[AfrICANN-discuss] RFC on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions - Deadline March 31, 2011

[McTim]

On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 2:18 AM, Dr Yassin Mshana <ymshana2003 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi McTim,
>
> I am not sure whether we are on the same line of thought or line of
> vision in this.....?
>
> You said, ....."I don't see either in AfTLDs bid for .africa".
>
> I am sorry to strongly suggest that you please 'look again' because
> the conflict of interest is blurringly there.

Why shouldn't the non-profit body that is in charge of African ccTLDs
bid for the African gTLD?  They seem to be a natural home for a TLD.


 It seems to me that
> politicising issues is OK by you....I am afraid it is not the reality.

Perhaps you could explain what you mean by "politicising".


> It depends from which angle/position you are seeing 'things' or your
> interest in this.

I currently have no financial interest in any of the bids.  My
Interest is in seeing .africa profits used to fund Internet
development in Africa.

>
> I have been around in my normal way listening and observing how the
> scenario has has been changing until this time when I noticed elements
> of abuse and mis-interpretation taking place (only in within our
> Africa community)

yes, I agree there is abuse and misinterpretation.  I think we differ
on who is doing the abusing and misinterpreting though ;-)


 - the fear is that we are losing the Values and
> Responsibility we have to safeguard the business development and
> promote fair competition.


Exactly. Fair competition means anyone can apply, no?

 Frighteningly this tends to be based on
> personal gain(s) and of recent, it has become a more than that!
>
> Turning back to the question of timing, "where was afTLD only to come
> up with this unacceptable proposal?"

I assume they have been working on it for some time, I don't see
anything unacceptable in it, except maybe that they are thinking of
outsourcing registry operations to a non-African org (all bids seem to
lean in this direction), when we have plenty of capacity to do that
here in Africa.


>
> This reminds of those days when ITU was bidding to take over ICANN
> operations i.e. put them under the UN systems (?)... This big idea of
> using AU to accredit AfLD sounds similar to me - cant we learn
> something there?


If you read the DAG, it seems that the AU will have to be involved at
some stage.  I haven't read anything that suggests that AfTLD is
seeking AU "accreditation".  As for timing, I think it unrealistic to
expect that any .africa bid can be evaluated by October...the new gTLD
round hasn't even been launched yet.  If the GAC gets involved, there
will probably be even more delays.  THE DAG says that an application,
with no contention will take approximately 8 months.


>
> I have explored and found that full support to DCA is the way forward!
> It is a business

I thought it was a non-profit?

regardless of what 'noise' is being made to
> unethically stifle the process - I am afraid that is how it seems to
> be unless proved negative.
>
> Meanwhile, can someone explain why was a Hon Minister dragged into
> this?

Which Hon Minister are you referring to?

>For political Influence or what?

Well, a quick perusal of the DCA homepage shows lots of politicking
and politicians.  I agree though that politics is best left out of it.

There is the GAC where
> sovereign issues are channelled through. Overlooking the function of
> GAC is not proper - that is a fact unless someone is running another
> global body parallel to ICANN! I don't know, maybe we are talking
> about two different global organisations here - apologies if that is
> the case.

We are talking about the DAG, and what you need to do to get a
continent wide TLD approved.

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-rfp-clean-12nov10-en.pdf

"– If an applicant has applied for a gTLD string that is a geographic
name, the applicant is required to submit a statement
of support for or non-objection to its application from
the relevant governments or public authorities"

The GAC may get involved to help confirm that communications from
gov'ts is legitimate:

"ICANN may confirm the authenticity of the communication
by consulting with the relevant diplomatic authorities or
members of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee"

>
> Time to make things transparently clear is now!  Who has got what
> personal interest in what at the expense of regional development? Name
> names please.......

oh yes please, would love to see who is funding which bids.  I think
that is unlikely to happen though.

-- 
Cheers,

McTim
"A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A
route indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel