Hi, Thanks for the heads up on this, I have been attending the sessions at the ICANN conference and it has been very informative it is unfortunate that very few Kenyan's are attending or even have an idea of what is ready being hatched. During the diner yesterday I sat next to a staff member of Afilias who are one of the largest registry operators in the US and the information I got from him has been an eye opener especially on issues of registrars and registry as relates to TLD. It seems that the problem with African countries is our dependence on donations and handouts, the registry business is a huge money maker once you put aside the techie staff. In this light I think it is time that we got KENIC a competitor or two maybe even 10 by doing this we shall bring order, ambition and drive into the TLD business in the region. Afilias runs the .org and also the .mobi and they went out to chase for the business they did not just sit back and wait for it to be donated. From the link Mureithi provided it is clear that Kenya has a slight advantage over other countries in the region which, we need to move this advantage to the next level by offering to become the registry for .ug, .ea, .cd, .rw and also the TLD for .afri. By providing the services to our less advanced neighbours we shall easily achieve critical mass of users thens we can role out registrars around the region. Lets work towards lighting a fire under KENIC as we work towards EACoNIC, the work of TLDs is huge business lets stop treating it like some donor driven activity. Stand and be countered or forever keep your peace. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: muriuki mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 10 March, 2010 18:00:51 Subject: [kictanet] Africa TLD registries discuss take-up of domains Hi listers For more visit http://www.thestandard.com/news/2010/03/09/africa-tld-registries-discuss-tak... Cheers Muriuki Mureithi ---------------------------------- Summit Strategies Ltd ICT consulting and research Land mark Plaza 13th floor P O Box 62454 - 00200 Nairobi Kenya tel + 254-20- 3673925 Cell +254 722 520090 email - mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke www.summitstrategies.co.ke