012/03/pride-goeth-fail-african-union-uniforum-sa-should-beware-wrongdoing-dotafrica/

Related Articles on UNIFORUM,  founders of ARC and AU EOI/RFP Process:

-DCA: Yes2dotAfrica Campaign say “NO” to African Union RFP (11/23/2011)

-Say ”NO” to the Masquerade ’African Agenda’ for Dakar and the Illegal Cabal Supporting It!

-Say NO to DotAfrica CABAL (Whither DotAfrica amidst Confusion, Promiscuity and…)

-Say NO to African Registry Consortium  (ARC)

-Beware: DotAfrica has been hi-jacked by new gTLD cuckoos

-DCA REJOINDER:African Union requests proposals for.africa domain registry

-Yes2DotAfrica Campaign say “NO” to African Union “EOI”

-DCA Alarmed over AU Unofficial mandate over dotafrica registry

-DCA REJOINDER: African Union and the .Africa debate

DotConnectAfrica (DCA) hereby wishes to announce that effective 10th January 2012,  Ms. Njeri Rionge is no longer affiliated to DCA as a member of the DCA Strategic Advisory Board.

At the end of 2011, Ms. Njeri Rionge had expressed to DCA Executive Director, a direct interest in competing for the soon to be vacant ICANN CEO position, and for this reason, was kindly requested by DCA to submit her resignation from the DCA Strategic Advisory Board for ethical/conflict of interest reasons.

This was done after due internal consultations with concerned parties.  Accordingly, Njeri Rionge is no longer involved in DCA and DCA Registry Ltd either as a Board Member or shareholder and will not represent neither would she be affiliated with DCA in any capacity, now or in the near future.

ICANN Global Internet Community, AfriCANN Community and other public and international authorities are to take note of this announcement.

A copy of this notification/disclaimer has also been posted on the official web site of DCA (http://www.dotconnectafrica.org/)

We wish Ms. Njeri Rionge well in her future endeavours.

Yours sincerely,
Sbekele
Sophia Bekele
Executive Director/CEO
DotConnectAfrica

2011 – It seemed that the whole world was in crisis.  The natural disasters, the Euro-zone sovereign debt crisis, the Arab spring, the Norway Utoya massacre, Internet  Governance,  global protests on social media, not to exclude DCA’s “No Campaigns” to ensure that DotAfrica was not hijacked by special interests; thus making peace a rare commodity in sight.

Once again, goodbye 2011 and welcome to 2012 –  We all start with optimism towards a brand new year, as we  are thankful that we survived  the past year.

Myself, I decided to spend my year-end holiday at Malindi, the Central Coast of Kenya by the Indian Ocean.  Although it was too hot for a scuba diving vacation, which was my original objective,  I have found myself rather busy whilst spending much of my time hotel hopping and indulging on the amazing assortment of seafood in this seaside town.

What I found  exciting was the amazing growth I  was witnessing all over the country which made my decision to take a drive instead of a flight to Malindi a worth while experience.

Even though, I had wanted to get my mind off my work on “.africa”,  I  could not help but make mental note notes of all the brand names expanding  throughout  the country and the potential for a “.africa” in practically everything conceivable;

2011 was indeed a very interesting and unforgettable year. It had its share of natural disasters, environmental pollution, humanitarian emergencies, civil strife, armed conflict, economic crises, and some positive developments too.
For Africa, 2011 started with civil strife and revolution in North Africa that saw the overthrow of three Heads of States in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.  Political turmoil and armed conflict has resulted in societies in transition as the old order of dictatorship has given way to a promising democratic future.
Internet-based social media has been credited as an enabling tool in this process of social change as protestors took advantage of Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and other  social networks on the Internet to mobilize themselves, report on the revolution and communicate with a global audience.

Japan witnessed a devastating earthquake and Tsunami which also caused severe damages to the Fukushima nuclear plant thereby causing radiation leakage and contamination.
Europe witnessed a deterioration of its sovereign debt problem and further crises in the Euro-zone as several countries sought to be bailed out of the financial and economic mess they found themselves.  The credit rating of many countries had to be downgraded.

The need for greater financial accountability in an increasingly globalized world where ordinary people now have a stronger voice (in this age of social media) to express their grievances has spurned various protest movements such as Occupy Wall Street, Occupy London and Occupy Frankfurt.

Economic anxieties and debt have caused demonstrators to take to the streets to express their frustrations and ask for more accountability on the part of international and high-street banks which most people blame for their economic woes.These have had such a great resounding impact on a global scale that Time Magazine named the Protester as its 2011 Person of the Year.

Africa with its ‘usual problems’ seemed to be the most stable place in the world during 2011.
For those of us concerned with global Internet governance, June brought with it, the great news of the ICANN Board’s approval at Singapore of the expansion of the Internet through the adoption of a comprehensive programme to radically transform the Internet Domain Name system (DNS) and introduce new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), thus paving the way for the introduction and use of new names strings beyond the current ubiquitous DotCom, DotNet, DotEdu, DotInt, and other two-code country-level codes such as DotET, DotKe, DotZa, DotUK, DotFr, to mention but a few.
DCA was at Singapore to lend its strong support to ICANN and use the same opportunity to further promote the Yes2DotAfrica campaign and launch the Miss.Africa programme for female youth digital self-awareness empowerment. Following the approval of the new gTLD programme at Singapore, the next challenge was how to promote it to the wider global public.
From Singapore in South East Asia, DotConnectAfrica took its promotional message to Germany in Europe where it joined ICANN leaders and other global players to participate in the Munich Conference on New gTLDs organized by United Domains, and used the platform to share its experience on how to successfully ‘build a community around your TLD’. DCA’s presentation was well-received in Germany and helped to enrich the debate even as many were edified.
Next was Dakar, the capital of Senegal in Africa which hosted the 42nd ICANN International Meeting. At Dakar, DCA continued to show its strong support and faith in the ICANN-led process and was a silver-level sponsor of the ICANN International Gathering.   DCA organized a superb dotafrica exhibition that was visited by the President and Head of State of the Republic of Senegal, H.E. Monsieur Abdoulaye Wade and other important governmental dignitaries including H.E Monsieur Moustapha Guirassy, Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology of the Republic of Senegal. Dakar presented DCA an opportunity to establish strong links and outreach to its growing Francophone constituency.

Major arguments during the year focused mainly on the sustainability of the multi-stakeholder model, the role of governments, and whether a new Internet governance architecture should be introduced to replace the current system. Against the backdrop that there are many people who have wrongly advocated for the restriction of the role of the private sector in Internet Governance, and see political sovereignty and Internet governance as one and the same, DCA believes that the present system should be maintained and consolidated and that more support should be given to ICANN to ensure a stable and secure global Internet that gives everyone a voice in its governance. ICANN should be allowed to deliver the new gTLD programme successfully without any interference from those who think the programme should be delayed or scrapped altogether.

DCA on its part continued to lead and shape the debate regarding DotAfrica, and through the leadership that it has shown in promoting and campaigning for the initiative globally, to consolidate its position as a leading front-runner to apply for the DotAfrica  gTLD and win the mandate for the DotAfrica registry from ICANN.

During 2011 DCA made a strong case before ICANN leaders and executives, and successfully fought off an unwelcome plan to include DotAfrica in the List of Top-Level Reserved Names in order to make the string (and similar names in other languages) unavailable for any other applicant besides the African Union that sought special legislative protection regarding DotAfrica for its sole benefit. This would have frustrated the plans of genuine DotAfrica applicants such as DCA, and also the vision shared by many who want an inclusive and participatory DotAfrica serving the diverse needs and interests expected of a geographical Top-Level Domain and not something circumscribed for the benefit of a narrowly-defined Community.

DCA wishes to reiterate its belief that the mandate for DotAfrica should only be obtained through the globally-accepted ICANN new gTLD programme, and not through any separate process that would allow for the negotiation and delegation of DotAfrica outside the auspices and transparent oversight of the ICANN programme that enables any genuine prospective applicant to bid competitively.

In preparation for the new applications round that commences in early January 2012, DCA concluded an important Memorandum of Understanding with its international registry partner, and finalized arrangements for the hosting of a high-speed computer network with modern servers to support the registry infrastructure for DotAfrica.  DCA therefore intends to make significant financial and corporate investments in order to establish an African-based registry to host the DotAfrica gTLD located on the ground in Africa for the benefit of Africans. This will assist in terms of employment generation and technology transfer, utilization and building of capacity and technical acumen, and retention of scarce foreign exchange within the continent.

As we take stock of the major highlights of our activities during 2011, overall, we are pleased with the accomplishments of the Yes2DotAfrica Campaign.

We are thankful to all our supporters – for the hope they have provided to enable us sustain our global promotional efforts, their constant encouragement and the strength we drew from that, even as we underscore the need for their continuous support in this last mile of our long journey, for the realization of the DotAfrica vision.

We ask that you continue to pray for DCA, DotAfrica and Africa during this Christmas period and beyond.

Once again, we wish you the very best compliments of the season.
Full Newsletter: http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Season-s-Greetings—A-Year-in-Review-2011—DotConnectAfrica.html?soid=1102516344150&aid=jTR9j-qUtE4 Read Full Newsletter

December 5-11, 2011: By the end of 2012, companies should be able to set up websites with almost any address as long as they can lay a legitimate claim to the domain name….. In Africa, control of the .africa domain name is at the centre of a tussle between the Africa Union Commission and outfits such as the DotConnectAfrica Organisation (DCA). The East African spoke to the DCA boss on who will control  .africa.

