DotConnectAfrica asks US gov’t not to delay application process

DotConnectAfrica (DCA), the not for profit organisation that is applying for the .africa “generic top-level domain”, or gTLD has written an open letter to the US Department of Commerce asking it not to delay the application process to widen the Internet space with the addition of new domains.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN’s) was on schedule to expand the Internet's domain name space in May this year.
However, last December, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) wrote to ICANN asking them to delay the process until they have finalised a risk/benefit report into further opening up of the Internet domain space.
“Yes we see delays, not by ICANN but based on the letter from the Department of Commerce to ICANN to delay the process until ICANN has finalised a risk/benefit report,” Sophia Bekele, the executive director DCA said in an email response.
The DOC asked ICANN to delay the process a day before the ICANN public forum on new gTLDs in Cartagena, Colombia in December – something that came as a surprise to everyone in the industry.
In the letter to Ms. Fiona M. Alexander, the associate administrator of the National Information Telecommunications and Administration at the DOC, copied to both the chairman and chief executive of ICANN, Bekele reiterates the three key principles why DCA has championed the .africa domain. Bekele also presented the same case during the ICANN Cartagena public forum.
She said .africa as a gTLD is long overdue given the potential it has to brand the continent’s products and services, so that the rest of the world will know what Africa does and what the continent has to offer.
“While Africa’s image has suffered through war, famine and governance issues, there is also another image that the world does not know about Africa, and that can be told through its people, when they engage in promoting their products and services for trade and investment in the new gTLD,” the letter reads in part.
The letter said this is in line with the current US administration’s policy of “focus on Africa”, to assist in increasing trade and investment.
“While, we all acknowledge ICANN is an international organization, it is also based in the US. Therefore, the dotafrica gTLD fulfills this US agenda and support for Africa’s speedy entry in the global village,” the letter reads.
Bekele, a former ICANN policy advisor said DCA has instituted a programme called ‘generation.africa’ as part of the dotafrica agenda to empower the youth to adapt to the powers of the Internet and its use.
She said just like the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a goodwill ambassador to ICANN, has championed broadband in Africa, DCA is calling on ICANN to do the same for the .africa agenda.
Bekele explained that a shift in the industry away from the original gTLDs that have served Africa like the dotcoms and dotorgs to a dotafrica will mean development of a new industry and market for Africa empowering African jobs and wealth creation.
She said Africa will be empowered in the process so that gTLDs don’t have to go to ICANN for financial support as is the case with African community gTLDs
“The dotafrica registry can instead fulfill that need, and this DCA is ready to do,” Bekele said. Africa has already missed the boat in the last many rounds; but we have seen the successes of .eu and then .asia. Now is the time for .africa.”
At the moment, the Internet contains just 21 gTLDs, from the most famous, dot-com to lesser known extensions like dot-name or dot-travel.
The dotafrica registry has so far received endorsements from the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and recently the International Domain Resolution Union (IDRU).
In its letter of endorsement on December 5, 2010, the executive director of IDRU, David Allen, stated, the IDRU endorses your efforts for the “dotafrica” initiative.
“IDRU stands ready to assist DotConnectAfrica in its gTLD application for '.africa' in regard to the various African languages that it would support. At the international level, these include Arabic and French and Portuguese; at the local level also - for example - Amharic and Swahili,” the IDRU endorsement reads in part.