<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>+1 <br><br></div>As much as we would like the world of Internet to be ridden of any notion of national boundaries, those boundaries are well with us, poor bodily beings as well as small-and-medium size legal entities including internet operators, and they constrain us at so many levels we don't even realize (I for one would like to get rid of national borders, nationalities and passports so that I can decide overnight to hop on a plane and show up wherever in the world I want or need --for now, only a tiny portion of the world population can do so thanks to... their nationality and their national passport!)<br>
<br></div>Back to the point: We often hear that internet value is created at its edges (or a variant of that.) The first policy document where I saw that used as a central argument was in the US government's comment to the WGIG report in 2005. I'll tend to agree with that provided that it applies the whole value chain, including the supply segments. Unfortunately most people just assume that it is only about contents and applications.<br>
<br></div>I think it would make a meaningful difference in terms of people's understanding of what internet fully entails and the opportunities it affords (and can potentially afford to anyone regardless of current geographical location) not just when regulators make access affordable but also: <br>
</div>- if we reduce or suppress every instance of information asymmetry regarding all aspects of the continuous making of the internet, i.e. what it takes to make internet "happen."<br></div>- if we understand that for the internet economy to be impactful to the maximum extent within an economy (which by all macro-economic measures still is a notion that is structured on national basis), conditions must be created to enable all levels of internet industry actors to emerge in every country --regardless of their possibly modest scale.<br>
<br></div>Let me be clear. Nobody is saying that it should be mandatory that, for instance, national registrars be set up in every country. Just that it should be the goal of all actors involved in shaping this ecosystem, to create or provide all the conditions (starting with eliminating information asymmetries and building relevant capacity) to those actors to emerge once they start seeing/understanding the opportunity.<br>
<br></div>That is a position I have been defending ever since I sat on the GNSO Council in 2006 and during that early stage of the new gTLD policy development process. The ingenuity and creativity of people is sooner or later limited by what they already know or experience as possible. I think we have the duty to open their outlook on the full range of possibilities about the internet at all levels of the value chain. If big, multinational corporations such as MTN, Orange or Vodafone can set up and effectively run large communications infrastructures and make huge profits in Africa, this can also be done for any level of internet operations and services including by new players. It "only" takes information/ knowledge/ experience and funding, all of which can be found in any given African country if we resolve to work deliberately toward that goal and to open up all internet processes to unusual suspects (as opposed to a handful number of players who have been long enough around ICANN to be anointed as accredited registrars.)<br>
<br></div><div>In sum, we shouldn't be working with the assumption that no player could emerge from the "national bottom" to become even a global player at some point, or that becoming a global player has nothing to do with aspects and status of national economy including potential for national internet market, within which it all begins. <br>
</div><div><br></div><div>Best,<br></div><div>
<br></div>Mawaki <br><br><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';border-spacing:0px;font-size:medium"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial;font-size:small"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';border-spacing:0px;font-size:medium"><span style="border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div>
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --<br>Mawaki Chango, PhD</div><div>Owner, DIGILEXIS Consulting</div><div><a href="http://www.digilexis.com/" target="_blank">www.digilexis.com</a></div><div><a href="mailto:m.chango@digilexis.com" target="_blank">m.chango@digilexis.com</a></div>
<div>Mobile: +225 4448 7764</div><div>Skype: digilexis<br></div><div>@digilexis</div><div>@DIG_mawaki</div></span></span></span></span><br><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 10:58 AM, Ben Fuller <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:abutiben@gmail.com" target="_blank">abutiben@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">McTim,<div><br></div><div>This is exactly the problem. You have to focus on the situation within national boundaries. I have been involved with post apartheid development in Nambia for well over 20 years. No matter what the area (SME development, livestock and agriculture, tourism, etc.) the need to build local and national supporting infrascructures is paramount. Without that focus you never get to where you can engage effectively with foreign businesses or any kind of supranational agency.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The discussions in ICANN and on this list coalesce around the need for more ICANN Accredited registrars in Africa. Thats a nice goal, but only part of the story. What if most or all of these registrars are based in East or West Africa? How will people in Namibia access these registrars? If they have a credit card they can, but that's a small number of people in our economy. Namibia is a member of the Common Monetary Area which still has exchange controls making bank transfers outside the CMA very complicated. Writing a cheque in your local currency and sending through the post is not an option because banks in other countries often want cheques in USD, EUR, etc. While the elites of any society will have few problems getting to access to Internet services and infrastructures, what about the rest the people living in African societies? I am sure that this group makes up the vast majority of any population. </div>
<div><br></div><div>The advantage of nationally based registrars is that they take care of these transactions for clients as well as providing the many different services that people new to the Internet require. They speak local languages, they provide service and support. Bob Ochieng started this thread with a post about "ubiquitous, secure and sustainable ICT infrastructure." The panel was also about "smart infrastructure." Building infrastructure from the bottom up (to borrow a well known ICANN term) is smart. This process needs to occur in conjunction with the seemingly top down approach of creating of 25 (the number I have heard as a target) ICANN accredited registrars for Africa. (Which comes out to less than half a registrar per country.)</div>
<div><br></div><div>Neither ICANN nor this list wants to get into the different ways in which businesses are created, regulated, taxed, etc in different countries; places like the World Bank, AfDB, GIZ, and others do a much better job. ICANN and people on this list can start thinking about how promote national registrars within what I take to be the ambit of ICANN and Africann -- DNS, stability and security. For example, the meeting referred to by Bob talked about security. How do we convince ccTLDs and African ISPs to adopt DNSSEC? There are other questions to look at.</div>
<span><font color="#888888">
<div><br></div><div>Ben</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></font></span><div><div class="gmail_extra"><div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div><div><br>
> On Nov 7, 2013, at 21:52, McTim <<a href="mailto:dogwallah@gmail.com" target="_blank">dogwallah@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
>> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 1:49 PM, Ben Fuller <<a href="mailto:abutiben@gmail.com" target="_blank">abutiben@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>> It seems no one is interested in the issue of building up national registrars.<br>
><br>
> I am all for building up African registrars, but I see no need to<br>
> focus inside nation states boundaries.<br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Cheers,<br>
><br>
> McTim<br>
> "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A<br>
> route indicates how we get there." Jon Postel<br>
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