NewsPaper version of Q&A:  Read here…

Q. You have openly  criticized  the AU   leadership on this matter. What is it that you want done?

Here DCA presents an African identity in such context as ‘tribalfashion.africa’ which given the opportunity to brand various tribes for the purpose of harnessing our tourism potential, also helps in identifying peoples and places for necessary Pan-African development interventions that would help improve the livelihoods of local nationalities & grassroot communities within the continent.

In January 2012, DCA will formally apply to ICANN for the delegation of the dotafrica gTLD. Building on our past successes and representing your interests, we therefore ask you all to join us in this final lap towards realizing our common vision of a unified internet presence for Africa through a dotafrica Top level Domain name.

We have simplified your participation in ONE BOX!

Simply scroll down below and join our “Yes2dotAfrica” campaign, by following us on “.africa” social media, or filling out the petition, and/or simply sending us email for partnerships and proposals, and see how we can build this great Pan-African Nation we all dream about!

Make your comments and see what others are saying: click here…

La 42e réunion international de l’ Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) s’est tenue à Dakar, Senegal. La réunion a été accueillie par le Gouvernement du Senegal et a été très suivie par les représentants et experts de gouvernements ainsi les dirigeants de l’ICANN et divers intervenants. DotConnectAfrica (DCA) a été l’un des principaux participants et sponsor-Silver de cette rencontre internationale de l’ICANN-42, et était impliquée dans les diverses activités qui se sont déroulées durant une semaine à Dakar. Egalement, la DCA a effectué une exposition son DotAfrica, et sa campagne Yes2DotAfrica, visité par le Chef de l’Etat sénégalais et Président de la République, S.E. Maître Abdoulaye Wade et le Ministre sénégalais des Télécommunications et des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication, Monsieur Moustapha Guirassy. ICANN-42 a été une excellente occasion pour se concentrer sur les perspectives positives de la Campagne ‘’ Yes2DotAfrica’’ de la DCA, et nous sommes heureux de vous présenter un résumé des principales activités et importantes réalisations au bénéfice la communauté panafricaine.  Read More

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1. DCA réaffirme sa position antérieure que le programme de l’agenda de la réunion de nombreux exclus parties prenantes importantes, qui a rendu impossible pour la voix et des vues techniques de nombreuses organisations, dont DCA devrait être entendu lors de la réunion (s). DCA est donc d’avis que cette exclusion délibérée a été pré-déterminé d’une façon orchestrée afin de produire une certaine «ruiner-estampillé« résultat de la réunion.

2. La réunion d’experts était composée d’une coterie certains constituant de divers intérêts, et comme tel assez représentatif, et de façon similaire, la Table ronde ministérielle de l’Afrique pourrait difficilement qualifier comme telle, en l’absence claire de ministres africains . Par conséquent, DCA croit fermement que, compte tenu du fait que les ministres africains n’étaient pas là, et aucun quorum ministériel a été formé, alors aucune résolution pourrait être adoptée et attribuée comme le résultat d’une Conférence ministérielle africaine sur la Table ronde, car une telle résolution ne sera pas légitime si elle est adoptée au nom de l’absence des ministres africains des TIC dans le contexte qu’ils n’ont pas été invités, soit par une note verbale officielle ou tout autre protocole de communication diplomatique officiellement les inviter à assister à une réunion qui a été convoquée en leur nom.

3. Que le projet de résolution qui dit que les noms: DotAfrica, DotAfrique et DotAfrikia devrait être réservée à l’UA devraient être rejetés et non approuvés depuis cela va contre la structure de gouvernance de l’Internet. DotAfrica, DotAfrique et DotAfrikia sont «chaîne similaire» potentiels noms d’un nom de DotAfrica géographique nouveau domaine générique de premier niveau (gTLD), qui ne peut pas être réservé par n’importe quelle organisation, mais ne peut être appliquée pour officiellement à la délégation par le biais du programme mondial de l’ICANN de nouveaux gTLD commence le 12 Janvier 2012. La dernière version (19 Septembre 2011) du Guide du demandeur de l’ICANN – Module 2 – listes des noms déjà réservés en vertu du paragraphe 2.2.1.2 et que la stratégie de l’UA de faire DotAfrica un nom réservé est tout simplement de faire ces chaînes indisponibles et les mettre hors de la portée des candidats éventuels.

Top-Level Reserved Names List

AFRINIC              IANA-SERVERS                 NRO

Faire vos commentaires ou entendre ce que les autres ont à dire:… cliquez ici…

2) Le DCA est disposé à travailler avec toutes les parties  aussi longtemps que de tels arrangements n’affectent pas ou porter préjudice au droit de DCA à demander DotAfrica le cadre du programme de l’ICANN pour les nouveaux gTLD.

3) DCA reste engagé dans le processus de l’ICANN et engagera d’autres candidats potentiels à s’engager pleinement à la norme mondiale de l’ICANN qui est équitable et transparent.

4) La communauté Internet africaine ne devrait pas être considérée comme approuvant tout demandeur éventuel. Par ailleurs, il devrait y avoir aucune porte arrière-salle de décider qui doit faire quoi – jouer ce rôle, ou être responsable de ce que concernant le gTLD DotAfrica.

5) DCA reste farouchement opposée à la proposition lancée par le Moniseur Dandjinou Pierre pour la formation d’un nouveau consortium basé sur une nouvelle demande de propositions (DP). Nous croyons que cette proposition est totalement inappropriée et n’a pas été approuvé par la communauté Internet en Afrique, et est seulement en cours d’élaboration pour faire place aux nouveaux venus comme ARC qui n’avait pas auparavant  participer au processus de l’Union africaine (UA) maintenant participer à un nouveau «consortium». Il n’est plus clair, dont les intérêts de la Task force de l’UA est maintenant champion DotAfrica – qu’il s’agisse de l’UA, ou les membres attendus du nouveau Consortium ou l’intérêt des Africains ordinaires ou de leur propre agenda égoïste. DCA appelle donc au rejet complet de l’idée de la formation d’un nouveau consortium comme une manipulation intentionnelle et les interférences qui est mis en place pour donner à la Cabale une occasion de détourner DotAfrica à travers de trouble arrière-salle non africains..

6) DCA condamne donc la pratique contraire à l’éthique qui est ouvertement affichée par les membres de la Force de l’UA DotAfrica, tâches qui sont simplement tenus de fournir des conseils professionnels à l’UA, mais qui ont maintenant confus et subverti leur mandat en l’obtenant eux-mêmes et s’ impliqués dans des négociations privées concernant les personnes qui devraient le demander, ou qui ne devraient pas s’appliquer pour les gTLD DotAfrica., DCA croit que ces «travailler hors prix» pour eux-mêmes et d’évaluer les membres potentiels du consortium crée de places pour la corruption pour faire  prospérer tout, elles s’engagent à saboter les véritables aspirations des candidats potentiels, graves pour  gTLD DotAfrica.

7) DCA reste méfiant des «leaders» de la Task Force sur la Communauté Internet de l’Afrique / UA sur DotAfrica en raison de leur posture contradictoire dans le  passé envers DCA, et le fait que leurs conseils à l’UA continuent à créer un problème – qui a fait DotAfrica très controversée et litigieuses.

DCA ne croit pas que les «leaders» de la Task Force par rapport à la  Communauté Internet de l’Afrique / UA sur DotAfrica avoir ses meilleurs intérêts à coeur – en fonction de de leurs résultats passés: le sabotage de son approbation avec l’UA, et avec le Conseil d’entreprise de l’Afrique , et d’autres organisations, et leur soutien ouvert pour des propositions concurrentes à Dotafrica.org, AfTLD, et l’ARC. Par conséquent, le DCA ne croit pas que les membres de l’UA Task Force serait juste et impartial dans tout ce qu’ils viennent.

9) L’UA ne doit être l’endosseur de DotAfrica et ne doit pas être propre / diriger le processus tel que proposé / prescrites par les «leaders» de l’Internet communautaire / UA- task Force africaine d’étude sur DotAfrica. Beaucoup de gens, y compris des représentants importants du gouvernement, ont maintenant ouvertement question de la participation de l’UA au DotAfrica et nous pensons que l’UA ne devrait avoir rien à faire avec DotAfrica si l’initiative est d’avoir une chance raisonnable de réussir. Autres acteurs importants tels que le PDG d’AfriNIC a également rejeté l’implication de l’UA au DotAfrica qui a cité le fait que le succès d’AfriNIC à ce jour est largement attribuable à l’absence d’implication du gouvernement ou inter-gouvernementales dans sa structure et ses affaires.

10) Cependant, si l’UA est intéressée à posséder DotAfrica, et décide de postuler directement pour le nouveau gTLD DotAfrica , alors il ne doit recevoir aucun traitement spécial, mais devrait s’appliquer sur la base des directives de l’ICANN sur les  nouveaux gTLD tel que stipulé dans le guide, et aussi fournir les appuis nécessaires auprès de différents pays africains que les exigences de l’ICANN par habitant, mais pas basé sur les résolutions du Conseil de ministres ou de résolutions des Chefs d’Etats et de Gouvernements. DCA croit que de telles résolutions adoptées au nom de l’absentéisme des ministres africains ou des chefs d’Etats, sans consultation adéquate ou un consensus ne soit pas authentiques et comme tel entièrement représentatif et non démocratique, contribuant ainsi à tromper les opinions publiques africaines et des intervenants.

11) DCA dénonce la comparaison inappropriée de DotAfrica, sur une proposition de nouveaux gTLD, pour DotEU, qui est un ccTLD, et estime que ceux qui font cette comparaison ne soient pas tout simplement en mesure de le faire pour justifier leurs activités illégitimes sur DotAfrica.

