ICANN’s meetings are starting to get back to normal with in-person attendances. In an announcement during the recent ICANN74 in The Hague, DENIC, eco and ICANN announced the ICANN78 annual general meeting will be held in Hamburg, Germany, in October 2023. And ICANN has scheduled the first Global Domains Division Summit since May 2020’s cancelled GDD Industry Summit in Paris for Los Angeles in November 2022.
[news release] The ninth Africa Domain Name System (DNS) Forum will be held virtually from 27 to 28 July 2021 with the theme of “Evolving the DNS Ecosystem in Africa.”
This is the third Africa DNS forum following on the successful forums in Durban, South Africa (2013), and Abuja, Nigeria (2014).
The forum is organized in partnership with ICANN, The Internet Society (ISOC) and the Africa Top Level Domain Organization (AFTLD) and will be hosted this year by the Kenya Network Information Center (KENIC), from 6-8 July 2015, under the theme:
When: 6-8 July 2015
Where: Sarova Panafric Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya
“The Future of Africa’s Domain Name Industry:
Opportunities and Challenges”
Purpose: The Africa DNS Forum brings together ccTLD registries, registrars, and stakeholders from Africa and around the world to share, learn, interact and discuss ways of how the African Domain Name Space can be improved, by sharing experiences and best practices in the domain name industry at a global level, and of the emerging business opportunities. The Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology of Kenya (MICT) have endorsed this year’s event.
Who should attend: Registries, registrars, registrants, ccTLDs, new gTLD applicants, service providers, brand owners, and legal firms
Register now to secure your place
More details are available from the event site: dnsforum.or.ke/index.php/home
For more information, please email: info@dnsforum.or.ke
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2015-06-08-en
âOnly by pursuing a policy of multilingualism in Internet access can we give effect to our policy of an Internet that is truly global, and truly accessible to all,â states European Commission Vice-President, Neelie Kroes, in the foreword of the IDN World Report 2014 produced by EURid with UNESCO in cooperation with Verisign and the country code Top Level Domain regional organisations (CENTR, LACTLD, APTLD and AFTLD).
The annual report is being presented today during a workshop at the Internet Governance Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, which takes place from 2 to 5 September.
Internationalised domain names (IDN) were first launched at the second level (eg ÏαÏάδειγμα.eu) in 2000. From 2009, it became possible to register domain names entirely in non-Latin scripts (eg ä¾å.ä¸å½). At the end of 2013, there were 6 million IDNs (including second level names and IDN TLDs). Although this is a large number, it is just 2% of the worldâs registered domain names (270 million).
EURid, the registry manager of the .eu Top Level Domain, has been supporting IDNs at the second level since late 2009 and has applied for the .eu in Greek and Cyrillic to ensure that the EU citizens can enjoy a complete IDN experience when writing languages that are not based on the Latin alphabet. âWe are proud to have supported multilingualism through IDNs since the very beginning and to offer an extended customer support in all 24 official EU languages and, hopefully in the near future, the .eu TLD in Greek and Cyrillic,â commented EURidâs External Relations manager Giovanni Seppia.
The report contains evidence that shows that, far from being âinternationalisedâ, IDNs are intensely localised. They are strongly linked to local language content, and although they occur in diverse writing systems, the location of such scripts is closely coupled to countries and regions where related languages are spoken.
New gTLDs promised to fulfil unmet needs in the domain name system. One obvious need is for enhanced linguistic diversity. With 90% of new gTLD strings (eg .photogra- phy) either in English language, or understandable in English, that opportunity has been lost â for now.
âThe growth potential for Internet penetration is in Asia and the Pacific, Africa, and Latin America where English is not the primary language. For IDNs to fulfill their potential, multiple actors need to make changes to hasten universal acceptance, so that IDNs can be used seamlessly in every environment,â concludes the reportâs main author Emily Taylor.
This EURid announcement was sourced from:
www.eurid.eu/en/news/sep-2014/languages-move-internet-landscape
Forum will bring together registries, registrars, experts and policy makers to foster cross-border collaboration
[news release] The Africa Domain Name System (DNS) Forum will be held on 12 – 13 July 2013 in Durban, South Africa. The event aims to establish a platform for the DNS community across Africa and to advance the domain name industry and domain name registrations on the continent.
Over the years, the Internet Society, AfTLD, and ICANN have supported the continued development and growth of Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) in Africa through capacity building and technical support. Despite the support, the growth and sustainability of African ccTLDs and adoption of new technologies remains very low as compared to other regions of the world. To identify the bottlenecks that are keeping the industry from growing and the actions that can catalyze its growth, the three organizations determined the need for a forum to discuss these regional DNS issues.
