AfTLD
 | |
| Type: | Non-profit |
| Industry: | Internet |
| Founded: | 2002 |
| Country: | Mauritius |
| Website: | aftld.org |
| LinkedIn: | AfTLD |
| Key People | |
| Vika Mpisane, Chairman/President Mohamed El Bashir, Director of Communications & Outreach | |
AfTLD (African Top Level Domain) is a non-profit organization composed of registry operators in Africa. It was incorporated as a Mauritius non-profit organization on 19 December 2002.[1] It is a forum for African TLD managers to address and discuss issues and policies that have a global impact. It represents African ccTLDs on an international platform as one coherent voice. AfTLD was formed to have an influential global position in the ccTLD sector and to make the recommendations of AfTLD registries heard effectively in front of various international parties.
AfTLD was started as a project to share information and focus on united actions, on issues which are similar in nature, amongst the ccTLD Registries in the African region. It wa started as a joint effort, with more than 50 ccTLDs originally associated with the project.[2]
Timeline[edit | edit source]
Since its establishment, AfTLD has achieved, initiated or participated in the following activities:[3]
- 2002 - 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 ICANN 18 in Carthage. It also organized a name server training workshop.
- 2004 - Attended ICANN 21 in Cape Town.
- 2005 - Implemented its election process to select representatives to the ccNSO Council
- 2006 - Restructured 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. It also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with AfriNIC.
- 2010 - Held its 4th Annual African ccTLD in Nairobi, Kenya during the 37th ICANN Meeting
- 2011 - Conducted an Attack Contingency Response Planning (ACRP) Workshop for ccTLDs managers in partnership with the Ghananian National Information Technology Administration (NITA).
Objectives[edit | edit source]
- Represent the interests of the African ccTLDs, including the neighboring islands around the continent on an international platform.
- Boost association between ccTLD managers.
- Create awareness amongst the African community about the ICANN processes, IANA and other global TLD through various programs and forums.
- Create common framework or networks from where information about AFTLDs can be easily obtained across the globe, and predominantly across the African Continent.
- Provide assistance to African organization for the development and progress of various Internet and DNS related technologies.
- Promote and develop various policies, which will attract the growth of Internet and various online services.[4]
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.[5]
Members[edit | edit source]
There are in all 24 member countries and 7 associated members. Members are provided with the following benefits:
- Involvement in all AfTLD forums and discussions.
- Involvement in workshops to develop the technical features of the members, their terms of experience and expertise.
- Sharing all possible information through various modes like news, e-newsletters, events, documents, and discussions.
- Access of AfTLD mailing list for information sharing and discussions.[6]
Members[edit | edit source]
| ccTLD | Country |
| .bf | Burkina Faso |
| .bi | Burundi |
| .cd | DR Congo |
| .ci | Cote d’Ivoire |
| .cf | Central African Republic |
| .eg | Egypt |
| .ke | Kenya |
| .km | Comoros |
| .ly | Libya |
| .mg | Madagascar |
| .ml | Mali |
| .mr | Mauritania |
| .mu | Mauritius |
| .mw | Malawi |
| .mz | Mozambique |
| .ng | Nigeria |
| .sc | Seychelles |
| .sd | Sudan |
| .sn | Senegal |
| .td | Chad |
| .tz | Tanzania |
| .so | Somali |
| .za | South Africa |
| .zm | Zambia |
Associated Members[edit | edit source]
| AusRegistry International | Australia based Domain name registry services provider. [7] |
| CoCCA | Council of Country Code Administrators Incorporated. [8] |
| GLOCM | Centre for Global Communications. [9] |
| Kheweul.com | The African Registrar. [10] |
| INDOM | INDOM is one of the leading European Domain name registrar. [11] |
| W3C Senegal | The West African centre of W3C. It manages activities of W3C in West Africa.[12] |
| GMO Registry | GMO Registry is a leading gTLD service provider. [13] |
ICANN and AfTLD[edit | edit source]
ICANN is the leading sponsor of AfTLD and helps develop policies for AfTLD’s Internet services. ICANN assists AfTLD to achieve its goals by offering a supportive role in its development and advancement, which has helped it to evolve at very fast pace.[14][15]
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.[16]
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.[17]