12) DCA réitère sa ferme opposition à l’intention d’inclure DotAfrica, DotAfrique et DotAfrikia dans la liste des noms réservés de façon à rendre ces chaînes indisponibles pendant le processus de candidature de nouveaux gTLD. DCA croit que c’est un plan qui rendrait odieux DotAfrica,  indisponibles pour les autres demandeurs simplement basé sur une protection législative spéciale qui permettra de créer une situation anti-concurrentielle et d’injustice. DCA estime en outre que cela est contraire aux stipulations du Guide du demandeur de gTLD et l’ensemble des programmes  de l’ICANN sur les nouveaux gTLD.

13) Le DCA est d’avis que les membres de la Task Force de  l’UA qui ne parlent pas pour la Communauté AfrICANN ne devraient pas prendre de nouvelles décisions sur les questions relatives à qui doit s’appliquer ou ne devrait pas s’appliquer pour les gTLD DotAfrica, ou s’engager dans toute poursuite de discussions au sujet de la création d’un consortium qui serait applicable pour le DotAfrica –  DCA croit un tel processus d’appel d’offres sera illégitime car les membres de l’UA Task Force ont déjà outrepassé leur mandat et se sont constitués maintenant eux-mêmes comme des ” avocats ” pour eux-mêmes soit de faire ou de défaire le processus DotAfrica.

14) Enfin, DCA croit que les membres de la Task Force de l’UA sur DotAfrica ne sont pas sincèrement dévoué à servir les meilleurs intérêts des Africains ou de la Commission de l’Union africaine, puisque au lieu de concevoir des plans pour établir un consortium qui va leur donner le contrôle secret du gTLD DotAfrica, ils devraient plutôt se consacrer du temps et des efforts véritables pour vraiment aider la Commission de l’UA à préparer et à présenter une offre légitime de l’ICANN pour DotAfrica sur la base des directives de nouveaux gTLD.

Par conséquent, puisque beaucoup de gens ne sont pas venus à Dakar et la plupart des délégations ne sont pas venues à la réunion, il y avait une absence claire d’un quorum non négligeable et ce qui est le résultat de la réunion AfrICANN n’est pas représentatif de la volonté et les aspirations de la communauté Internet en Afrique .

Enfin, le DCA demande par le rejet de ces propositions inapplicables qui ont été égoïstement ourdie par la Task Force de l’UA sur DotAfrica pour favoriser un agenda illégitime pour le bénéfice d’une cabale égoïste.

Make your comments or hear what others have to say: click here..

DCA Commentaire exclusif:

Rédacteur en Chef

Notre attention a été attiré par le récent article rédigé par  Rebecca Wanjiku: “L’engagement de l’ICANN à l’Afrique porte des fruits” publié dans l’édition en ligne de Computerworld Kenya.  http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=C950F80D-01AB-74C0-D54CC6087A9E451B

Une lecture attentive de l’article donne l’impression que:Computerworld Kenya

1. “la réunion ministérielle a convenu que le gTLD DotAfrica doit être réservée” ce qui signifie :
2. “que les organisations qui postulent pour cette offre seront  sanctionnées  par l’UA.
3. Par ailleurs, votre histoire indique  que  ” le processus de demande de nouveau gTLD de l’ICANN fournit aux pays et régions avec intérêt  certains noms pour les réserver.“

Nous croyons qu’il est important de clarifier ces problèmes afin d’informer correctement vos lecteurs.

1)  La proposition d’inclure le gTLD DotAfrica  la liste des noms réservés est une tactique pour préparer cette chaine et les chaines semblables dans toutes les langues pour être indisponible dans ce round des gTLD de l’ICANN afin de donner une protection législative spéciale dont bénéfiera l’UA, et de se doter des pouvoirs extraordinaires pour négocier séparément et déléguer ces noms en dehors du programme de l’ICANN. Même si la DCA est opposée au projet de résolution, la résolution finale a été adoptée plutart sans aucun égard pour des points de vue dissidents par la réunion des Experts de la Table Ronde ministérielle africaine et un communiqué est soumis à l’ICANN. Par conséquent, il faut noter que la demande officielle contenue dans le communiqué doit être examinée par le Conseil de l’ICANN, la seule autorité  compétente qui a le pouvoir d’approuver ou de refuser la demande d’inclure DotAfrica sur la liste des noms réservés.

2)    La DCA a fait valoir que le nom actuel des chaines sur la liste des noms reserves du  Top-Level qui sont dans  la version approuvée  du Guide des nouveaux gTLD de l’ICANN n’y figure pas DotAfrica, et toute appobation de cette demande extraordinairede l’UA va nécessiter une modification aux sections pertinentes du Guide du demandeur (telle que la Section 2.2.1.2 – Noms Reservés et Autres chaines non disponibles). Pour cette raison, nous croyons qu’il est assez difficile de changer les règles car c’est tardif ce jeu. Jusqu’à présent, seul les noms pour le movement Olympique et le movement de la Croix rouge internationale sont des chaines de gTLD non admissibles la délégation durant ce round de demande initiale.   La DCA croit que est déjà terminée, et celà ne peut être simplement changé depuis cela pose une sérieuse menance pour le principe même du processus multipartite que la gouvernance de l’internet contemporaine est fondée.

3)  La DCA a également fait valoir que la  la chaine de nom DotAfrica n’est pas à risque, et en tant que telle pourrait être appliquée au titre du programme ouvert et transparent des nouveaux gTLD de l’ICANN. Notre conviction est que  ceux qui ont plaidé pour l’inclusion de DotAfrica sur la liste des noms reserves ne sont que ce faisan, de leur permettre de contourner le processus  de l’ICANN, et d’obtenir le mandate pour DotAfrica à travers un processus distinct négocié directement avec l’UnionAfricaine. Nous croyons que les partisans de cette approche n’ont pas la confiance d’appliquer directement à l’ICANN et espérons seulement que l’UA les assistera dans leurs initiatives illégitimes illégitimes de détourner DotAfrica. Il suffit de lire la déclaration verbale attribuée à Vika Mpisane dans votre article d’accorder avec votre  opinion. Mpisane a été cité comme:”L’AU est seulement intéressée à faire en sorte que les avantages de Dotafrica soient pour la communauté africaine de l’Internety.” Que Devons- nous faire pour cela? L’UA est -elle ici pour servir les intérêts de la communauté Internet africaine ? Nous pensons  que cela est tout simplement le désir d’une cabale égocentrique qui pousse l’UA dans une certaine direction qui permettrait la cabale d’atteindre ses objecifs puisque la soi-disante dirigeante de la communauté internet en Afrique est aussi membre de la Task force de l’UA pour DotAfrica.

4)   La DCA croit que l’influence politique et diplomatique, les machines de l’UA ne devraient pas être utilisées pour promouvoir les objectifs de ceux qui veulent prendre le contrôle secret de DotAfrica. Si la communauté Internet en Afrique est en effet intéressée  à la propriété de DotAfrica alors laissez appliquer directement sous les auspices légitime du programme de l’ICANN des nouveaux gTLD et ne pas utiliser l’UA pour demander des protections législatives spéciales en son nom.

Avec le modèle multipartite de gouvernance de l’Internet de l’ICANN  qui est actuellement en en opération, aucun parti n’a un droit de regard meilleur que l’autre.

5) Nous à la DCA croyons que l’ICANN verra cette ruse n’approuvera pas la demande d’inclure DotAfrica sur la liste des noms réservés des gTLD.   Quand cela arrive, la question de DotAfrica attirera alors  seulement que les sérieux demandeurs et deviennent indépendants du groupe d’intérêt spécial qui veut l’acquérir pour élection pour opérer en dehors du processus de l’ ICANN.

6) Nous pensons que votre article s’est  trompé dans son avis déclaré que “le processus  de demande des nouveaux gTLD de l’ICANN fournit aux pays et régions avec intérêt de réserver certains noms.”  Pris littéralement, Cela sgnifie que l’UA est intéressée à l’Afrique comme une ‘région’ et que le processus de l’ICANN permet de réserver ce nom. Jusqu’ici, au meilleur de nos connaissances, DotAfrica est la seule nouvelle prospective des nouveaux gTLDet sa chaine qui a attiré ce type de demande extraordinaire. Nous avons parcouru les dispositions pertinentes du Guide, et nous n’avons trouvé aucune prevue pour étayer votre opinion. Le Guide du demandeur n’a en aucun cas suggéré que les pays ou les regions peuvent demander des noms à réserver car les pays ont déjà leur 2-code de pays-au niveau  des pays des pays domaines.

7) Enfin, avec le modèle multipartite de la gouvernance de l’Internet de l’ICANN qui est maintenant en cours, aucue partie n’a un droit de regard meilleur que l’autre. Même si,  votre article donne par inadervertance  l’impression que les points de vue d’une partie, dans ce cas, La Table Ronde Ministérielle parrainée par l’UA  remplace toute opinion contraire à ce sujet.

Le principe multi-acteurs est censé assurer que toutes les voix soient entendues  et les points de vue pris en considération. En fait,  il n’y avait pas d’unanimité quant à l’adoption de la résolution pour obtenir DotAfrica inclus la liste de chaine de noms réservés des TLD. Par ailleurs, la DCA a également souligné que les ministers africains étaient absents à la réunion, et en tant telle la résolution qui a vraisemblablement été adoptée en leur nom ne pouvait être comme authentique.

