Stakeholders from around the globe, in the African Domain name business gathered last week in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, for the 5th edition of the Africa Domain Name System Forum 2017, to discuss the topic: Taking stock of the Africa DNS Industry and planning ahead. The forum held 26th to 28th July 2017.
The forum follows up on the success of previous fora that had taken place in Africa over the past few years – namely (South Africa-2013, Nigeria-2014, Kenya-2015 and Morocco-2016).
Organized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Society (ISOC) and Africa Top Level Domains Organization (AfTLD), this year’s Forum was hosted by the Tanzania Network Information Centre (tzNIC).
This annual event enables Registries, Registrars and other stakeholders share experiences, interact and learn from each other about the Domain Name Industry. This year’s event was rewarding as it fostered discussions on cross border collaboration among the registries. NiRA was represented at the event.
One of the key topics of the Forum was the recent released report https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2017-06-24-en, the first of its kind in the region, which provides a detailed analysis of the DNS market for 54 countries. Among other topics that were discussed are:
- Legal issues affecting African registries, registrars and resellers
- Securing the African Domain Name System
- IPv6 and the role of African registries and registrars
- Emerging trends in the Domain Name System
- Enhancing automation of our services
- Building technical capacity of our registries
- Addressing Governance and regulatory challenges, and
- Improving our business and marketing skills
At the conclusion of AFRICA DNS FORUM 2017, NiRA was recognized with an award for its contribution to DNS business in Africa and for hosting the 2nd edition of DNS forum in Africa.