DotConnectAfrica

Type:	Non-Profit
Industry:	Internet
Founder(s):	Sophia Bekele
Headquarters:	I/F River Court 6th Denis Street Port Louis
Country:	Mauritius
Website:	DotConnectAfrica
Blog:	DCA Blog
Key People
Sophia Bekele, Founder & Executive Director

DotConnectAfrica (DCA) is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization based in Mauritius, Africa. Its main objective is to become the sponsoring organization and the registry operator of the .africa generic top level domain name (gTLD). The organization maintains offices in Ethiopia, Kenya and United States.

Mission

DCA aims to accomplish the following missions:

• Become the sponsor and operator of the .africa gTLD and establish it as regional internet domain name space with a global recognition dedicated to the needs of the Pan-African and African constituancy.
• Reinvest surplus of the registry business in socio-technological development projects significant to the Pan-Africa and African constituancy.
• Operate an effective and technically advanced TLD registry through the initiative of not-for-profit organization.

Background

DCA was founded in 2008 by Sophia Bekele, who serves as Executive Director of the organization. Her intent, by supporting the .africa initiative, is to remove the internet policy divides in the African Region, and to support the region in catching up with the innovations of the worldwide Internet and Communications Technology industry. In 2009, the organization began its campaign to gather support for the .africa initiative by conducting forums in different universities and international conferences, among which were the Golden Gate University, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Sacramento State University, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the United Nations Development of Economics & Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN).

The proposal to develop the DotAfrica TLD was first introduced by Sophia Bekele to the African Members of the ICANN Board and different African organizations of the ICANN community during the ICANN 28 meeting in Lisbon, Portugal in 2007. She emphasized the importance of the .africa domain name for the benefit of the African region’s internet development and how it could serve as global identity for African internet users, as .asia and .eu do for their regions. Bekele argued that the initiative was compliant with the objectives and policies of various international organizations aiming to strengthen Africa's ICT sector, including the WSIS, the African Union, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

During the ICANN 32 International ICANN Public Meeting, Bekele officially announced her bid to apply for the .africa TLD through DotConnectAfrica.

Development

Endorsements to DCA

The organization received endorsement and support from the African Union Commission (AUC) through its Chairman, Jean Ping, on August 27, 2009. Ping expressed that the AUC was willing to assist DCA in the coordination the DotAfrica initiative with African ministers and governments. In addition, Amina Salima, head of the African Union Mission in Washington, also supported DCA’s DotAfrica initiative. Salima said, "one of the objectives of the African Union Mission in the USA is to mobilize the African Diaspora efforts. Towards this end, the AU mission would like to express support for the .africa initiative." Abdoulie Janneh, UN under-secretary-general and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission of Africa (ECA), also sent a letter of endorsement to DCA stating the following: "I write to express my support on behalf of ECA. This is a worthwhile initiative that will contribute substantially to helping Africa bridge the digital divide. It will certainly help the continent to derive similar benefits from the successful experience from the European Union which has the .eu domain and that of Asia with its .asia domain.” Other high-ranking officials from different governments in Africa also supported DCA's initiative. During the ICANN 37 Meeting at Nairobi, Kenya in 2010, the members of the Nairobi technical community who attended the public forum also expressed their support to DCA.

AUC Alleged Retraction of Endorsement

The African Union Commission issued a statement on May 12, 2010 referencing the statement of endorsement issued by Chairman Jean Ping to DCA. There was also another letter issued by African Union .Africa TaskForce which clarified that it did not support nor endorse any individual or organization and announced that entities interested must submit their Expression of Interest (EOI), which would served as the Commission’s basis for endorsement and selection.

DCA criticized AUC's plan to implement the EOI submission competition process for application endorsement. DCA claimed that the AUC’s objective for accountability and transparency was "hollow and unbelievable," as the letter they issues references the previous endorsement issued to DCA, however fails to acknowledge the previous endorsement issued by Chairman Ping. Furthermore, DCA pointed out that the EOI process would be biased, as the AU Task Force had already expressed its support for AfTLD during the 2011 annual African ccTLD event in Ghana. DCA encouraged all organizations to disregard the AU EOI process and asked AUC to cease the request.