“DotAfrica a besoin d’être libéré aujourd’hui de la prison de la cabale qui s’est acharner sur elle en vue de le détourner.”

The earlier ‘Briefing Note on DotAfrica’ that was issued by the African Union Infrastructure & Energy Department dated, May 2011, was very unequivocal in its assertion that the AU will apply to ICANN to own DotAfrica during the next round of the new gTLDs, which ICANN will launch (See “Briefing Note on DotAfrica by Dept. of Infrastructure and Energy – Information Society Division”.

The authors of that document had then advocated for support to be garnered from different African countries to sustain the AU process for “securing the namespace so as to enable the AU apply for DotAfrica without being challenged by an individual or institution that would like to stake a claim to the namespace”

The ‘Agenda’ of the African Ministerial Round-Table

Until the African Ministerial Round-Table meeting  that took place in Dakar, Senegal from 19th to 21st October 2011, it was clear that such support from different countries was not only lacking, but also becoming very difficult to obtain since there has been no proper country-level consultations regarding AU’s involvement in DotAfrica. The African countries are already self-sufficient with their existing allocations of two-code country (cc) Top Level Domains (TLDs), and have no special interest whatsoever in a geographic, generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) that DotAfrica represents.

“Outsourcing” DotAfrica through an AU-sponsored RFP

Following the issuance of this RFP, it is now clear that there is an official deviation from the earlier position contained in the ‘Briefing Note on DotAfrica’, since the AU no longer intends to apply directly for DotAfrica, but has simply decided to now institute an RFP process to enable it choose a partner that will apply for DotAfrica.  Even within the current multi-stakeholder model, the AU as a stakeholder is simply supposed to endorse, but not to decide on who should operate DotAfrica based on an outsourcing model.  In a nutshell, the RFP will lead to the selection of a Consortium that the AU will outsource DotAfrica to, whilst retaining policy oversight.

AU will no longer Apply to ICANN for DotAfrica gTLD.

According to a clarification that was made on the KictANET Discussion Forum on 14 November 2011 by Monsieur Pierre Dandjinou, Chair of the AU DotAfrica Taskforce :”AUC states it does not intend to be an Applicant, thus, it chose to contract an Africa based consortium to endorse (with legitimate letters) for the business and technical operation as required by the guide book. As far as I know, and with regards to geographic tld such as DotAfrica, AUC will still retain a policy oversight (just like the .eu) within its contract with operator on the one hand, and could work through the Governments’ notification and the GAC’s early warning procedures on the other hand.”

The pertinent question therefore is: When did the AU decide not to apply for DotAfrica; and what were the reasons which led to the determination that the AU should not be a direct applicant but rather, would contract a Consortium to endorse for the business and technical operation of DotAfrica?

Again, in trying to answer these questions, we arrive at the disheartening conclusion that the AU has simply been used by a special interest group (the ‘DotAfrica Cabal) to perform a surreptitious hijack of the DotAfrica gTLD in open view of the entire world.

1 – Evidence of Manipulation by the AU DotAfrica Task Force to fulfill the exact wishes of the community they have defined:

Against the backdrop that the AU never intended to apply directly for DotAfrica in the first place, which was the basis of endorsement given to DCA, and the current change in direction from one of soliciting for support from various countries to enable the AU apply for DotAfrica, to that of the AU no longer wanting to be an applicant, it is clear that there is an unseen hand that is presently manipulating the DotAfrica gTLD project at the AU with the goal of achieving a certain pre-determined outcome.

In a recent ComputerWorld Kenya article, the following statement was attributed to Mr. Vika Mpisane of the AfTLD: “the AU is only interested in making sure that .africa benefits Africa’s Internet Community.” (See Computer World article http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=C950F80D-01AB-74C0-D54CC6087A9E451B

Similarly, Mr. Badru Ntege, CEO of NFT Consult who is a strong proponent of a community-owned and operated DotAfrica, had mentioned to the AfriCANN emailing list on 22nd November 2011 that: “I think the community has an opportunity to influence the direction and also get the solution it deserves” whilst also insisting that “the AU decision should be informed by the community and so the community needs to take an active role in the dialogue. ”

1a) AU Taskforce advising the AU in fulfillment of the particular wishes of their “community”

And so we have, an amorphous African Internet Community whose leaders have not only floated separate DotAfrica proposals in the past which failed to gain traction and momentum, but have now constituted the membership of the AU Task Force on DotAfrica, thereby providing advice to the continental organization that has resulted in the exact fulfillment of the particular wishes of this community. What are we to make of all these?

Even during the Experts Meeting of the African Ministerial Round-Table in Dakar, the ARC representative in his comments after presentation  had urged the AU to “endorse quickly so they could  go ahead to identify the technical expertise required for implementation.” Accordingly, it has become rather difficult to separate the actual views and wishes of the AU as an independent organization, from the wishes and views of the AU Taskforce and the special interest groups that this putative advisory body and their cohorts represent.

1b) Using the AU to serve the needs of a “Special Interest Group” by hiding behind the profusion of ‘Internet Governance’ organizations

Again, in this confused meddlesomeness, it has become also rather difficult to properly distinguish between the African Union as a ‘community of member-states in Africa’ from an ‘African Internet Community’ that has been loosely defined to conveniently comprise of AfriNIC, AfrISPA, AfNOG, AfTLD, AfCERT, AfrICANN, AfRALO, AfREN, etc;  most of them existing only in name and many others either lacking proper legally constituted corporate formation documents or proper official establishment within any given jurisdiction in Africa.

We believe that this ruse has gone on for far too long – and DotAfrica is being hijacked to serve the needs of the special interest groups behind the profusion of ‘Internet Governance’ organizations in Africa, and the individuals behind these schemes want to take over DotAfrica as they chase after filthy lucre in the pursuit of an entirely self-serving and rent-seeking agenda.

1c) Hijacking a “Geographic” TLD for Community Use & Ownership

It is generally agreed that DotAfrica is a geographic TLD by definition and is supposed to serve diverse needs and interests as a generic Top Level Domain based on ICANN delegation specificities into the root zone of the Interent Domain Naming System (DNS), but the so-called African Internet Community believes that DotAfrica should be community owned.

Why a geographic TLD should be community owned has not been made clear by the leaders of the ‘community’, who have now gone ahead to indicate in the RFP document that the winning bidder should bear in mind that: “This is a geographical TLD which should be run on behalf of the community”, and “Collaborate with the Internet community on the project” and “Lead the effort to create an active domain name community in Africa”.

1d) “Community of Nations in Africa”  vs. “African Internet Community”

It is crystal clear from all these open allusions to ‘community ownership and collaboration and creating an active domain name community’ that the amorphous African Internet Community is determined to hijack DotAfrica for itself and has simply used the machinery of the AU – especially its power over African governments and diplomatic influence as an inter-governmental organization – to achieve their desire.

Since the AU always recalls and reaffirms whatever resolutions that is convenient for it to cite, either issued by the Assembly of Heads of States, or the Council of Ministers; even though these resolutions, for whatever they are worth, do not count as actual endorsements as far as  the ICANN new gTLD Applicant Guidebook is concerned, it is important that we know that credence can only be given to the ‘community of nations in Africa’ an entirely political construct for the purposes of inter-governmental relations and cooperation or people-to-people, and not, to the ‘African Internet Community’ which does not need the resolutions of African Heads of States and Council of Ministers to approve that it should be allowed to gain control of DotAfrica as a community-owned Internet resource to be operated and run on behalf of the ‘community’.

If the African Heads of States and the Council of Ministers really knew??? that a discredited DotAfrica Task Force has been acting with impunity and appropriating decisions in their name, in the furtherance of a selfish agenda that will only benefit the so-called leaders of the ‘Amorphous African Internet Community’, it would have since approved of its disbandment and a Panel of Inquiry to look into the activities of this Cabal.

2- The AU DotAfrica Task Force is making a Mockery of the ICANN new gTLD Process

2a) The AU RFP process will be used to Pre-select who will Operate DotAfrica:

More insidious and more worrying however  is the fact that the RFP process has been used to mask their real desire; for it enables them to hand-pick pliant groups and collaborators that will participate in this unwholesome enterprise so that the companies that participate in the mandatory Consortium will then receive the mandate for DotAfrica.   The RFP as designed will be used to pre-qualify prospective applicants who would be forced to disclose their ICANN bid strategy for evaluation by the AU Task Force members prior to the commencement of the new gTLD application window on January 12, 2012, and whatever information is disclosed becomes a property of the African Union Commission. Will this type of usurpation not make mockery of the ICANN new gTLD programme?

Does the implied assumption that whoever is pre-selected and chosen through this RFP process to operate DotAfrica not contravene ICANN’s rights and privileges regarding the evaluation of gTLD application and resulting delegation of any new gTLD under the current programme?

2b  Mandatory Requirement to Form a Consortium to Favor Certain Groups in Order to Achieve a Fait Accompli

The RFP document states that ‘eligible bidders should be a consortium of African ccTLDs, registrars, business community organizations or consortium of African ccTLDs and international registrars, businesses and community organizations.  The insistence on the formation of Consortium is simply to give those they favour the opportunity to participate and manipulate the outcome of DotAfrica, because, in their estimation, any group that the AU endorses (and signs the contract with) should be delegated the DotAfrica gTLD; either automatically via a separate process of  negotiation of the gTLD outside the ICANN gTLD programme (should DotAfrica and its similar strings be included in the Top-Level Reserved Names List by ICANN);   or should they not get approval for the Reserved Names from ICANN, by submitting a gTLD application to ICANN simply as a mere formality since the ownership of DotAfrica by the community is already considered a fait accompli.