The DNS Forum will foster cross-border collaboration between registries, registrars, registrants, DNS experts, Government representatives, and policy makers. Topics covered during the 1 ½ day event include trends, opportunities, and challenges of the DNS industry; strategies for registries and registrars; legal issues with cross-border domain registrations; ways Governments can support domain name growth; and benefits of standardizing accreditation to attract more cross-border registrars and registrations.
âThe Internet Societyâs African Regional Bureau has been working to strengthen the ccTLDs in Africa by improving sustainability, encouraging the implementation of automation solutions at ccTLDs, and promoting the use of technology such as DNSSEC at registries,â said Dawit Bekele, Internet Society Regional Bureau Director for Africa. âWe are pleased to join together with AfTLD and ICANN to host this multi-stakeholder forum where participants can share experiences, gain new insights, and establish new business relationships with organizations from within and outside the continent. Such a forum is important to bring growth in the African domain name industry.â
Pierre S. Dandjinou, ICANN Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement for Africa, commented, âICANN is partnering with other players in the region to implement its Africa strategy, which was developed in 2012 by the African community. Thus, this DNS Forum in Durban, as a partnership between AfTLD and the Internet Society and as a pre-conference event to the ICANN meeting, is another milestone that builds on the MIGworks event in Addis in March 2013, which sought to pave the way for the development of the DNS industry in Africa and to empower the African community for an increased accreditation of registrars from the continent. I believe the new gTLD program will help grow this industry on a global and regional level, and we hope that African business players can be part of this growing industry as much as they can. ICANN will present in this event several programs to support and incubate new business players in Africa to benefit out of the growing potential in this continent.â
âBy working with and building on our partnerships in running the DNS Forum, AfTLDâs objective is to build on our thriving capacity building activities for ccTLDs in Africa so as to improve the DNS in Africa and the sustainability of ccTLDs,â said Dr. Paulos Nyirenda, President of AfTLD. âThe DNS Forum will present a great opportunity for players in the domain industry to learn and to foster new and established relationships, including those among ccTLDs, registries, registrars, operators, policy makers and end users.â
For more information and to register for the Africa DNS Forum, visit:Â aftld.org/afdnsforum
About the Internet Society
The Internet Society is the trusted independent source for Internet information and thought leadership from around the world. With its principled vision and substantial technological foundation, the Internet Society promotes open dialogue on Internet policy, technology, and future development among users, companies, governments, and other organizations. Working with its members and Chapters around the world, the Internet Society enables the continued evolution and growth of the Internet for everyone. For more information, visit www.internetsociety.org
This ISOC news release was sourced from:
www.internetsociety.org/news/africa-domain-name-system-forum-be-held-durban-south-africa-12-13-july-2013
The proposal to run a .AFRICA generic Top Level Domain is getting competitive with the African Top Level Domain Organization (AfTLD) becoming the second organisation seeking to apply for the .AFRICA gTLD once ICANN begins accepting applications according to a Computerworld Kenya report.
Seeking to boost their credentials, AfTLD believes they are better placed than their competitor.
“AfTLD is an association of TLD managers in Africa; we know what it takes to run a registry,” Vika Mpisane, AfTLD’s president, told Computerworld Kenya. “Because of our collective experience we will not totally rely on registry providers — that’s why we’re confident that ours should be a successful bid.”
DotConnectAfrica though has been lobbying and setting out their case for why they should run the proposed new gTLD, using the .ASIA model as inspiration, having even called for expressions of interest for a registry operator in February.
“AfTLD is fronting a non-profit model, where any profits would be taken back to training its ccTLD members,” reported Computerworld Kenya. “The DCA, however, has objected to AfTLD’s position, saying that it raises conflict of interest.”
“AfTLD is an association of ccTLDs whose mandate is to run a national TLD; as far as DCA is concerned, there will be a vast conflict of interest for ccTLDs to run a domain name, whose mandate is charged with developing its own continental identity — the two must be managed independently by separate organizations,” Sophia Bekele, CEO of DCA, told Computerworld Kenya.
However, AfTLD maintains that it has the support of the region’s technical community and has undertaken a detailed assessment of the TLD landscape before declaring its intentions.
It is envisaged that any .AFRICA gTLD would seek to increase awareness of the internet throughout Africa, and to increase participation.
To read the Computerworld Kenya report in full, see news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=7EE38037-1A64-67EA-E40D279CF0653219.