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UniForum SA

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ICANNWiki Silver Sponsor
Type: Non-Profit
Industry: Registry
New gTLD Applicant
Founded: 1980
Headquarters: COZA House, Gazelle Close

Corporate Park, Midrand

Country: South Africa
Email: support[at]co.za
Website: coza.net.za
LinkedIn: UniForum SA
Key People
Neil Dundas, Director of Law & Policy

UniForum SA (trading as the .ZA Central Registry, ZACR) is the domain administrator for .co.za. According to their website they have more than 858,679 registered domain names.[1] Initially UniForum SA was a local chapter of the UniForum Association based in United States.[2] In mid 2012 it was announced that there were about 100,000 - 140,000 .co.za names being added annually; this includes additional registrations in the 200,000 range with deletions or non-renewals in the 60,000 to 100,000 range.[3]

UniForum is an ISO 9002 certified organization.[4]

New gTLDs[edit | edit source]

In February 2012, UniForum SA was selected by the African Union (AU)to be the registry provider for the .africa TLD.[5] The company, trading under the name Registry.Africa, is the applicant for the TLD. It has the the support of the African Union and over 39 individual African governments.[6]

The company has also applied for the South African GeoTLDs, .durban, .joburg, and .capetown.

History[edit | edit source]

UniForum SA was established in 1980 and started administration of .co.za in 1995. It joined ISPA in 1996. UniForum SA collaborates with international bodies for promotion of their SLD.[7] UniForum SA has always worked for open source systems.[8]

Since the inception of ICANN, UniForum SA has participated in its meetings. It actively promotes developing countries' issues in ICANN meetings. It also encourages African governments to participate in various ICANN and GAC activities. The association has supported ICANN initiatives by AfrISPA, AfriNIC and AfrICANN.[9]

Activities[edit | edit source]

In February 2011, UniForum SA joined the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (at Wits University) for the development and awareness of ICT in South Africa.[10]

In order to promote knowledge of the Internet and computers among high school students, UniForum SA sponsored the Computer Applications Olympiad 2011.[11]

UniForum SA is a non-profit organisation that redirects its surplus funds into its corporate social investment arm, 'CoZa Cares'. By 2011, R40million had been invested in school computer centres, software content development, teacher training, school leadership development and IT entrepreneurial training.[12]

UniForum hosted the iWeek annual conference together with ISPA on 21-23 September 2011.[13]

Partnership with AfriNIC[edit | edit source]

In June, 2012, it was announced that UniForum SA and AfriNIC began a partnership to support training and policy discussions within Africa's tech community. AfriNIC provides training on topics such as cybersecurity, IPv4 exhaustion, IPv6 deployment, Internet Protocol and mobility, policy and IP address allocation, and Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC). UniForum SA will sponsor four AfriNIC meetings, where public and private sector officials can discuss Internet growth and accessibility policy issues, and the deployment of technologies such as cybersecurity and IPv6, as they affect the African continent.[14]

External Links[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

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