Therefore, the AU DotAfrica Task Force does not expect that there will be any open competition for the DotAfrica gTLD at the ICANN level. It is aiming to seize and gain full control of the DotAfrica process with the belief that only the AU’s chosen partner will be awarded the mandate for DotAfrica, since it will claim that its partner has already received an endorsement through the RFP process.

Is this the purpose of the ICANN new gTLD programme?

Should such a serious multi-stakeholder effort of global import that took many years of hard work be subjected to this shambolic maneuvering that is being orchestrated through a farcical RFP process?   Why should a largely discredited Task Force be allowed to subvert and midwife a process and have its way?  Why should this travesty be tolerated?

3 – Why DCA says “NO” to the African Union RFP:

http://www.au.int/en/content/request-proposals-african-union-commission-operation-dot-africa

It is for these reasons that DCA has decided not to participate in this sham RFP process and also urges prospective bidders to also avoid the RFP.   DCA wishes to justify its positions as follows:

1.A flawed and discredited extraordinary RFP process: As a victim of unfair treatment, injustice, illegality and possible corruption, DCA has evaluated its chances and decided not to participate in the AU RFP process, and would campaign against it as a flawed and discredited extraordinary process outside the ICANN new gTLD programme that is being introduced to foster illegality and benefit the opponents of DCA.  DCA believes that the present RFP is a resurrection of the previous EOI process that failed for which reason its outcome was not made public.

A pre-determined outcome of RFP: That previous EOI round in May 2011 had attracted important expressions of interest from international registries such as Neustar, but since they were not favored by the Cabal, they were not selected, and a new RFP process has now been floated with the extraordinary requirement of establishment of a Consortium that will include the favored candidates of the Cabal.  Again, we believe that the RFP will be a time-wasting exercise for any international registries that participate in it the same way the EOI was a time-wasting exercise. The expected outcome of the RFP is already pre-determined to suit the preferred Consortium of the Cabal and cannot be considered transparent.  For example, the ARC was not even established at the time of the EOI, and having failed to win any community following or endorsement, the new RFP process has been instituted in order to give the ARC the chance to participate.

The prescription to form a Consortium: It is widely known that the ARC had been formed with the hope of soliciting and winning an expression of interest from the AfTLD (see http://www.africaregistry.net)  but this relationship was rejected by the AfTLD because the ARC did not meet their requirements.  The prescription to form a Consortium has been simply put in place to favor ARC and ‘reward’ it as an African registry with an African-based backend provider.  Such blatant act of nepotism is not only condemnable as a serious disservice to public accountability but also discredits the entire RFP process as something that lacks transparency and full probity.

Lack of Competition: We believe that such a mandatory requirement by the AU Task Force to form a Consortium goes against the principle of free competition that is an implied requirement in the present new gTLD programme of ICANN.

DCA’s participation in AU RFP is Volunteering for Execution: DCA has no faith in the activities of its detractors such as the AU DotAfrica Task Force members, the proponents of dotafrica.org, who have already colluded openly with other prospective applicants for DotAfrica such as the AfTLD and the ARC, and now wish to gain the AU’s endorsement for their selfish schemes through the RFP process.

DCA believes that these groups would go to any lengths to undermine the chances of DCA, like they did in the past, by employing outright sabotage and other underarm tactics and unethical practices to forestall DCA’s success in the present RFP.

For example, Nii Quaynor, Vice Chairman of the AU DotAfrica Task Force had made the following statement about one year ago via a public email: “I think its more responsible for the regional organization (AUC) to hold the string in public trust and have policy oversight, especially so with these likes of practices of DCA.  This has been what the African community has helped to achieve.” From such statements, it is clear that there is a deliberate plan to frustrate the aspirations of DCA which the members of the AU Task Force already consider as an ‘achievement’.  Therefore, participation by DCA in the already discredited RFP process is akin to volunteering for execution.

A stage-managed RFP process: Judging by the timelines indicated therein, the submission date is 8th December 2011, and a decision to announce the winner of the RFP will be made by 15th December 2011, that is, one week later.   The anticipated date for knowing whether the ICANN Board has approved the AU’s request for the inclusion of DotAfrica (and similar name strings in any language) in the Top-Level Reserved Names List and giving a public response on the issue is 8th December 2011.    Even the ICANN evaluation of new gTLD applications received will take approximately 5 months for the initial evaluation.  It is therefore strange that the AU DotAfrica Task Force believes that it can perform all the required evaluations of the RFP responses received and announce a winner that will be the AU’s DotAfrica applying partner within one week ?

Major flaws in the RFP Document: To further buttress the assertion that the RFP is a stage-managed process, a thorough appraisal of the RFP document shows that it has been simply lifted from a prior document that was previously prepared for a consultancy assignment.

For example, the document talks about Breakdown of Rates in Section 2 (‘Information to Consultants’) whilst the breakdown of Time/Schedule for Professional Personnel in Section 4G for instance has no relationship to the prescriptions of the ICANN new gTLD Applicants Guidebook.

Again, the direct allusion by the RFP document that “the client is charged with the custody of African Unions funds” (in Section 1.2) is in dissonance with the clear statement elsewhere (for example in Section II – Scope of Services) that “the entity shall comply with the ICANN Applicant guidebook; it will thus ensure availability of all financial requirements.”

It is therefore quite evident that the RFP document contains a lot of inconsistency and contradictions, erorrs and simply traceable to the fact that the AU DotAfrica Task Force has rushed itself to issue the RFP document in utter disregard for teh need to prepare a proper document.

DCA would continue to uphold the higher ideals of transparency and fairness as it remains convinced in the righteousness of its cause, and that truth and justice will eventually prevail.  There is no touchstone of respectability that justifies the ignoble actions of the Cabal, and they have no assurance of success.   At some stage in this long process, they are bound to fail.

The RFP process is not credible and should be boycottedAccordingly, DCA would continue to insist on its existing endorsement letter that was validly granted by the AU since 2009.  We believe that the endorsement was valid at the time it was issued, and whatever happened following the invidious attempt to deny DCA’s DotAfrica endorsement will be determined at the appropriate time through appropriate legal channels.

DCA reiterates its right as a stakeholder to apply to ICANN for the DotAfrica gTLD by utilizing its existing endorsement letter from the AU, and refuses to acknowledge all the mischief, chicanery, bullying and intimidation that have been contrived by its detractors to stop it from applying.  DCA remains committed to the ICANN process, and believes that it will prevail at the end of the day simply based on the righteousness of its cause.

Press Release: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs053/1102516344150/archive/1108683982073.html

Editor-in-Chief

Computerworld Kenya

Our attention has been drawn to the recent article written by Rebecca Wanjiku: “ICANN engagement in Africa bears fruit” published in the on-line edition ofComputerworld Kenya. http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=C950F80D-01AB-74C0-D54CC6087A9E451B

A close reading of the article conveys the impression that:

1. “the ministerial meeting agreed that the .africa gTLD should be reserved” which means
2. “that organizations that want to bid to manage it must be sanctioned by the AU.
3. Furthermore, your story indicates that “ICANN’s new gTLD application process provides for countries and regions with interest in certain names to reserve them.”

We believe it is important to clarify these matters so as to properly inform your readers.

1)    The proposal to include DotAfrica gTLD in the List of Reserved Names is a tactic to make this string and similar strings in any language to be unavailable in this ICANN gTLD round so as to give special legislative protection that will benefit the AU, and give it extraordinary powers to separately negotiate and delegate these names outside the ICANN programme.  Even though DCA opposed the draft resolution, the final resolution was later adopted without any regard for dissenting viewpoints by the Experts Meeting of the African Ministerial Round-Table and a communiqué submitted to ICANN. Therefore, it must be noted that the official request contained in the communiqué still has to be reviewed by the ICANN Board, the only relevant authority that has the power to approve or deny the request to include DotAfrica in the List of Reserved Names.

2)    DCA has argued that the current name strings in the Top-Level Reserved Names List that are in the approved version of the ICANN new gTLD Guidebook does not include DotAfrica, and that any approval of this extraordinary request by the AU will necessitate an amendment to relevant sections of the Applicant’s Guidebook (such as Section 2.2.1.2 – Reserved Names and Other Unavailable Strings). For this reason, we believe that it is quite problematic to change the rules very late in the game. So far, only the names for the Olympic movement and the International Red Cross movement are gTLD strings ineligible for delegation during this initial application round. DCA believes that the multi-stakeholder process that led to the negotiation of the current version of the Applicant’s Guidebook is already completed, and this cannot simply be changed since this poses a serious threat to the entire principle of the multi-stakeholder process that contemporary Internet governance is built on.

3)    DCA has also argued that the DotAfrica name string is not at risk, and as such could be applied for under the open and transparent new gTLD programme of ICANN. Our belief is that those who have advocated for the inclusion of DotAfrica in the List of Reserved Names are only doing so to enable them bypass the ICANN process, and obtain the mandate for DotAfrica through a separate process negotiated directly with the African Union. We believe that the proponents of this approach lack the confidence to apply directly at ICANN and are only hoping that the AU will assist them in their illegitimate agenda to hijack DotAfrica. One only needs to read the verbal statement attributed to Vika Mpisane in your article to agree with our opinion. Mpisane was quoted as saying: “AU is only interested in making sure that .africa benefits Africa’s Internet community.” What are we to make of this? Is the AU here to serve the interest of the African Internet Community? We think this is simply the desire of a self-serving cabal that is pushing the AU in a certain direction that would enable the cabal achieve its objectives since the so-called leaders of the African Internet community are also the members of the AU Task Force on DotAfrica.

