Update on AFTLD Yann Kwok The African Association of Top Level Domains

AFTLD - Origins First meeting in May 2001at the AFNOG meeting in Accra, Ghana Participation of various parties: –ICANN VP –ccTLD Adcom Chairman & AdCom member for African region –ccTLD Secretariat –Many African ccTLD’s

Resolutions from first meeting Founding Committee set up Chairman elected and mandated to proceed with legal incorporation of the entity

Registration in Mauritius AFTLD has been incorporated in Mauritius in december 20th 2002 as a non profit company Assistance from CENTR (Europe’s sister organization for ccTLDs) Bylaws online at:

AfTLD structure Lightweight organization Executive committee (ExCom): 3 up to 6 directors Secretariat led by a General Manager who is chosen between the ExCom Mailing lists

AFTLD Training in Accra (’02) Full day Training session done at ICANN meeting in Accra (March 2002) by ICANN Staff and Technical Experts covering: –Technical Aspects on DNS Management –Legal Aspects –Performing IANA updates Widely attended

Presentation at AFNOG ‘02 (Togo) CFO from Brazil Registry gave a technical presentation on their registry system Numerous African ccTLDs showed interest for an automated registry system

AFTLD meeting in Carthage (’03) One day meeting with the particiapation of other regional organisations (APTLD, CENTR, LACTLD) Exchange of experiences between african ccTLD

AFTLD training in Carthage (’03) Technical DNS workshop held during the Carthage ICANN meeting A success, but we need to do more trainings and in many languages (French, Portuguese, Arabic…) to improve efficiency

AFTLD and ccNSO Montréal 2003 AfTLD communiqué 11 ccNSO members in the Africa region (ex-aequo with LAC region) 2 members in the ccNSO LG

Future Developments in AFTLD Setting up a shared registry system to automate ccTLD registrations –No need to move primary servers –ccTLD keep full control of their primary and secondary DNS servers –AFTLD will provide the front-end and database functions Technical Training in Africa –Sharing of experience from larger registries –Advanced DNS training (especially on the security side)

Future Developments in AFTLD Development of a Dispute Resolution System for the African region –Currently dispute resolution almost non-existent in most African countries –Aim is to offer a common context to resolve those domain-related disputes ccTLD regional organizations cooperation: mutual observership to share experiences (as started with CENTR)

Next AfTLD meetings meeting during AfNOG 2004 in Dakar (may 2004) General assembly during the ICANN meeting in Capetown (december 2004) Join AfTLD:

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