DCA's response to the AU endorsement and the conflict that arose

DCA believes that its AU endorsement was never rescinded. Admittedly, there was an attempt to withdraw the endorsement using a forged letter mentioned above, so this wicked action did not work, and DCA's endorsement remains valid. Since there are two different competing visions for .AFRICA - one that is oriented towards serving an 'African Community' and 'African Internet Community' and ownership by the AU and African governments and African ccTLDs who already have their 2-code country TLDs; and DCA's vision that is based on an open, generic standard TLD that serves both the global Internet community, but with particular focus on Africa/Pan-African interests and organizations that have an interest/stake in Africa.

The conflict arose simply because certain people who wanted to hijack the .AFRICA for themselves tried to use an extraordinary process under the political and diplomatic cover of the AU to stop DCA from participating in the process, but DCA believes that the new gTLD process is managed by ICANN, and that it would exercise its democratic right to apply by following the new gTLD program guidelines set by ICANN, and let the final decision be based on the outcome of the ICANN Evaluation.

The other group believes that the rights to the .AFRICA gTLD belongs to the AU representing African governments, but DCA insists that the .AFRICA gTLD is an Internet resource that belongs to ICANN, and let ICANN give it to whoever has the winning application based on the set criteria. In a nutshell the whole conflict is centered around the simple fact that DCA refused to accept the bullying and intimidation of a certain vested interest group, and decided to put its faith on the ICANN process.

Continuous Promotional Campaign at ICANN Meetings & Other Forums

Despite the AU's alleged retraction of support, DCA continued to campaign and promote its bid for .africa, particularly during ICANN Meetings. During the ICANN 38 in Brussels, DCA served as one of the event sponsors. The organization also sponsored a delegation from Africa to take part in the policy debate that would help shape the position of the African community on the implementation of ICANN's New gTLD Program.

At ICANN 39 in Cartagena, Columbia on December 2010, Bekele shared a statement during the public forum urging the ICANN Board not to delay the application process for new gTLDs, and enumerated the three key principles that serve as the foundation of DCA's governance for the .africa gTLD. These principles were: 1) branding the African continent's products and services through the .africa gTLD in order to inform people around the world about the positive things Africa has to offer; 2) DCA created “generation.africa” as a theme to empower the youth in Africa, helping them to adapt and use the power of the Internet; and 3) to shift the local domain name market from the US market of .com and .org to Africa, empowered by the DotAfrica registry to be located in the continent.

In March 2011, during the ICANN 40 Meeting in San Francisco, DCA and its delegation introduced its Yes2DotAfrica Campaign. During the event, Bekele spoke to registry vendors about DCA's EOI to apply for .africa. She claimed that majority of the ICANN community supported her initiative. Bekele also said that DCA welcomed all African internet agencies and international partners that were willing to collaborate and provide guidance in the bid to apply for the .africa TLD.

DCA also attended the ICANN 41 Meeting in Singapore in June 2011, and ICANN 42 in Dakar, Senegal in October of 2011 respectively. During these events, Bekele promoted the Yes 2 DotAfrica campaign. In Senegal, the organization provided a booth featuring its vision for the .africa gTLD, and brought in many local youths participating in their generation.africa program.

During the Internet Governance Forum in Kenya on July 29, 2010, DCA urged participants to support its .africa application. According to her, "After the high level endorsements 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." She also said that the DCA governance model is based on the Kenya Network Information Center's (KeNIC) multi-stakeholder model.

DCA Allegations Against AfTLD

The rivalry between DCA and AfTLD, an association of ccTLD domain name managers and sponsoring organizations in Africa to gain the endorsement of the African Union Commission to serve as the operator and sponsoring organization of the DotAfrica gTLD turned nasty. DCA alleged that AfTLD is corrupt and it is using double dealing to unfairly get the endorsement from AUC, as members of AFTLD are also part of the AU DotAfrica Taskforce who are making the selection. In response, AfTLD claimed that DCA is using intimidation to succeed. When the African Union announced that a Task Force was created and delegated to choose the right organization to be endorsed by the AUC for the DotAfrca project for the ICANN application, DCA reacted negatively and accused that the Task Force was "established in order to disingenuously facilitate insider help for AfTLD’s Expression of Interest to the AU and prospective bid to ICANN." In addition, DCA claimed that some of the members of the Task Force including Pierre Dandjinou and Nii Quaynor are "advisors and confederates of AfTLD," and strongly emphasized that their ties are "unwholesome and foster corruption, nepotism, abuse of office, and large-scale illegality." Furthermore, DCA launched a campaign against Nii Quaynor.

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