4)    DCA believes that the political influence and diplomatic machinery of the AU should not be used to further the aims of those who want to gain secret control of DotAfrica. If the African Internet community is indeed interested in the ownership of DotAfrica then let it apply directly through the legitimate auspices of the ICANN new gTLD programme and not use the AU to ask for special legislative protections on its behalf.

In the ICANN multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance that is now in operation, no single party has a greater say than another.

5)    We at DCA believe that ICANN will see through this ruse and not approve the request to include DotAfrica in the Top Level Reserved Names List.   When that happens, the DotAfrica issue will then attract only serious applicants and become independent of the special interest group that wants to acquire it by electing to operate outside the ICANN process.

6)    We think that your article is mistaken in its stated opinion that “ICANN’s new gTLD application process provides for countries and regions with interest in certain names to reserve them.”  If taken literally, it implies that that the AU is interested in Africa as a ‘region’ and that the ICANN process allows for this name to be reserved.  So far, to the best of our knowledge, DotAfrica is the only prospective new gTLD name string that has attracted this type of extraordinary request. We have gone through the relevant provisions in the guidebook, and we did not find any proof to support your stated opinion. The Applicant Guidebook does not in any way suggest that countries and regions can ask for names to be reserved since the countries already have their 2-code country-level codes for country-level domains.

7) Finally, in the ICANN multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance that is now in operation, no single party has a greater say than another. Even so, your article inadvertently gives the impression that the views of one party, in this case, the AU-sponsored African Ministerial Round-Table overrides any contrary opinion on the subject.

The multi-stakeholder principle is supposed to ensure that all voices are heard, and all viewpoints considered. As a matter of fact, there was no unanimity regarding the adoption of the resolution to have DotAfrica included in the Top-Level Reserved Names List. Moreover, DCA had also pointed out that African Ministers were absent at the meeting, and as such the resolution that was presumably passed in their name could not be considered authentic.

“DotAfrica needs to be freed now from the prison of the Cabal that is hell-bent on hijacking it.”

Futher Read Press Release: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs053/1102516344150/archive/1108601800184.html

Download DotConnectAfrica Briefing Note Here

Press Release: http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102516344150-222/DotConnectAfrica+Executive+Briefing+Note+following+ICANN+42+Dakar+Senegal.pdf

DotConnectAfrica (DCA) was one of the principal participants and silver-level sponsor of the ICANN-42 international gathering, and was involved in various activities that took place throughout the week-long meeting in Dakar. DCA also mounted a well-attended exhibition on DotAfrica, and its Yes2DotAfrica campaign, which was visited by the Senegalese President and Head of State, H.E. Monsieur Abdoulaye Wade, and the Senegalese Minister for Telecommunications and Information/Communications Technologies, Monsieur Moustapha Guirassy.

ICANN-42 was a great opportunity to focus positive attentions on DCA’s Yes2DotAfrica Campaign, and we are pleased to present a summary of the main activities and important accomplishments for the benefit of our Pan-African constituency.

DCA at the African Ministerial Roundtable

Prior to the ICANN meeting, DCA attended the African Ministerial Round Table that took place from 19th-21st October, 2011 where the issue of .africa was discussed and a communiqué released asking ICANN to add the names africa,.afrique, and .afrikia to the reserved names list for the benefit of the African Union. During the meeting, we emphasized what we have always believed; our commitment to the open, transparent and competitive globally-accepted ICANN process as per the new gTLD Applicant Guidebook. DCA successfully made its case that the DotAfrica name string is not at risk, and as such does not deserve any special legislative protection and could be applied for through the ICANN new gTLD programme.

First ICANN meeting in a Francophone African country

The Dakar meeting was significant for the DotConnectAfrica’s Yes2DotAfrica initiative since it was the first ICANN international meeting ever hosted in a French-speaking country in Sub-Saharan African. DCA introduced the .africa initiative to the French speaking African communities and Internet societies and used the opportunity to establish a highly effective and successful media outreach to French-language TV, newspaper, and Internet news organizations, thus enabling a certain Franco-phone constituency that is now more aware of current issues about the DotAfrica gTLD.

The place of Africa on the Internet
A common theme during the ICANN Dakar meeting was the place of developing regions, particularly Africa, on the future of the Internet. As noted by the Senegalese President, H.E. Abdoulaye Wade , “our continent is not at the heart of strategic operations of the Internet” and reaffirmed that there was need for Africans to have more access to the Internet by having more computers, to be part of this “registry of human knowledge”. We left Dakar with the conviction that this meeting acted as a catalyst for a greater involvement of Africa on policy deliberations at ICANN in the near future.

There were calls for participants from developing countries to take a more active part in discussions on the Internet and a resolve for the community to further develop proposals to be submitted to ICANN Board for consideration on the convening of this summit. DCA, as the organization that first proposed .africa and that has accomplished a respectable body of work in sensitizing African Internet communities on the importance of the new gTLDs, particularly .africa, will continue putting Africa on the digital map in both continental and global platforms. We believe the time has come for Africa to fully embrace and be more involved in the multistakeholder process of Internet governance.

DCA’s DotAfrica Exhibition in Dakar attracts many visitors
Since DotConnectAfrica was also a Silver -level sponsor of the ICANN Dakar meeting, it also had the privilege of mounting an exhibition of DotAfrica in line with our continued support for the inclusion of Africa in the discussion floor on Internet issues. DCA has now sponsored two ICANN meetings. Our exhibition booth in Dakar was a popular stop for participants interested in the new .africa gTLD initiative. As Africans, we always embrace initiatives that unify our continent and many participants in Dakar who visited our exhibition stand had high hopes for a Pan-African new generic Top Level Domain name. We were deeply inspired by the demonstration of great enthusiasm for .africa by all those who visited DCA’s DotAfrica exhibition at Dakar.

Our Continued Commitment to work in Cooperation with African ccTLDs
As the commencement date of the application window for the new gTLDs draws closer, DCA once again extends an invitation to African ccTLD registries to join us and participate as stakeholders in our .africa initiative. Many of you have come by our stand in Dakar and expressed interest and say you will support our efforts as well and we were very humbled. This will ensure that we synergize our efforts in areas such as policy development, involvement of various communities, technical expertise, capacity building, and cross-marketing at a local level and other areas of interest to make .africa a success based on a resounding win-win outcome for everybody. Expressions of Interest can be sent to EOI@dotconnectafrica.org for more information. We have proposed a cross marketing model that will see revenues from .africa reinvested in strengthening participating African ccTLDs and we welcome your further input on this issue before the application window opens.

AFRALO Showcase ICANN 42 Dakar:
DotConnectAfrica also attended the AFRALO, the African Regional At Large Organization, showcase in Dakar as well as the AFRALO general assembly.  Various regional At Large Structures (ALS) leaders came forward in resplendent African fashion and attire and represented various constituencies of individual African internet users. Indeed AFRALO has defied great odds and has truly come of age in ensuring the participation of Africa in policy deliberations and discussions at ICANN since its inception during the ICANN Lisbon meeting in 2007.  We salute the AFRALO leadership and the various ALS for their sacrifice and great efforts in ensuring the voice of Africa is heard and for helping entrench the multistakeholder model in Africa.

Promoting African women in the DNS Industry in Dakar
One of our more visible campaigns in the last two ICANN meetings has been miss.africa that draws inspiration from such initiatives as the DNS Women’s Group and through which we hope to motivate more young African women to take a strong interest in the DNS industry in the continent, with a view to gender mainstreaming and outreach. Miss.africa is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme that was launched in Singapore by the Yes2dotAfrica Campaign in June 2011. Its core aim is to create ICT self-awareness and digital empowerment of young women in Africa.

In Dakar, once again, our miss.africa volunteers from Senegal got the chance to learn about domains, the larger new gTLD program and other pertinent issues at the centre of Internetgovernance and policy deliberations. We hope to sponsor more young women leaders in the future to attend conferences and help shape the future of the Internet in Africa.

DCA at the ICANN Dakar public Forum
DCA also took the opportunity of attending the ICANN Public Forum meeting in Dakar to seek certain clarification from the ICANN Executive leadership regarding the communiqué that was submitted by African Ministerial Round-Table meeting asking the ICANN Board to reserve the .africa .afrique and .afrikia name strings for the benefit of the African Union Commission.

Engaging interactively with ICANN Leaders at the forum, DCA Executive Director and spearhead of the Yes2DotAfrica campaign Ms Sophia Bekele made a strong statement on this issue and urged that “ICANN and the global community not to entertain any requests to include DotAfrica on the list of reserved names. She also re-stated her firm opinion that “DotAfrica and similar name strings should only be applied for through the ICANN new gTLD program.” ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, while acknowledging the receipt of the AU-sponsored communiqué from the African Minsiterial Round-Table, also added that the rules of the of the new gTLD application process were “published and quite clear”. The ICANN CEO promised that the ICANN Board will respond publicly to all the 12 points of the Communique.  DCA eagerly awaits the outcome of the ICANN response and hopes that the official reply by the ICANN Board will again vindicate DCA’s faith in the multi-stakeholder model.

DCA at the launch of the OSCAR TICE Program in Dakar
Finally, DCA had the privilege of attending the launch of the OSCAR TICE competition by the Minister of ICT in Senegal Monsieur Moustapha Guirassy, an initiative sponsored by USAID that will measure the degree of integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Senegalese colleges by awarding colleges with best website.  The competition is aimed at building support for the educational community to provide quality education to children in Senegal. Some 128 colleges in will compete in this laudable initiative.

