AfTLD
 | |
| Type: | Non-profit |
| Industry: | Internet |
| Founded: | 2002 |
| Country: | Mauritius |
| Website: | www.aftld.org |
| LinkedIn: | AfTLD |
| Key People | |
| Vika Mpisane, Chairman & Pres. | |
AfTLD (African Top Level Domain) is a non-profit organization composed of registry operators in Africa. AfTLD represents the voice and interests of its members regarding policy issues that affect the ccTLD operations in the African region and internationally. The organization was incorporated in Mauritius in 2002. Vika Mpisane is the current chairman and president of AfTLD.[1]
Timeline[edit | edit source]
Since its establishment, the organization achieved, initiated or participated in the following activities:[2]
- 2002- AfTLD was incorporated in Mauritius and became member of ICANN's Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO)
- 2003- Participated in AfNOG, AfriNIC, and its first general assembly was held during the ICANN Meeting in Carthage, and it organized a name server training workshop
- 2004- Attended the ICANN Meeting in Cape Town
- 2005- Implemented its election process to select representatives to the ccNSO Council
- 2006- The organization re-structured its Board and added 8 members to its executive committee to create an Interim Board of Trustees
- 2007- Held its 1st African ccTLD Event in Cairo, Egypt
- 2008- Conducted its 2nd Annual African ccTLD Event in Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2009- Its 3rd Annual African ccTLD Event in Arusha, Tanzania was held and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with AfriNIC
- 2010- Held its 4th Annual African ccTLD in Nairobi, Kenya during the 37th ICANN Meeting
- 2011- Conducted its Attack Contingency Response Planning (ACRP) Workshop for ccTLDs managers in partnership with the National Information Technology Administration (NITA).
Objectives[edit | edit source]
The main objective of AfTLD is to voice and stand up for the benefit and interests of ccTLD managers, encourage communication and cooperation between them, increase the awareness of the internet community in the African region and its neighbor islands regarding the process, activities and meetings of ICANN, IANA and the World ccTLD community, establish a website that will serve as main source of information for its members, assist in the development and capacity building of the DNS technologies and facilitate the development of ccTLD policies, administration and technical infrastructure in Africa.[3]
Members[edit | edit source]
AfTLD members include .bi (Burundi), .ci (Cote d'Ivoire), .ke (Kenya), .ly (Libya),.mg (Madagascar), .mr (Mauritius), .mw (Malawi), .mz (Mozambique), .ng (Nigeria) .sc (Seychelles), .sd (Sudan), .tz (Tanzania), .za (South Africa), .cd (DR Congo), .sn (Senegal), .eg (Egypt), .zm (Zambia) and many other ccTLD in Africa.[4]
AfTLD's Bid for .Africa[edit | edit source]
On March 2011, AfTLD expressed its interest in managing .africa, as well as its french version .afrique, to represent the African region and to be included in the new batch of generic top level domain names (gTLDs) that will be approved by ICANN. The organization is confident it has the capability to manage .africa and plans to partner with one of the leading registry service providers to ensure the success of the gTLD. AfTLD believes that launching .africa as a new gTLD will greatly benefit the businesses and the entire internet community within the African region.[5]
AfTLD is bidding against DotConnectAfrica (DCA), another non-profit organization headed by Sophia Bekele, to get the endorsement of the African Union Commission (AUC) to be able to secure the mandate from ICANN to manage the .africa gTLD.[6]