Bloomberg TV: Sophia Bekele featured in “African Women to Watch”

“Fearless, Competitive and Visionary Leaders of our time. We celebrate a new generation of African Women, closing the gender gap and shaping the continent’s political, social and economic landscape” says Bloomberg in its special TV Women to Watch FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRLog (Press Release) – Nov. 15, 2013 – “Africa is blooming and this is the time to tell the Africa story from the African perspective” , says Bloomberg TV Africa, which is avidly covering contemporary developments that are shaping the new and emerging Africa and producing a new TV…

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DotConnectAfrica attends Transform Africa 2013, calls for the progress of its .africa commitments to be acknowledged

DCA was invited as a delegate to the international high-level conference that was held in Rwanda from October 28 to 31, 2013 Nov. 3, 2013 – The conference was attended by over 1,500 delegates and Seven African Heads of State including among others Presidents of Kenya, Uganda, Gabon, and Burkina Faso.  Other delegates included Ministers and CEO’s of blue chip firms. The summit was Co-hosted by President Paul Kagame and Dr. Hamadoun Toure, the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with the aim of pooling together International participants…

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DCA Registry Services Kenya Participates in 2nd African IGF – Updates its .africa Bid

The 2nd African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) successfully concluded. The conference was held from 24-26 September 2013 at the Multimedia University, Nairobi Kenya. The AfIGF conference was organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the IGF Secretariat in cooperation with the Kenyan government among other stakeholders. DCA Registry Services Kenya delegates also attended the conference and contributed to important discussions and pertinent proceedings. In his opening address that was communicated via a recorded video message, Fade Chehade, ICANN’s President & CEO noted that the African IGF…

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A delayed evaluation “pass” score for .Africa competition

– DotConnectAfrica refuses to withdraw before Accountability Hearing The fight for .africa web domain continues as ICANN evaluation scores emerge. Sophia Bekele, whose Company, DotConnectAfrica (DCA) Trust was one of the contenders for the .africa gTLD web address name, said: “A lot of progress has been registered during the past six years, especially managing a global promotional campaign to raise awareness about .africa and new gTLDs and the work of ICANN in general; and to also explain to people and different organizations how Africa and Africans would benefit from the…

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Comments and Questions by DCA Trust on .Africa at the ICANN-47 Public Forum, Durban SA

This is a complete unabridged version of the comment/questions raised by Ms. Sophia Bekele, Executive Director and CEO of DotConnectAfrica Trust, at the ICANN-47 Public Forum Meeting in Durban, Republic of South Africa on 18th July 2013. A shorter version was read out at the ICANN Public Forum Meeting on Thursday, July 18, 2013 due to constraint of time. * * * Background DotConnectAfrica Trust’s application for the .Africa generic Top-Level Domain name (Application ID: 1-1165-42560) received a GAC Objection Advice at the ICANN-46 Beijing Meeting in April 2013. According…

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Update on the Status of our new gTLD Application & Current Engagements with ICANN

DCA’s .Africa application passed all the Evaluation Panels including the technical, operational and financial evaluation criteria, but the Geographic Names Panel Evaluation for the application was not completed. PRLog (Press Release) – Jul. 5, 2013 – Update on Initial Evaluation Result for .Africa Application The Initial Evaluation result for DotConnectAfrica Trust’s application for the .Africa domain  name string with prioritization draw number 1005 was released by the ICANN new gTLD Customer Service Centre on Thursday, 4th July 2013. DCA’s .Africa application passed all the Evaluation Panels including the technical, operational…

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DotConnectAfrica Trust Responds to ICANN GAC Objection Advice on its .Africa application

In its response to the ICANN Board, DCA Trust disagreed with the GAC Objection Advice. PRLog (Press Release) – May 16, 2013 – DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust), the contending applicant that submitted an independent bid for the .Africa new generic Top-Level Domain name, recently submitted another fulsome response to the ICANN Board of Directors to defend the GAC Objection Advice that was issued against its .Africa new gTLD application by the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) body within ICANN. It may be recalled that DCA Trust previously submitted a response to…

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The battle for .Africa is not yet over !: Rejoinder to IT Web South Africa ‘New Local Domains See Breakthrough’

The Editor-in-Chief ITWeb South Africa Dear Sir, Our attention has been drawn to the news story written by Bonnie Tubbs titled ‘New Local Domains See Breakthrough’  click here for news story) that was published recently on your news web site. DCA Trust believes that in light of recent ICANN Post-Beijing developments regarding the new gTLD program, it is important to correct any wrong impressions that have been unwittingly conveyed by your article and the comments that were purportedly attributed by your journalist to Mr. Neil Dundas of UniForum ZA Central…

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Africa Union Tyranny of .africa and the African Community Circus

The GAC shall provide advice and communicate issues and views to the ICANN Board. The GAC is not a decision making body. Such advice given by the GAC shall be without prejudice to the responsibilities of any public authority with regard to the bodies and activities of ICANN, including the Supporting Organisations and Councils.” GAC Principle 1   Following the article written on Kenya’s position being ignored at GAC, the former Vice chair at GAC Ms. Alice Munyua has reportedly forwarded a 12th April 2012,a letter that was written by Kenya…

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