Dakar was therefore a crucial meeting for Africa and for the .africa initiative and also a great success. As the last ICANN meeting before the commencement of the new gTLD application process, DotConnectAfrica again put forward a final case before Africa for the urgent need of a unified internet presence and we believe the message was well received!

Read Full Press Release Here  http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs053/1102516344150/archive/1108602153904.html

DCA at the launch of the OSCAR TICE Program in Dakar

H.E  Minister Gurassey launching the OSCAR

Finally, DCA had the privilege of attending the launch of the OSCAR TICE competition by the Minister of ICT in Senegal

Monsieur Moustapha Guirassy,

an initiative sponsored by USAID that will measure the degree of integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Senegalese colleges by awarding colleges with best website.  The competition is aimed at building support for the educational community to provide quality education to children in Senegal.

Some 128 colleges in will compete in this laudable initiative.

Dakar was therefore a crucial meeting for Africa and for the .africa initiative and also a great success. As the last ICANN meeting before the commencement of the new gTLD application process,

DotConnectAfrica again put forward a final case before Africa for the urgent need of a unified internet presence and we believe the message was well received!

Ms. Sophia Bekele said “We believe that the DotAfrica issue is a battle test-ground for ICANN’s leadership and oversight of the Global Internet Governance process. If AU imposes its will on ICANN, and prevails on this issue it will set a bad precedent that will be detrimental to ICANN’s ability to control the multi-stakeholder process”.

DotConnectAfrica was at the Gala night in Dakar. These Senegalese girls in traditional costumes welcomed guests and delegates to the ICANN Gala night which was accompanied by an awesome musical performance of Senegalese rhythm. It was a “cross representation between rock and roll and jitterbug and Mbalax” as one board member quipped.

ICANN galas are usually a social event where ICANN policy geeks take some time off to have some fun and get a taste of the host city and culture and also unload some of the stress from the policy deliberations sessions and policy development processes of the ICANN week. Senegal is renowned for its “Teranga” or hospitality which we were very pleased to experienced first hand in the “Land of the Teranga.”

“So it was really very ,it was a wonderful evening and really typical of what we can expect, as we expose ourselves more and more to
cultures that are different from what we are more comfortable with or what we’re used to.” Said Katim Touray on the event.

The Experts Meeting of the African Ministerial Round-Table took place in Dakar, Senegal from 19^th to 21^st October 2011. This event preceded the ICANN-42 International Meeting.

Against the backdrop that DCA had proposed the DotAfrica Initiative to the African Union Commission, and received an important endorsement for it, on the basis of which it commenced a successful global campaign and promotion of the initiative.  DCA had correctly anticipated that the Experts Meeting would be used to pass certain resolutions on DotAfrica, or be used to contrive an endorsement for other organizations; and that there was a deliberate effort to prevent DCA from participating at the event, even though DCA had written formally to request that it should be included in the official programme. Again, it was clear that DCA was evidently being victimized, since a South African company, which is a new entrant to the DotAfrica issue was given an opportunity to speak and a prospective applicant such as DCA was being sidelined and not given an opportunity to make a presentation at the meeting.

Therefore, DCA had to make its voice heard by intervening at the meeting and expressing its grave concerns, first with the meeting agenda, the non-attendance of Ministers at the African Ministerial Round-Table, and also highlighted the fact that it has already received key supportive endorsements from several African governments in addition to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

After making its voice heard at the meeting, DCA’s Executive-Director and spearhead of the Yes2DotAfrica Campaign spoke with Senegal TV to defend DCA’s opposition to the Experts Meeting Agenda of the DotAfrica Task Force. In her words: “we were very angry and dismissive of the work that they were doing; and we are formally opposing the DotAfrica Task Force.” We are very very impressed in fact with the Minister who was chairing yesterday for giving us the forum to speak and we are very happy that we participated, despite that we have a separate point of view from the other organizers.”

See Special TV Report on video here: DCA Defends its Opposition to the Experts Meeting DotAfrica Agenda

Read further ress Release: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs053/1102516344150/archive/1108422124191.html

The ICANN-42 International Meeting was held recently at Dakar, Senegal. DotConnectAfrica (DCA) was a major participant and silver-level sponsor of the event that was attended by the global ICANN and African Internet Community.

The international meeting was hosted by the Government of the Republic of Senegal and facilitated by the Ministry of Telecommunications of Senegal.

The ICANN meeting therefore attracted very high-level Segenalese Government interest and was attended by the Head of State and President of the Republic, H.E. Monsieur Abdoulaye Wade, and the Minister of Telecommunications, H.E. Monsieur Moustapha Guirassy who led the government ministerial delegation.

DCA had displayed an important exhibition of its Yes2DotAfrica Campaign and used it to further communicate its DotAfrica vision to visitors of the Exhibition and other delegations that attended the meeting.  It was a successful meeting that focused positive attentions on the Yes2DotAfrica Campaign, and full media focus was provided by the Agence de Presse Senegalese – a prominent government-owned national newspaper that covered the main personalities  who played key roles at the event such as the ICANN CEO, AfriNIC CEO, Executive Director of DotConnectAfrica, President Wade of Senegal and ICT Minister Moustapha Guirassy..  The Senegalese Minister responsible for information technology and telecommunications played a commendable role in ensuring a successful meeting. DCA is pleased to present the highlights of the Dakar Coverage and share this with its Pan-African constituency.

APS Coverage: http://www.aps.sn/aps.php?page=dossier_article&id_mot=379
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Further Read ress Release: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs053/1102516344150/archive/1108374475046.html

Whereas the graph of other continents mostly those of the developed have been on the plateau for a while now having reached peak a few years ago, Africa is experiencing its rise. The internet experience graph is rising higher by the minute. This has attracted the interest of giant internet firms such as Google and Facebook. Google, for instance, has offices established to drive its mammoth business across the African region especially the sub-Saharan. Facebook among others have satelite staff managing the affairs under the emerging markets in Africa and Middle East.

I wonder though how sparse or closely clustered the African digital Map is on the Google or Facebook walls. I would like to see how updates on the map grow and if it is constant or spiky and unpredictable. Someone called Africa the Dark Continent riddled with epidemics, War, poverty and generally insurmountable number of maladies. On the contrary though, I would like to view Africa as not only an emerging market but a potential force to reckon with; an equal player among many whose quest for a digital future must be considered with indiscriminate attitude and altitude.

Back to the .Africa issue, this project has particularly been a hot issue — almost too hot a brick to handle with bare hands — and with several organizations setting up to apply come 2012. Question is however who really is the best messenger to drive this matter? Dotconnectafrica has been on the forefront of this quest, putting forward not only .africa but daring to include .Afriqya and .Afrique the Arabic and French versions respectively.

During the ICANN meeting recently in Senegal Dakar, DCA President Ms. Sophia Bekele outlined the various issues that must be carefully looked into to ensure that the process is not only smooth but successful. Africa must not be allowed to fail in this watershed moment, it must come through unscathed. It would be interesting to see the African gTLD championed and successfully setup.

The resulting registry must not only revert back the resources from the domain but also ensure that Africa’s content is well managed and availed for and by African continent since it will not only be a unique moment but a chance to prove to the entire wide world that Africa can do it right!

Written by Gideon Rop

[ Read Entire Post: Is Africa Ready for a dotAfrica gTLD Future?... ]

Miss.africa

Miss.africa program was inspired by such programs as DNS Women’s group of ICANN and is aimed at introducing many young African women o the DNS Industry which is still very much a male domain on the continent. Our Miss.africa volunteers always learn about new gTLDs, the .africa initiative, internet governance and good online citizenship amongst other issues and go on to do outreach programs in universities and colleges to get students involved in the DNS industry and internet in general.

The program was first publicized during the ICANN 41 meeting in Singapore. To become a Miss.africa in your campus or city, please drop us an email to yes2dotafrica@dotconnectafrica.org and will get in touch with you and help you take off with the domain name industry in Africa!

I would also like to wish to African ministers in charge of technologies of communications and IT in Dakar, welcome.  And I hope you have a nice day in Senegal.  Take this opportunity also to thank the ministers for the significant work done that will enable the head of state to have a very significant study analysis that will help us to make better decisions.

This is a great honor for Senegal to welcome such distinguished hosts on the planet that are in charge of ensuring Internet’s operational stability, promoting competition, and ensure global representation of communities using the Internet.
We, I think we have here one of the creators, inventors of the Internet.  I believe he is one of those.  I asked him a question earlier who have created Internet, who thought before implementing it.

Ladies and gentlemen, without any doubt, our continent is not at the heart of strategic operations of the Internet.  In Africa, Africa — in the world, Africa is still late in entering the world of the — the digital work.  Digital networks are the ideal conduit for democracy and essential for continent.  I often say — and I want to go back to what Mr. Crocker said — Internet is the most perfect democracy.  Because in front of the computer Senegalese, Japanese, and American, they go to the same speed as the speed of light.

So this is a race.  When you have a race car, you need a car.  A bicycle race, you need a bicycle.  So all the theories that we can elaborate cannot — have no product, no result if — unless Africans have computers.  I would like to underline this practical aspect of the Internet question.  We need to go.  We need to take the conduit.  We need to — and we need a computer for this.  I will talk about that later, again, because that will explain my choice from the start to give all government employees and teachers, students even in schools so that they have computers.

