Registry.Africa

Last updated
Registry Africa
Company type Non-profit
Industry Domain registry
Founded2017 [1]
Website registry.africa

Registry Africa [2] was created in 2017 to manage [3] the .africa top-level domain. [4] [5]

Contents

History

.africa was launched [6] [7] [8] at the African Union Commission [9] in 2017. In 2012 the application [10] process for a new top level domain was launched [11] by ICANN. [12] The Registry Agreement was signed on 26 March 2014 in Singapore. [13]

The application for .africa was endorsed and supported [14] by the African Union [15] and the official launch [16] [17] [18] took place at the Africa Union Commission Headquarters on 3 July 2017 during the 29th African Union (AU) Summit. [19]

African Regional Support

.africa's Africa Regional Support [20] includes African Union Commission (AUC), [21] [22] AfriNIC, AfTLD, ITU, UNECA and Nepad.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ICANN</span> American nonprofit organization that coordinates several Internet address databases

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization head-quartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the Internet's stable and secure operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community.

A domain name registry is a database of all domain names and the associated registrant information in the top level domains of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet that enables third party entities to request administrative control of a domain name. Most registries operate on the top-level and second-level of the DNS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.eu</span> Internet country-code top level domain for the European Union

.eu is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union (EU). Launched on 7 December 2005, the domain is available for any person, company or organization based in the European Union. This was extended to the European Economic Area in 2014, after the regulation was incorporated into the EEA Agreement, and hence is also available for any person, company or organization based in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The TLD is administered by EURid, a consortium originally consisting of the national ccTLD registry operators of Belgium, Sweden, and Italy, joined later by the national registry operator of the Czech Republic. Trademark owners were able to submit registrations through a sunrise period, in an effort to prevent cybersquatting. Full registration started on 7 April 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internationalized domain name</span> Type of Internet domain name

An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in non-Latin script or alphabet or in the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacritics or ligatures. These writing systems are encoded by computers in multibyte Unicode. Internationalized domain names are stored in the Domain Name System (DNS) as ASCII strings using Punycode transcription.

A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs.

Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of every fully qualified domain name. They are called generic for historical reasons; initially, they were contrasted with country-specific TLDs in RFC 920.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is the organization that manages the .ca country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada. Its offices are located at 979 Bank Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CIRA sets the policies and agendas that support Canada's internet community and Canada's involvement in international internet governance. It is a member-driven organization with membership open to all that hold a .ca domain. As of March 2023, there were more than 3.3 million active .ca domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.post</span> Sponsored top-level domain for the postal sector

.post is a sponsored top-level domain (STLD) available exclusively for the postal sector. It is secured by DNSSEC. The domain aims to integrate the physical, financial and electronic dimensions of postal services to enable and facilitate e-post, e-finance, e-commerce and e-government services. The domain was approved by ICANN on April 8, 2005 as a sponsored TLD in the second group of new TLD applications evaluated in 2004.

A sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) is one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet, alongside country-code top-level domains (ccTLD) and generic top-level domains (gTLD).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.so</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Somalia

.so is the internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Somalia. After a long absence, the .so domain was officially relaunched on November 1, 2010, by .SO Registry, which is regulated by the nation's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. It was launched through various accredited registrars around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.mobi</span> Generic top-level Internet domain

The domain name mobi is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Its name is derived from the adjective mobile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.web</span>

.web is a proposed top-level domain (TLD) that was created and assigned by an auction process to several bidding companies. It was awarded to Nu Dot Co LLC, which is primarily funded by Verisign.

The Domain Name System of the Internet consists of a set of top-level domains that constitute the root domain of the hierarchical name space and database. In the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to expand the initial set of six generic top-level domains in 1984. As a result, new top-level domain names have been proposed for implementation by ICANN. Such proposals included a variety of models ranging from adoption of policies for unrestricted gTLDs that could be registered by anyone for any purpose, to chartered gTLDs for specialized uses by specialized organizations. In October 2000, ICANN published a list of proposals for top-level domain strings it had received.

