Generation.Africa says THANK YOU to ICANN and DCA

Aug. 9, 2011 - PRLog -- It's almost a month since ICANN approved the new gTLD program in Singapore to great fanfare in the internet/ICANN community and the generation.africa team is more than pleased to have witnessed and  contributed our small bit towards the historic change to the Domain Name system.

Generation.africa was an idea conceived by the DotConnectAfrica Organization to inspire young people in Africa to take more active roles in the development of the internet in Africa, primarily through the dotafrica initiative.

DotConnectAfrica seeks to put Africa on the digital map through a .africa Top level Domain. The internet is still very young in Africa and the generation.africa campaign consists of people with passion for the internet, the willingness to learn the processes that govern the global internet and to give their bit towards a better internet in Africa.

Young people in Africa have been given access to a platform and movement where we can contribute to fruitful debates on internet governance issues, network with each other, share ideas and more so drive the initiative to establish a dotafrica Top level domain name for African and Pan Africa communities. We have learnt a lot and have been inspired by DCA's introduction of dotafrica campaign which gave us the background of ICANN's six year multistakeholder consensus-driven odyssey to establish the newTLDs program, along with DCA's being aportal to this great lesson in governance and decision making for institutions around the world but more so for Africa, a continent that's slowly building fledgling democracies from a past of dictatorships and impunity.

And dotafrica is the instrument, an internet currency for Africa that represents the renewed vigour of a continent that's matching forward to make up for the lost time.  For young people, dotafrica is more than just a domain but a symbol of a rebirth, a renaissance.   It defines us.  It represents an Africa that is ready to move along with the rest world in various spheres of innovation because we, young Africans, have the same aspirations as young people across the globe. That's why the generation.africa identifies deeply with a .africa and the entire newTLD process and DCA's mission and vision..

                                     It's something new, disruptive, innovative and exciting
                                              and therefore it stimulates something in us.

Our energies and restless anticipation were vindicated on 20th June, 2011 when the ICANN board boldly voted to establish the newTLDs program ensuring our generation will forever be identified as the DotAfrica generation, and DCA making the case for us at ICANN and the United States government really empowered us.   We are a unique generation that has witnessed the birth of a new age in the internet.  

We pledge to keep the internet young by lending our voices to the policy-making process, now and in the future, at ICANN to ensure it's heard and also to ensure that the new floodgates of innovation in the domain namespace clearly benefit us.  Young people are after all, the originators of unique ideas, of innovations.  ICANN along with DCA has made it a democratic community and has made this possible, and for this, all we can say is THANK YOU for the newTLDs ICANN and THANK YOU DCA for fighting for .africa.

# # #

DCA is a not-for-profit, non-partisan org incorporated in Mauritius Africa & will sponsor, establish & operate a TLD registry with global recognition & regional significance dedicated to the needs of Pan-African &African community. DCA Reg.ID.CT8710DCA90