DotConnnectAfrica calls for support of ".africa" at Kenya Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

Aug. 28, 2010 - PRLog -- Nairobi, Kenya: DotConnectAfrica participated in the Kenya IGF forum on 29th July 2010.  The ICT conference, named the Kenya Internet Governance Forum, is part of a series of regional meetings aimed at creating awareness and developing a common understanding of local Internet Governance issues as well as equipping the region and enabling meaningful participation on global internet policy and development processes and initiatives.

Appealing for support at the conference, Sophia Bekele, the Executive Director of DCA said, the need for people to recognize the benefits and opportunities of ".africa" is important, and not to parallel its treatment and consideration with the generic commercial Top Level domains such as .bank or .food, as ".Africa"  falls under  a “geographic domain" requiring for eg. endorsments from governments.

Bekele said that they have already made their expression of interest with ICANN.  "After the high level endorsments we received as per the application, we are now in the process of reaching out to the technical community to gain support based on the merit and the benefits of the initiative, and hoping that such forums as IGF would create a neutral platform for debate and raising issues with the ".africa" domain name and internet governance".

Bekele also said: “Our model of governance follows the Kenya Network Information Center KeNIC's multi-stakeholder model, which is also supported by ICANN, and IGF.  The technical community needs to raise their concerns and issues openly and transparently based on the merits of the project”.

Commenting on the role of IGF forum and of ICANN, Mr. Barry Ryan, an advisor to DotConnectAfrica and the CEO of Fintech International, said: “ICANN has emphasized on a strict separation on its governance model for various areas such as registry registrants, DNS & IP,  versus the IGF forum which seem to take a more generalized approach, which should not be confused with the well focused areas of ICANN” .

The conference attracted government representatives, including Hon. James Rege, the chair of the Parliamentary committee on energy, communications and information and H.E. Dr Bitange Ndemo, the PS ministry of information and communication. There were also stakeholders in the ICT community in the country.

During the conclusion, Kenya expressed its interest in hosting the 2011 global United Nations Internet Governance Forum (UN-IGF).

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DotConnectAfrica is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization incorporated in Africa and will sponsor, establish and operate a TLD registry with global recognition and regional significance dedicated to the needs of the Pan-African and African community