Africa and the International Cooperation on Assigned Names and Numbers

1
Africa and the
International Co-operation on Assigned Names and
Numbers

• Anne-Rachel Inné
• Policy Analyst
• ICANN
• ADF IV, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• 11-15 October 2004

2
(No Transcript)
3
The early days of the Internet

• Network set up in the US scientific community
• Under RD contracts to the US government
• Administered by the UCLA from Los Angeles
• Originally connected 4 universities
• Growing slowly into a larger scientific research
  network
• With increasing decentralisation and
• Involving scientists in the whole world
• Email was added in 1972, file transfer in 1973,
  and the www in 19

4
The Internet today

• More than 200,000 interconnected networks
• 10,000s of players from private sector providing
  equipment, applications, networks, pipes,
  services, research
• Academics assisting in research on standards and
  protocols
• The backbone of the digital economy
• A multi-stakeholder platform

5
The various interest groups competing for
influence over the Domain Name and Addressing
systems put the previous administrative process
under breaking strain
ITU (ITU-T)
WIPO
Consumers
NSI/ Verisign
ccTLD registries
OECD
US Military
Foreign Business
Universities
Registries
Registrars
ISPs
UNDP
IETF
IAB
Intellectual Property interests
FTC
Root Server Operators
Security Issues
NATO
US Business
Developing World Governments
Regional Internet Registries
Civil Society Groups
FCC
OECD governments
ETSI
W3C
Jon Postel / IANA
6
(No Transcript)
7
From the past to the future

• Small (4 university networks, 100s users)
• Scientific purpose
• US based
• Scientific backbone
• Single jurisdiction
• Regulated relations
• A few scientific issues
• Industrialised countries interest

• Huge (today over 200,000 networks, 1 billion
  users )
• Multi-stakeholder purpose
• Global
• Global economy backbone
• Multiple jurisdictions
• Contractual relations
• Multi-layered stack of issues
• Industrialised and developing countries interest

8
(No Transcript)
9
The Challenges for ICANN

• Move towards full internationalisation (1 office
  in Europe, one soon to come in Africa)
• Balanced multi-stakeholder partnership
• Recognition of the roles of each stakeholder
  group
• Stable financial underpinning
• Effective and democratic decision-making
• Agreed scope and mandate
• Provisions to avoid capture

10
World Summit on Information Society

• An important political development
• Determination of African position could benefit
  from expert bodies like AfriNic, AfTLD, AfNog,
  AfrISPA, soon to come RALO Africa
• Internet issues are more much than distribution
  of IP blocks and the DNS
• The African Internet interests need to speak up

11
The new face of network economics

• Role of contract and evolution of agreements
• Importance of two-way accountability
• Customers and users
• Essential role of stability as a basis for
  further innovation
• Leverage of leadership
• impact of the African organisations (AfriNic,
  AfNog, AfTLD, Afrispa, At Large Africa) in the
  international evolution of technical coordination
  mechanisms

12
In setting up its Internet organisations .

• AfNog
• Afrispa
• AfTLD
• And now.. AfriNic
• Soon RALO Africa
• Africa has become an important partner in
  developing the global Information Society

13
AfriNic and ICANN

• AfriNic for and by Africa, in
• Having a regional responsibility
• Providing ISPs, network operators with IP
  addresses
• Developing African technical policies on IP
  addressing
• Helping ICTs development
• ICANN a global role, in
• Providing RIRs with IP addresses
• Co-ordinating the global Domain Name System
• A close relationship based on mutual recognition

14
ICANN

• IP address block distribution
• Close co-operation with RIRs and IETF
• Policy development in ASO
• Domain Name System co-ordination
• Close co-operation with gTLDs and ccTLDs
• Policy development in GNSO and ccNSO
• Close co-operation with root-server, security,
  business, governmental communities

15
expectations of African Internet related
organisations

• A stable and efficient organisation RIR,
  ccTLDs, ISPs
• Supported by, and acting of behalf of, the whole
  of Africa
• Co-ordinating with private sector, governments,
  and civil societies
• Working closely with other RIRs and ICANN
• Developing expertise and knowledge on issues of
  IP/DNS issues of importance to Africa
• Working closely with others to assist in
  development of African positions on Internet
  matters

16
ICANN and Africa

• ICANN would like to
• Understand better the needs in Africa, and
  engage in constructive co-operation with the
  African nations and institutions
• Support AfriNic and other African DNS related
  initiatives and ambitions
• Assist local communities in Africa in completing
  re-delegations
• Engage in a discussion on a future ICANN presence
  in Africa
• African expectations? Functionality? Selection
  criteria for such presence?
• Support use of African languages on the Internet
  (IDN)
• Seek support for the establishment of a
  Developing Countries assistance mechanism on DNS
  related matters (participation to meetings,
  training, transfer of knowledge and best
  practice)
• Request assistance from African private sector,
  civil society and governments in
• developing ICANN so that it responds to African
  needs,
• in maintaining stable and secure Internet in
  Africa and around the globe

17
The DNS Tree
Root Zone File
?
TLDs
et
gh
com
org
edu
ac
co
icann
aau
www
sfe
med
18
(No Transcript)
19
ccTLDs having grown as a proportion of total
registrations.
ccTLD vs. gTLD registration share
2001-2004 Unit Percent of total registrations
as of 1-Jan-01
as of 1September 2004
20
Global growth in domain names
Source Verisign State of the Domain Report,
September 2004
21
The public-private policy forum establishes a
bottom-up and balanced mechanism for interest
groups to arrive at consensus on issues within a
limited technical administrative mandate
22
Africa

• Will host the next ICANN annual meeting
• Capetown, South Africa
• 1-5 December 2004
• Thank you..!!
• ICANN
• www.icann.org