I first saw the extension .Africa I kind of chuckled. .Africa, so we are making extensions out of all seven continents too? Well, Africa is referred to more than most countries in that continent. The more I think about it the more it makes more sense, “Africa” is easier to identify for most people in the world than the more obscure country names. Certainly, I think all of the geo locations in Africa should be allocated to their respective countries. Egypt.Africa, Sudan.Africa, hmmm I don’t know about South Africa..? South.Africa or SouthAfrica.Africa?
DotConnectAfrica (DCA) seems to be the leading organization that is vying to run the .Africa registry. Sophia Bekele, BS, MBA and Policy Advisor to ICANN is the Executive Director. Below is her vision with DCA’s vision for .Africa and African Internet policy and infrastructure.
“DotConnectAfrica (DCA) is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization based in Africa, inspired to come to fruition to coordinate the implementation of the .Africa initiative. At the same time, to address the lack of adequate internet policy in Africa and and acknowledgment of the impact of the policy in widening the gaps of the digital divide.”
.Africa will be very interesting to watch grow as still only a small percentage of the population is online in Africa. Good luck to Ms. Sophia Bekele in her efforts for African Internet integration.
you must be american aren’t you..? 😉
I guessed that by the way you wrote this post.
“”Africa” is easier to identify for most people in the world than the more obscure country names.”
I’m sure that when you think of Africa, the first images that comes to your mind is.. poor people, famine, the wild animals , lions, zebras elephants walking in the bush,.. open up your mind mate!
a mistake, often made by Americans is to be on their high horses!
as for the .Africa TLD, well it’s just going to be like .Asia , but a bigger flop . just my honest opinion.
no offence,
best,
Ritz.
@Ritz
Yes, I am American. 🙂
However that doesn’t have much bearing on my post IMO. Is it not true that .Africa is easier to recognize than .co.tz, co.za or .eritrea even? That was the point I was trying to make, is that it’s more recognizable worldwide.
Thanks for the reply,
Mike
The problem with most of the initiatives is that they are lacking political backing which is very important in Africa, Country level TLDs are run like small shops by the governments in most African countries..
So far I have seen more than two groups trying to achieve the same objective but as long as the representation is not balanced then the whole project will flop….
The idea that Africa is going to be on the map easily via the .Africa domain is amazing. Well my poeple want to compare this other continental TLD’s which for me is wrong , i believe its a unique idea for Africa and the potential is huge because Africa is taken to have lagged behind in most issues from economic Democratic to social but we overlook the potential and current ranking in terms of internet usage which has grown tremendously more than any other continent so the .africa domain comes at the right time when africa is experiencing this immence IT Growth, DOTAFRICA would be therefore the ICING ON THE CAKE ……to quote Ms. Bekele “DotConnectAfrica (DCA) is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization based in Africa, inspired to come to fruition to coordinate the implementation of the .Africa initiative. At the same time, to address the lack of adequate internet policy in Africa and and acknowledgment of the impact of the policy in widening the gaps of the digital divide.” what more can i add?
I think the reason why Africa is easier to distinguish for most people in the world is because of their unique color and identifiable culture. I agree with Rob, having this .Africa domain initiative is good. Internet market in Africa could be very high.