On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 1:16 PM, Nnenna Nwakanma <nnenna@nnenna.org> wrote:

Hi people

On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 6:31 PM, Norman Boinett <nboinett@gmail.com> wrote:

I listened to DotConnectAfrica pitch a presentation on its efforts to
register the dot africa domain at the AITEC conference held in Nairobi last
year.

I can try to answer your questions. I was on that panel (if it was
the same AITEC mtg).

I don't know if? AU picked on the endorsement issue following the

realization of the importance of the TLD and its political, social and
economic implications or its has been keen on it all the way. I am not sure
about the level of participation of the AU in past and present IG issues and
the part they play in internet governance matters

Well in this particular matter the ICANN DAG (the rules for new gTLDs)
say that if you are applying for a name that represents a continent,
you need 60% approval from governments in that region (i am
paraphrasing). Both orgs that want to be the Sponsoring organisation
have sought approval from the AU in the past.

I think Moctar within the new Information Society Division of the AU will be the best to answer this. Last week the Ghanian Vice Presidency seemed to imply that the AU will hold the .africa on Trust and ensure that the operator will do so on behalf of the African people. Moctar, though, can update us

Can someone please

enlighten us on some of these issues;
1. what the AU has done on African Internet governance processes in the
recent past and its implications on the internet governance community

They have helped to jump start a pan-African IGF recently. Announced
on this list in the last month. I don't know if there any
implications of this frankly. Its just one more conference to attend
on limited travel budgets IMO.

The Pan-Africa IGF is not yet started. It is not a conference also. It is an initiative to engage actors (Pan African and multinational) who have not found a niche in the regional initiatives. Its main objective may be to strengthen national IG initiatives. It may not need to host a pan-African event.

An open forum has been booked for the Nairobi IGF so all interested parties can take the discussion further. The framework document is open and everyone is welcome to edit and contribute.

It is on http://bit.ly/dKdUKe

2. Who should be most responsible for the registration and management of the
dot africa TLD, organizations like DotConnectAfrica, AU or the Africa
Intenet Governance Forum (if it exists)?

There are many roles to play here. The AU, as the relevant public
authority may have "sovereignty" over the name "africa" according to
my reading of the DAG. They can choose on or more (or zero) orgs to
be the Supporting Organisation. These orgs would run the Registry.
Then there is the back-end registry operator, which I would like to
see go to an all African org. Then there are Registrars, of which
there are 4 (ICANN accredited) in Africa. It is unclear if
registrars like Versign/GoDaddy, etc would be allowed to be registrars
for a .africa.

The nascent African IGF would have nothing to do with .africa IMO, as
it is a discussion forum only, hasn't really been formed yet, and has
no decision making authority.

Co-sign. The AU has a kind of panel of experts. One or two should be on this list. The Africa IGF is being modeled after the IGF Secretariat.. so I doubt it will (whenever it kicks off) be saddled with issues related to the management of .africa.

I hope this answers your query.

Hope I have been helpful

Nnenna

--

Nnenna Nwakanma | Founder and CEO, NNENNA.ORG | Consultants
Information | Communications | Technology and Events | for Development
Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (+225)| Tel: 225 27144 | Fax 224 26471 |Mob. 07416820
Accra, Ghana (+233) Tel: 0249561345 | http://www.nnenna.org | nnenna@nnenna.org
Twitter - @nnenna | Skype - nnenna75 | nnennaorg.blogspot.com

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