And I argued my case before my American friends and the black caucus a few years back about the possibility for Africa.  We — at the time we had 700 million.  We almost have 1 billion now — to at least have 500 million computers.  I’m not exaggerating.  In countries, certain countries, 80% of the population — 90% have a computer.  In Africa computers are still very rare.

As you know, I’ve supported several initiatives in order to reduce the gap between the north and the south, between the countryside and cities.  That was part of the conference in Geneva in 2003 where I proposed the concept of digital solidarity.  And we created it.  But there were problems — and all African countries, I mean, all African countries, even foreign countries such as France, Lyon, because Lyon are also members.  Paris, Milano, Italy, et cetera, and Caribbean countries and countries of Latin America.

We met here in Dakar not very long ago to create the Digital Solidarity Fund.

I had requested information that they just brought to me.

Now, Internet that we talked about earlier created several problems, but Internet, first of all, enables people to communicate very quickly.  Internet is also — I was going to say a registry of human knowledge.  The most complex knowledge can be accessed through the Internet.

Therefore, the question is not the capacity to understand what’s here.  Africans, we have proved when we are studying in universities or we have proved that we are capable, whether in Europe, in the United States, or in China.  But the problem is to have access to it.

It’s not all just to have a computer, but you also need to pave the way to this access independently from the issue of the democratic management of the Internet.  There also, I will go back to it later.

The phone, which is a means of communication, the most well-known and the most common,  and which whose development is very quick.  And that should interest Africans.

In June 2005, phones, thanks to the cell phones, reaches 70% of the population with quarterly growth of 23.8% in Senegal, which means that the telephone is available to everyone from the most — the poorest to the richest.  I saw a publicity, a commercial, a camel rider in the desert with his computer — with his cell phone, which shows that the development of such a tool brings me back to saying that these incredible development has created an international environment, and Senegal has become a hub, international hub for international companies dealing with international communication.  Google, Nokia, Samsung, IBM, who have offices here.  We also, in Paris, Paris’s Wall Street, we have now a Senegalese company registered.  The economic environment makes your organization even more important.  The stability of Internet is really crucial for growth of our economies that rely on these networks.

As far as I am concerned, I always thought that the Internet was a way to favor, to promote the penetration of our countries on the Internet world.  And, therefore, the fund of international solidarity is very important.

So ladies and gentlemen, it’s very important for you to manage fairly these names and numbers in a consensual manner with all the stakeholders, public and private.

The international aspect of your administration council of the board and the cooperation that you have established within ICANN with governments is crucial.  It enables you to have better legitimacy of your decisions because countries are more and more sensitive to questions, issues dealing with digital evolution.

The GAC enables the countries to participate better in the work being done through ICANN, and this is a very important model between the public and private sector that should be encouraged.  You have adopted the new gTLD program, first level, called gTLD.  This is very good.  Because this is the beginning, I do not guarantee — I think it’s English expression but this will definitely have a very big impact, economic and social and cultural impact.

Organizations who have requested ownership rights and administration rights of these new names shows the interest for these names and numbers, names that include names of cities and brands.  So we have now a new cycle where African countries could be excluded from this new market, since, as you have defined in your processes, that it will be necessary to have millions of dollars to create one registry for one village, the name of one village or a city.

The major issue with names of domain names is safety, security.  Safety for those who have the names.
Can someone buy a domain name like Abdoulaye Wade or Obama.org?  Because this will show in all its documents.  So it is necessary to protect certain names.  It’s a recognized right for all, an individual right.  And names associated with religions, beliefs, like Mecca, Vatican, Tuba, et cetera, could someone buy such names?

So you have to go further and protect populations.  And for those using the system who buy and sell names, you have the task to protect the system and ensure its stability.

These are programs that are very complex, we know, and the question that we have today is when we say that Africa wants to participate in Internet governance, that’s what we mean.  It’s to be represented among those who decide policies pertaining to the Internet.

I have here in Dakar, very quickly, also, on April 19th, 2004, an African conference on Internet governance.

It was just before the Tunis meeting.  I became aware that if they would go directly to Tunis, it would be a catastrophe because the prerequisites were not even defined.  I told my colleague and friend, Ben Ali, and I told him I am calling a meeting before our arrival in Tunis to talk about issues that will be discussed in your conference.

So the problems that we have today were already questioned and discussed before, in 2004, in April and in September.  The Tunis conference happened on November 16th, 2005.

The conferences that you organized previously in June and also this one are additional steps to leading to this Internet governance.  In your approach, you have certainly taken into consideration requests coming from developing countries, but I also invite you to finalize processes so that you can enable them to have access to certain resources for African organizations.  This liberal access, this opening of access to African organizations, in Singapore in June 2011, is now a revolution for Internet beyond domain names based on proper identities of private and public organizations.  Africa must claim its symbols of its identity as a continent.  This is the dot Africa.  Likewise, dot EU, European community, and dot Asia.

I know that this debate is not over with regards to this new extension, dot Africa.  That’s why I inviolate the African Union to ensure the leadership in the process for the attribution of this resource by participating actively in debates on this issue so that the final decision can be taken on behalf of the entire continent that is already so far behind with regards to the access to digital networks.

I was informed of Senegal — that Senegal was chosen to host the — a copy of the root server.  This is obviously a very great improvement of Internet network performances for our country and other countries in the subregion, depending — that used to depend on Maghreb and South Africa.

Thank you very much for this faith that you have for my country that will now have the responsibility of ensuring of dealing with all the requests of end users, of Internet users from the subregion.
This new configuration associated with the new undersea cable, and the works have just — was achieved, was just ended, will now give Senegal the leadership role and now will give it equality with developed countries as far as connectivity to the international network(is concerned).

The potential for — You know how important education is for me.  I will never stop saying that Senegal is the only country in the world that gives 40% of its budget to education and training.  And the average for Africa does not go — does not exceed 14%.

I would like to inform you that soon I will launch a big program called Digital Education for All that will enable 8,000 schools in Senegal to have access to the Internet through numeric solidarity.

It’s not only to give schools this access but also to have education on these resources, to have our education system must be connected to the international networks that transmit knowledge and education.  So we have to make many efforts in order to reduce technological barriers.  That’s why I am inviting you to undertake such efforts with us in this domain.  In our education model, from preschool, we teach children from 2 to 6 years old how to operate computers in order not to be confused with the computers later when they are older.

Ladies and gentlemen, you are responsible for the stability of Internet, because you have to ensure end users access to all addresses that are necessary.  That must require very serious coordination.  According to the International Telecommunication Union, the number of Internet users has exceeded 2 billion, and there is a new generation of equipment, of devices, that use Internet.

With regards to what I was saying earlier, the increase of thenumber of people who have internet is also an issue of access.  Those who are cell phones, and it also is an issue that people do not have access to the Internet.

Ladies and gentlemen, your concerns regard based on the actual protocol IPv4, the depletion of that IPv4 protocol, the Senegal has now gone over to the IPv6 version that will now have more addresses available.  And experts will make sure that this significant evolution will happen also in our country.

This progress for next and technologies should lead us to think more about users and their protection against abuse.  Since 2008, I voted a law aiming at installing a protection against abuse against private information and private life and the storage of information data that are personal in nature.  And these data have a very valuable commercially.  And now, we have installed a new program to find a protection for these data.

Please allow me to say something.  It’s relevant because — what I am saying is relevant because the future of Africa, due to economic growth with regards to cell phones, whether domestically and internationally, this growth creates a lot of wealth in billions of dollars.  And African countries, African countries do not have their fair share.  We do have a share, but it’s not the fair share.

And so during the negotiation of a contract, the market condition terms change very quickly.  The number of population change and the growth with creating new wealth.  And the wish to have cell phones for people who are getting younger and younger, so the market is developing very rapidly.

Without canceling the contracts already signed, it’s not fair — it is fair to negotiate a better distribution in favor of our countries.

I was saying earlier, I read in a document that European countries wanted to regroup 160 to 180 billion euros to buy all African cell phones.  This is how the market works.  It’s their right to do so.
But it would be a catastrophe, that we abandon such wealth in favor of this oligarchy.  As you know, it’s five, six or seven stakeholders, companies, that are like a monopoly and then they share amongst themselves the proceeds.  That would be a catastrophe to abandon all these services to new monopolies, so our states must be present in all the companies that manage networks, and they have to give back, and the states have to participate in those companies.

In Senegal, there was last Thursday a bill forcing the State to acquire at least 35% of shares in each dealership, and that these 35% could not be sold in order to ensure that when the State needs it, will not be able to sell those shares.  Even if he needs money.
There are countries that require more, but 35% seems to be the minimum.

So the dynamics of the telecommunications sector, this should prevent for these — for our countries to be under the monopoly of other countries, which is against the free market.

When I say this, I sometimes refer to antitrust legislation in the United States, the country that favors the most the free market.
Monopolies, like the former Vice President of the United States, Walter Mondale, (said) monopolies lead to imperialism.

So let’s prevent, avoid a new colonialism where would be the accidental agent.

So this is the message I would like my African colleagues to hear in this world that requires courage, qualification and quickness in action.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

[ Applause ]

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk to all of you. I know that each of your meetings gives the opportunity to the Internet world to progress thanks to your excellent decisions.  I wish that Africa — that this meeting in Dakar be finally the opportunity for Africa to reduce the digital gap with northern countries, but also for Africa to take its right place in the Internet society that rose after the Tunis and Geneva meetings.

And that we be now — we have the trust you were referring to before.  Because we trust each other because this is a field where all interests go to — are the same.  And the big issue here is to understand the expectations of each stakeholders and through fair negotiation to progress for more justice.  Thank you very much for your patience.