Re: .africa gTLD

["Tierno S. Bah" <tsbah@afriq.net>]

Kent Crispin wrote:

> 
> If the the notion of TLD charters as a standards activity of the IETF
> gets off the ground, someone could write up a charter for .africa,
> and try to get it approved.  That would seem to me to be a better and
> more specific forum for this kind of discussion.
> 

As the initial proponent of the .africa gTLD, here is my approach.
First, I hope that the selection of .africa gTLD is retained for all the
right reasons and anomalies (q.v. Zaire, Rwanda, Congo, Burundi cTLDs).
In anticipation for such an eventual task  requested by the community, I
am circulating to several African ISPs, engineers, users, etc. an
outline of a charter. Hopefully, the response will result in a
collective document drawing from the expertise of Africans and 
non-Africans alike; the common denominator being an interest in
diversifying DNS management in Africa. From the onset, I suggested that
this should be a shared registry, in which private sector registrars
from the continents' five regions (North, Southern, West, East and
Central) cooperate to build and run a viable and standards-compliant
organization, second to none.
I will keep the IAHC Forum informed of the progress (or stalemate). Who
knows?


- Tierno S. Bah
AfriQ*Access, Inc.