[AfrICANN-discuss] Help with .africa history

[Jean Robert Hountomey]

The domain dotafrica.org was created on 2004.

Domain ID:D104553929-LROR
Domain Name:DOTAFRICA.ORG
Created On:21-Jun-2004 20:33:13 UTC


> Rebecca,
>
> Good you are writing the history of .Africa
>
> To my knowledge, there has not been any application for the .Africa
> string, apart from those we now have with the new gTLD programme.
>
> We did have an expression of interest by a westerner to run .Africa
> back ther in the 2000s and we thought it back during one of the Icann
> meeting in 2002 I believe.
>
> We (actually Nii, Pierre O. Adiel, and Pierre D. also Mohamed Diop I
> think) later on developed a concept paper on how the .Africa should be
> run for the benefits of Africa. We wanted .Africa to be expressive and
> thus detailed it as 'DotAfrica' in the oaper and the latter was
> circulated and posted on the website (www.dotafrica.org). (Nii
> registered that name and has been paying for it i think)!
>
> In 2007, the bearer of the DCA initiative approached us; I gave her
> the concept paper; she promised to work with us, to bring the diaspora
> perspective so that we collectively moved that agenda for Africa. We
> believed her!
>
> Here we are now, with lies, cabals and confusions!
>
>   Hope this clarifies!
>
> Pierre D.
> On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 9:59 AM, Rebecca Wanjiku
> <rebecca.wanjiku at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I am writing on the history of .africa and there seems to be conflicting
>> information on when the initial expression of running of .africa was made.
>> Was there an actual application to ICANN or not?
>>
>> If you have a recollection of the events then, please help me out.
>>
>> I have drafted the brief history and if there is another part of it that I
>> am getting wrong, please correct me.
>>
>> Here it is....
>>
>> History of dot Africa
>>
>>
>> At the beginning of the second round of the new Generic Top Level Domain
>> (gTLD) application in 2000, an entrepreneur from a western country had the
>> idea of running dot Africa.
>>
>>
>> The entrepreneur approached Nii Quaynor and Pierre Danjinou, Africa's well
>> known technology ambassadors to organize support for the redelegation and
>> operation of the geographic domain.
>>
>>
>> By the time ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) held
>> its first meeting in Africa in Accra in 2002, the idea of redelegation of
>> dot Africa was floated to other experts and the feeling was that at that
>> time, Africa had other more challenging problems like redelegation of
>> country code Top Level Domains, connectivity infrastructure issues, and
>> policy development among other challenges.
>>
>>
>> It was largely agreed that the best approach was to tackle the elementary
>> problems such as connectivity and redelegation of ccTLDs before dealing with
>> dot Africa, but the debate continued.
>>
>>
>> Some of the elementary problems were: connecting the Eastern Africa region
>> with the fiber optic cable to reduce its reliance on satellite connectivity,
>> increasing the number of fiber optic cables in west Africa to further reduce
>> connectivity costs, boosting network infrastructure to interconnect
>> different countries and exchange content locally and developing registry
>> operations to support growth of country code Top Level Domains, among other
>> challenges.
>>
>>
>> The policy and infrastructure discussions started an investment wave that
>> saw several investors coming together to initiate several fiber optic cables
>> in such-EASSY, TEAMS, and SEACOM among others. These investment vehicles
>> were both private and public-private partnerships.
>>
>>
>> By 2006, it was clear that the connectivity hurdle was going to be cleared
>> and the debate focused back to dot Africa. In the meantime, European
>> countries had rallied behind dot EU and Asian countries were galvanizing
>> support for dot Asia.
>>
>>
>> In Africa, the debate was centered around the shape and form of dot Africa
>> organization, and the role governments and private sector would play in
>> promoting dot Africa, and how the organization would contribute to training
>> and infrastructure development.
>>
>>
>> Between 2007 and 2008, a private sector initiative emerged, promising to run
>> dot Africa with the support of the African Union but it was marred by
>> controversy because the African Union Commission only expressed its
>> intention to rally African countries behind dot Africa in 2009 and in 2010,
>> Africa TLD organization (AfTLD) which brings together ccTLDs in the region,
>> rendered its support to the AUC in sponsoring and selecting the right
>> organization to run dot Africa TLD.
>>
>>
>> In 2011, the AU invited interested companies based in Africa to express
>> interest in running dot Africa, clearly showing their registry operational
>> experience, stating where the registry operations will be based, how the
>> operation will benefit African countries and a methodology of how these
>> benefits will trickle down.
>>
>>
>> After deliberations on the technical, financial ability and benefits to
>> Africa tech community, UNIFORUM was selected by the AUC as the organization
>> to establish and run dot Africa.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Becky
>>
>> 254 720318925
>>
>> www.wanjiku.co.ke
>>
>> twitter; wanjiku
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>


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