Africa set for new continental domain name extension

19 Apr 2012

Under the leadership of the African Union Commission, UniForum SA, trading as the ZA Central Registry (ZACR), has applied for a new internet extension, .Africa (or dotAfrica).

In the future, it is hoped that domain names using dotAfrica will go a long way towards promoting the businesses, people and cultures of Africa on the internet.

The interview below with Koffi Fabrice Djossou, a ZACR representative, took place at the recent 43rd Internet Corporate for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Summit in San José, Costa Rica.

How did the project to implement the dotAfrica extension originate?

In 2002, African experts who participated actively in ICANN developed a plan for the creation of a dotAfrica domain that would be run by Africans for Africa. Bringing the project to fruition had three important steps.

The first took place in 2009 in Johannesburg during the special session of the Conference of Ministers of the African Union in charge of Communications and Information Technology (CITMC). It recognised the benefits of dotAfrica. The conference adopted a resolution (in the Oliver Tambo Declaration) which establishes the extension as a continental top level domain (TLD) for use by organisations, companies and individuals with the support of African Internet institutions.

Continue reading the full story on www.itnewsafrica.com.