[Kictanet] Fw: [DigAfrica] Promoting ccTLDs in Africa

Tue Dec 6 19:20:52 EAT 2005

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ngunjiri" <ngunjiri at mailbox.co.za>
To: <DigAfrica at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: [DigAfrica] Promoting ccTLDs in Africa


> Chifu,
>
>    maybe a good Samaritan could sponsor Ms. Inne (from ICANN) to Africa
> and witness for herself first-hand, the high level of technical
> competency and sophistication we command. Secondly, she also needs to
> understand that managing a ccTLD server is actually a no-brainer, very
> repetitive and sometimes mundane relative to other sophisticated
> Internet-driven roles and responsibilities. Thirdly, she honestly does
> not think that respective Africans stakeholders will be establishing the
> ccTLD nodes in the middle of an underserviced rural mud and brick
> polytechnic. This is a veiled insult however, such expressions ignorance
> from people like her is not uncommon. Nevertheless, her comments should
> not stop the tide to have our own ccTLDs and should be treated with the
> contempt it deserves. IMHO, this lady is completely and thoroughly
> misinformed.
>
> Chifu wrote:
>
>> Promoting ccTLDs in Africa
>> Highway Africa News Agency (Grahamstown)
>>
>> December 5, 2005
>> Posted to the web December 5, 2005
>>
>> Rebecca Wanjiku
>> Vancouver, Canada
>>
>> African businesses and agencies operating on the internet should
>> promote their country code Top Level Domains (ccTLD) instead of paying
>> foreign companies for .com, .net or .org addresses, said registry
>> managers attending the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
>> Numbers (ICANN) meeting in Vancouver.
>>
>> "The money is needed in Africa and we may have no business buying the
>> ..com or .net when our .co.tz domain is undersubscribed," said Jacob
>> Mtui, of the University of Dar es Salaam. .com, .org and .net are
>> known as Top Level Domains (TLDs). Their registries are maintained by
>> US based organisations.
>>
>> Mtui argued that though the .co.tz, .go.tz and .ac.tz subscriptions
>> are free, they have only registered 1,200 addresses in a country with
>> a population of 34 million. He could not access the figures for the
>> international addresses, but Mtui said the ccTLD has not been
>> adequately promoted.
>>
>> Sample this: the central bank of Tanzania's address is
>> http://www.bot-tz.org and according to Mtui, it would have been a
>> perfect promotion exercise if the central bank used its .go.tz domain
>> name.
>>
>> But according to Njeri Rionge, ICANN board member, the use of a Top
>> Level Domain Name is a question of personal choice and preference. In
>> her opinion, the choice of .com, .net or .org gives an organisation
>> the global appeal.
>>
>> Whereas the use of a ccTLD denotes the location of specific companies,
>> Rionge said that some companies use TLDs and still maintain a ccTLD
>> address for brand protection.
>>
>> For example a well-known retail shop like www.uchumi.com can still
>> maintain www.uchumi.co.ke to protect its brand from other people who
>> may want to use the brand for other reasons.
>>
>> Calvin Browne, director of UNIFORUM, the not-for-profit company that
>> manages the .co.za domain agrees that a decision to use ccTLD or TLD
>> will be based on marketing criteria because technically there is no
>> difference between accessing a ccTLD or TLD website.
>>
>> In the same breath, Browne said that companies or organisations can
>> choose to either develop their own countries by providing income or
>> take the income to other countries.
>>
>> "Using .co.za will definitely increase local resources and increase
>> employment. There is need to develop a sense of national pride. The
>> more money stays home, the wider the opportunities for re-investment,"
>> added Browne.
>>
>> Browne singled out giant corporations such as Liberty Life and Old
>> Mutual in South Africa that have maintained co.za addresses yet their
>> businesses are international.
>>
>> However, Ann-Rachel Inne, Policy Analyst at ICANN argued that African
>> registries have to ensure they have the technical ability to sustain
>> businesses and that connection is not erratic.
>>
>> "The infrastructure has to be favorable to business growth in case of
>> business entities. For instance electricity has to be available and in
>> case of power cuts, the registries have to have some back-up to
>> guarantee continued internet operations," added Inne.
>>
>> http://allafrica.com/stories/200512050815.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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