ARC
 | |
| Industry: | Internet |
| Founded: | 2010 |
| Founder(s): | Domain Name Services (Pty) Ltd. & Convergence Partners Investments (Pty) Ltd |
| Website: | Africanregistry.net |
| Facebook: | ARC |
| Key People | |
| Neil Dundas, Founding Member Theo Kramer, Founding Member | |
African Registry Consortium (ARC) is an African based Registry Operator. It was jointly founded in 2010 by Theo Kramer, Mark Elkins, Calvin Browne and Neil Dundas of Domain Name Services (Pty) Ltd, a company responsible for developing the policies for co.za and its technical systems maintenance; and Convergence Partners (Pty) Ltd, an investment company.[1]
ARC was at one point intending to apply for the .africa generic top level domain name (gTLD).[2]
Objectives
The organizations main objectives include:[3]
- To become the Registry Operator for the .africa gTLD
- To establish and maintain a world class and sustainable registry operations for the African and global Internet community
- To support the expansion of the African Registrar community
ARC Core Principles for .africa
ARC aims to provide the following solutions for the .africa project:[4]
- Provide a secure stakeholder involvement, governance, and oversight
- Define and manage project costs, deliverables and service levels
- Identify, manage and control challenges related to the operation of .africa
- Institutionalize knowledge and expertise
- Identify and implement registry standards and policies required to ensure a stable and successful operation of the gTLD
- Implement an efficient and scalable registry system for future technological enhancement
Criticism against ARC
DotConnectAfrica (DCA), one of the other contenders to operate the .africa gTLD, openly criticized ARC's bid to operate the gTLD. According to DCA, ARC is not a world-class registry solution for .africa, and they point out that the company is newly established and its executives are affiliated with UniForum SA, which they claim managed the .co.za and .za domain name space inefficiently. DCA also made other allegations.[5]
ARC and ICANN
ARC's founding member, Neil Dundas has been a participant in ICANN activities and meetings. He served as member of the DNSO working committee as representative to the ccTLD community to review the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).[6]