.Africa : Africa’s new Internet Online Identity
Mohamed El Bashir
Chair, Steering Committee
dotAFRICA
I-Week 2012, Cape Town
10-14 September 2012
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
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
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
Who We Are?
Who We Are?
National Governments
InterGov. Organizations
African Union
Registry Provider
Steering Committee
ccLTD Registries
African ICANN Accredited Registrars
African Internet Society Chapters
African
Internet
Community
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
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
Steering Committee Responsibilities:
 Project Oversight
 Political, Moral and Ethical leadership (Governance)
 Strategy
 Policy Development
 Awareness, Communication and Marketing
Steering Committee Members:
 Mohamed EL Bashir, Chair
• ccTLD Community :
– .bi ccTLD
– .ml ccTLD
– .ke ccTLD
– .eg 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
dot AFRICA Foundation
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
Our Focus Areas:
Our Focus Areas:
dot AFRICA Community
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
Relationship Matrix (Operational)
.AFRICA
Delegation Authority
ICANN
African Entities :
ZACR
Sponsor
Registry Operator
AUC
Policy Advisory Group
PAG
ccTLD Development
DotAfrica
Foundation
AFTLD
RAR Development
Partner
AFRICA
Registrars
INTERNATIONAL
Registrars
COMMUNITY
Participate. Engage.
Africa in One Space
o Facebook :
facebook/africandomain
o Twitter :
twitter.com/africandomain
o
Web : www.africainonespace.org
o
Open Community mailing list : community@dotafrica.org (subscribe on website)
Thank You
ً‫شكراً جزيل‬
Merci
Asante
Dankie
Amesegënallô
Nagode
Abaraka
Djere dief
Ndiyabulela
Enkosi