AFRINIC, AFRALO renew MoU @ICANN59

ITRealms:

The African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) has renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Regional At-Large Organisation (AFRALO) to recommit to continuous to work together in improving the development of Internet ecosystem in the region, reports ITRealms.

AFRINIC, ITRealms reports, is the regional Internet registry (RIR) for Africa with headquarter in Ebene City, Mauritius, while AFRALO prides itself as the home of the individual Internet user community for the African region and who are interested in the developments within the Internet Cooperation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as a way of contributing to shaping the future of the Internet.

ITRealms also reports that the renewed MoU was signed by the duo of registry’s chief executive officer, Mr. Alan Barrett and AFRALO chairman, Dr. Abudelaziz Hilali, who doubles as the president of Moroccan Internet Society at the ICANN public policy forum which ended in Johannesburg at the weekend.

The initial collaboration MoU, ITRealms gathered, was signed since 2013 and latest is expected to build upon the strong foundations already in place, continuing the commitment to work together and combining efforts for the benefit of the AFRINIC community and the AFRALO At-Large community.

In the MoU, AFRINIC and AFRALO agree to continue conducting capacity building events, create awareness and promote regional and global participation for Africa’s Internet stakeholders on matters of Internet development.

In his remarks at the signing ceremony, AFRINIC CEO, Barrett, commended the ongoing collaboration between the two, saying that it has provided a broader platform for advancing the case for Internet and development in Africa.

“As our communities and focus areas overlap considerably, it is in our mutual interests to come together to create and share awareness and encourage participation in African and global Internet governance matters,” he said.

In his own part, the AFRALO chair, Hilali appreciated AFRINIC for previous support and collaboration and commended the decision to advance this path, saying it’s for the benefit of the region.

In attendance to witness the ceremony was the chairman, AFRINIC Board, Mr. Sunday Folayan and At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) chairman, Alan Greenberg among others.

Remmy Nweke/ED, OPs

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Pix 1: AFRINIC CEO Alan Barrett in handshake with AFRALO chairman Aziz Hilali while ALAC chair Alan Greenberg looks on after the signing.
Pix 2: The signing proper taking place.

Nigeria shines at ICANN59 as Sunday Folayan is returned AFRINIC chair

ITRealms:

Nigeria is currently shining at the on-going public policy forum on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as Revd. Sunday Folayan was re-elected as the chairman of the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) for another term of one year, reports ITRealms.

Also on the board of AFRINIC as gathered by ITRealms is Seun Ojedeji, while other Nigerians equally playing actively in this industry include, Mr. Wale Adedokun who is the chairman of the Nomination Committee (NomCom) and Dewale Ajao as chairman, Policy Development Working Group at AFRINIC, whereas Omo Oaiya, is representing AFRINIC at the Advisory Committee, Address Supporting Organisation (ASO-AC) of ICANN.

The re-election of Folayan came at the AFRINIC pre-event session which comprised holding of its general election.

Equally, AFRINIC reconstituted its three board standing committees, namely Remuneration, Finance and Audit respectively.

The four-man Remuneration Committee consist of Lucky Masilela, Sunday Folayan, Serge Ilunga and Alan Barrett. While the Finance Committee is made up of Haitham El Nakhal, Subramanian Moonesamy, and Alan Barrett; just as the Audit Committee comprised Christian Bope, Abibu Ntahigiye and Seun Ojedeji.

ITRealms recalls that Folayan is also the president of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA).

In addition, AFRINIC is the regional Internet registry (RIR) for Africa with headquarters in Ebene City, Mauritius with Alan Barrett as the chief executive officer.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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J’burg set to host global Internet stakeholders @ICANN59

ITRealms :

All is now set for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 59th public meeting in Johannesburg Sandton Convention Center, reports ITRealms.

The meeting, ITRealms  reports, has been slated between June 26 to 29, 2017, and is the second forum policies of ICANN; which focuses on policy development work and awareness. This is the tenth time that ICANN meeting to be held in Africa, a continent with great potential online.

The meeting, ITRealms reports, has been slated between June 26 to 29, 2017, and is the second forum policies of ICANN; which focuses on policy development work and awareness. This is the tenth time that ICANN meeting to be held in Africa, a continent with great potential online.

Organized by the Authority of the domain name .ZA (Zadna), ITRealms gathered the meeting would be a four-day assemblage of global and regional Internet stakeholders to develop a policy for the domain name system (DNS).

Communications Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at ICANN, Luna Madi, revealed to ITRealms that one of the key topics of the ICANN59 media is the working key signing key (KSK turnover). 

ICANN, she said is in the process of rolling a KSK Security Extensions Domain Name System (DNSSEC) to replace high-level cryptographic keys used in DNSSEC, bearing that will be effective October 11, 2017. Stressing this is another good reason to attend the ICANN59 last ICANN meeting before rolling: learn more about this major change.

At the meeting, she also said, there would be a public presentation of the final report of the market research on the system of names of African field study commissioned by ICANN.

“The report highlights the strengths and weaknesses of African industry Domain Name System (DNS) and makes recommendations on how to ensure that the industry uses to place the opportunities available to it and notes the challenges identified,” Madi said.

ITRealms recalls that ICANN59 is the third meeting since the transition to the supervision of the IANA and is a platform for the new empowered community that took over the system of unique identifiers of the Internet. Thus, another subject of interest is the authorized community. Through this mechanism, Madi explained the global Internet community through supporting organizations (SO) and advisory committees (AC) of ICANN, could be organized under California law to be able to legally enforce its community powers.

ICANN meetings provide the opportunity to those interested to know how to join ICANN and to exert influence. Important opinions are presented through various ICANN structures worldwide. Here in Africa, structures such as the AFRALO , real benchmark of the Internet community of individual users for Africa, the African representatives of the Governmental Advisory Committee, including the South African government, intergovernmental organizations as observers such as the ATU and other regional entities such as the AFICTA , help to hear the different voices in the region.

"This is what makes the success of the multi-stakeholder model of ICANN, the mixture of voices around the world," she said.

Pointing out that while Africa continues to strengthen its online presence, ICANN expects that new users would participate in the ICANN community to ensure that the unique perspective of their continent is reflected in the DNS policies.

The strategy for ICANN's meetings is also defined to consider this model: ICANN meetings are held three times a year in different parts of the world, in order to give all stakeholders interested the opportunity to interact in person with the rest of the community.

Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops

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ICANN59 fellows emerged

ITRealms:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announces 55 individuals from 43 countries selected to participate in ICANN's Fellowship program at the 59th Public Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26-29 June 2017, reports ITRealms.

ICANN59, ITRealms gathered is a Policy Forum, hence only alumni of the Fellowship Programme were eligible to apply.

These successful candidates represent all sectors of society including; civil, government, ccTLD operations, academia, facets of the business community, technical, security and end user groups.

The Fellowship program seeks to create a broader and more diverse base of knowledgeable constituents with priority given to candidates currently living in underserved and underrepresented communities around the world, those who represent diversity of gender, sector, region, experience, expertise and/or have established financial need.

An independent selection committee assessed the 72 Fellowship applications received for this meeting.

ITRealms gathered that the list of selected candidates is accessible here: http://www.icann.org/en/about/participate/fellowships

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