My dotAfrica new gTLD Project Presentation in I-Week Conference which is organized by South Africa's Internet Service Providers Association "ISPA" and Uniforum SA "co.za Registry"
dotAfrica Project - I-Week, Cape town September 2012
1. .Africa : Africa’s new Internet Online Identity
Mohamed El Bashir
Chair, Steering Committee
dotAFRICA
I-Week 2012, Cape Town
10-14 September 2012
2. ICANN & New gTLDs
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers “ICANN”
Responsible for the coordination of the Internet’s system of unique identifiers
Ensure the stability and security of the Internet
ICANN meeting Singapore 2011– open up the Internet for new Top Level Domains
Applicant Guide Book – stringent guidelines on the application process,
infrastructure & financial criteria, etc
http://newgtlds.icann.org
3. New gTLD Applications - .Anything
ICANN new gTLD application process January – April 2012
Application fee of $185 000
ZACR handed in only application for .africa on behalf of the AUC & African
Continent
ICANN received over 1900 applications for new gTLD, i.e. .africa, .mtn, .dstv, .africa
magic, .supersport, .music, .movies, .horse …etc
17 applications received from the Africa
4. What is (.Africa ) ?
Continental Top Level Domain (TLD) for Africa for the use by the entire African
continent & the world
To be used by organizations, governments, business & individuals who associate
themselves or their business with Africa
Access to a huge pan-African customer base using one unique name space
Online Branding and Marketing Opportunities
e.g safricom.africa, mtn.africa, hotels.africa, music.africa, sports.africa
movies.africa, banks.africa, soulof.africa, ilove.africa
6. Who We Are?
National Governments
InterGov. Organizations
African Union
Registry Provider
Steering Committee
ccLTD Registries
African ICANN Accredited Registrars
African Internet Society Chapters
7. AUC & dot AFRICA
Oliver Tambo Declaration – “establish dotAfrica as a continental Top Level
Domain for use by organizations, businesses, & individuals with guidance from
Internet agencies”
Abudja Declaration – “AUC requested to set up the structure and modalities for
the implementation of the dotAfrica project”
African Union Commission “AUC” issued an RFP in December 2011 for the
selection of an African entity to apply and manage .Africa new TLD
AUC endorsed the proposal of ZA Central Registry ( Uniforum SA) as the
selected registry operator for .Africa as a result of it’s tender evaluation process
8. ICANN GeoTLD Requirements
provide a documentation of support or non-objection from relevant
government(s) or authority (ies)
60% of Governments Support Required by ICANN
Support Letters received from 72% of African
countries
9. Steering Committee Responsibilities:
Project Oversight
Political, Moral and Ethical leadership (Governance)
Strategy
Policy Development
Awareness, Communication and Marketing
10. Steering Committee Members:
Mohamed EL Bashir, Chair
• ccTLD Community :
– .bi ccTLD
– .ml ccTLD
– ..ng ccTLD
– .eg IDN ccTLD
• Registrar Community : Hamza Abou Elfeth ( Genious NET )
• Technical Community : Adiel Akplogan (AfriNIC )
• African Internet Community at-large :
oAbraham Djekou ( COTE D'IVOIRE )
oMs. Maimouna Diagne Diop ( SENEGAL )
oRachida Fakhri ( MOROCCO )
oTijani Bin Juma ( AfRALO , TUNISA )
• AUC :
o Moctar Moctar Yedaly, Head of Posts & Telecommunication (AUC)
oMoses Bayingana (AUC)
• ZACR : Neil Dundas
12. dot AFRICA Foundation:
o Post ICANN new gTLD delegation our objective to establish a non-profit
organization “dot African Foundation
o Open, Diverse and Multi-stakeholder
o dot Africa Foundation objectives :
dot Africa TLD Policy Development;
Setting the policies and procedures for dot Africa projects grants;
Distribute surplus revenues of dot Africa In Internet/ICT Projects
Monitor the progress of dot Africa Projects
16. Relationship Matrix (Community Level)
.AFRICA
African Entities :
Sponsor
Registry Operator Strategic Partner
AUC ZACR AFTLD
ZACR DotAFRICA
SteerCom Foundation
OTHER SUPPORTING ORGANISATIONS
Individual ccTLDs, African Registrars, Technical Community,
Technology Providers, Internet Leaders (individuals)
INTERNET COMMUNITY & ICANN
17. Relationship Matrix (Operational)
.AFRICA
Delegation Authority
ICANN
African Entities :
Sponsor
ZACR
Registry Operator
AUC
Policy Advisory Group
PAG
ccTLD Development
AFTLD
DotAfrica
Foundation RAR Development
AFRICA Partner
Registrars
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Registrars
19. Africa in One Space
oFacebook :
facebook/africandomain
oTwitter :
twitter.com/africandomain
oWeb : www.africainonespace.org
oOpen Community mailing list : community@dotafrica.org (subscribe on website)