A geographic top-level domain is any of an unofficial group of top-level domains in the Domain Name System of the Internet using the name of or invoking an association with a geographical, geopolitical, ethnic, linguistic or cultural community. The IANA does not recognize these domains as their own group within the Root Zone Database, rather classifying them as generic top-level domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophia Bekele</span> Ethiopian-American businesswoman

Sophia Bekele Eshete is an entrepreneur, corporate executive, governance and risk management specialist, policy advisor on ICT, commentator and philanthropist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.africa</span> Internet TLD for the African Union

.africa is the officially designated top-level domain (TLD) for the African and Pan African communities and users wherever they reside. It is a sponsored generic top-level domain (gTLD) operated by the Registry Africa. The .africa namespace is open to individuals, businesses and organizations around the world. The .africa domains are intended to showcase their brand and commitment to the African continent, establishing a home for Africa-specific products and services, expanding a brand's regional influence and acquiring online real-estate.

.music is a community-based top-level domain name (TLD) operated for the benefit of the global music community. It was one of the most highly contested new gTLDs, with eight applicants in contention.

DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA) is an independent non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 2006. The organization was incorporated in Mauritius with its main charitable objectives to: (a) for the advancement of education in information technology to the African society and access to internet resources; and (b) in connection with (a) to provide the African society with a continental Internet domain name by sponsoring, establishing, and operating a new Top Level Domain (TLD) ".africa" for purposes of branding Africa on the Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ZA Central Registry</span> Non-profit that operates various second-level domains in South Africa

The ZA Central Registry (ZACR), formerly known as UniForum SA, is a non-profit organisation established in 1988 and operates various second-level domains (SLD's) in South Africa. The ZA Central Registry is the administrator of the South African zones such as "co.za" and "web.za". Their offices are based in Midrand, South Africa.

References

  1. "Africa Gets Its Own Web Address with Launch of .africa". BBC. 10 March 2017.
  2. "IANA — .africa Domain Delegation Data". www.iana.org. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  3. "COMMUNIQUE - dotAfrica gTLD | African Union". au.int. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  4. ".africa Registry Agreement - ICANN". www.icann.org. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  5. dotAfrica Registry signed , retrieved 2019-12-17
  6. "African Union Launches Africa's own Top Level Domain | African Union". au.int. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  7. Newsroom, APO Group-Africa; Commission (AUC), African Union. "Launch of dotAfrica". african-union.africa-newsroom.com. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  8. "African Union celebrates launch of 'dotAfrica' Internet domain | Africa Times". africatimes.com. 2017-03-11. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  9. "Launch of dotAfrica | African Union". au.int. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
  10. "IANA — Delegation Report for africa". www.iana.org. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  11. "ICANN approves dotAfrica launch dates |IT News Africa – Up to date technology news, IT news, Digital news, Telecom news, Mobile news, Gadgets news, Analysis and Reports | Africa's Technology News Leader". www.itnewsafrica.com. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  12. "dotAfrica | .Africa | What is dotAfrica?". africainonespace.org. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  13. "The DotAfrica Signatory Ceremony in ICANN 49, Singapore, Wednesday 26 March 2014 | African Union". au.int. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  14. "COMMUNIQUE - dotAfrica gTLD | African Union". au.int. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  15. "African Union". dotAfrica. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  16. "DotAfrica (.Africa) Roadshow launches at the African Union Headquarters | African Union". au.int. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  17. AU, Press Release. "African Union Launches Africa's own Top Level Domain: dotAfrica". AFRICAN MARKETS. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  18. "DotAfrica (.Africa) Roadshow launches at the African Union Headquarters | African Union". au.int. Retrieved 2019-09-25.
  19. "DOTAFRICA (.AFRICA) ROADSHOW LAUNCHES AT THE AFRICAN UNION HEADQUARTERS". dotAfrica. 2017-07-04. Retrieved 2019-09-25.
  20. "African Regional Support". dotAfrica. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  21. Obera, Fred (2017-03-13). "African Union launches Africa's own identity web address dotafrica". This is africa. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  22. "DotAfrica (.Africa) Roadshow launches at the African Union Headquarters | African Union". au.int. Retrieved 2019-09-21.