An in-depth study of the DNS ecosystem in Africa has been commissioned by ICANN, and the project implementation team, led by the Southern African Communications Forum (SACF), is appealing to the technical community in Africa to make the study a success by completing the online survey at http://dnsafrica.study. The study aims to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the domain name system (DNS) in every country in Africa, and will develop recommendations on how to advance the industry and bring it closer to the opportunities available. To support the project, the SACF has assembled a team with deep experience of the African internet environment, including a number of members of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), as well as Mark Elkins, who initially operated the successful .co.za domain, and William Stucke, who has been involved in the South African internet industry since its inception.
What is this study for?
The study aims to verify the commonly held assumption that there are about 1.5 million domain names registered under the 58 African top-level domains (TLDs), and will unpack this figure to gain a clearer picture of the distribution of domain registrations around the continent. African countries have had widely varying degrees of success in selling their own domains to their citizens and others, many of whom are also registering under the generic domains (gTLDs) such as .com and .org.
ICANN believes that an opportunity exists to boost the domain name industry in Africa, to the benefit of all role players in the industry, as well as the citizens and governments of African countries.
What is the study’s scope?
The DNS study will entail:
1. Conducting a survey to gather relevant information about the African DNS market. In the case of country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), collected information includes governance models and registry models. This is the main body of work – to encourage as many people as possible from the different stakeholder groups to answer the questionnaire.
2. Developing a regional and country-based breakdown of domain name registrations, including ccTLD versus gTLD registrations, and registrations by businesses, governments, non-governmental entities, research and academic institutions, individuals, etc. The proportion of active domains will also be assessed.
3. Looking at the type of content hosted by the domains and the share of the sites that offer e-commerce services. Identifying whether this content is hosted within the country or outside will also be an important part of the assessment.
4. Measuring the growth rate of domain name registrations in the past five years, including internationalized domain names (IDNs), and looking at the current market of local registrars and resellers for ccTLDs and gTLDs.
5. Where possible, looking at the current market of global registrars and resellers for African ccTLDs and gTLDs. This will include the user experience at local registrars and resellers (e.g. support for local languages, payment gateways, IDN support, and level of automation).
Other issues that will be taken note of include: the factors that are holding back take-up of domain names (e.g. awareness, infrastructure, policy and/or regulation, payment gateway); the current understanding of the concept of premium domain names and how to develop this market; the best practices that have made an impact in domain name market growth, including those related to business models, regulatory and governance mechanisms, consumer awareness, among others; the broader ecosystem of the internet infrastructure and online services and the impact of such elements on the overall evolution of the domain name industry; and mechanisms to increase African participation in ICANN activities. The study will also provide information on how to set up a DNS observatory in Africa.
Online survey tools and your participation
The team has developed an online survey tool for each stakeholder type in four languages: English, French, Arabic and Portuguese. In addition, a DNS Zone File Analysis Tool has been developed that is able to analyse a DNS zone file and return details on the number of active websites in the zone, where they are hosted and what languages they use.
The main effort currently is to encourage the different role players to complete the survey, as well as to request the relevant agencies to make zone files available for analysis.
The six key role players that the study is focusing on are:
- Registries: A registry is an organisation operating a database containing domain name details, typically the designated operator of the ccTLD (which is accredited by ICANN) and second level and perhaps lower level domains for that country. These may be operated by the same or different entities.
- Registrars: Organisations that register domain names on behalf of others, often officially accredited by a registry.
- Resellers: Organisations who register domain names on behalf of registrars or registries.
- Registrants: People or companies with a domain name registered in their own name.
- Regulators: Those who have a legally mandated role to play in determining the policy and rules around domain name registration.
- IXP managers: Those who manage one or more internet exchange points in a country. These are a useful contact point for finding out important data, including contact details of all those above.
The survey tool is available for anyone who is involved in the DNS industry or has registered a domain name.
The team is hoping that this blog post will encourage readers to fill in the relevant questionnaire. Having recruited a respondent, the responsible team members will follow up and help ensure that the respondent completes the relevant questionnaires. All respondents will be provided with access to the final report.
The team carrying out the study calls for your assistance to make this initiative a success, in order to improve domain name management in Africa.
To participate in the survey, click here
Image by John Gosier used under Creative Commons license.