| gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | | .joburg | UniForum SA (NPC) trading as ZA Central Registry | dundas.co.za | View |
Building a dotJoburg Brand Identity
- Creating a unique On-Line Identity
- Benefiting South Africa
- Building a Global Brand
• Johannesburg
• Differentiating dotJoburg from other major cities
• Marketing, Communications and Public Relations
- Registry Operations
- Financial Aspects
Creating a unique On-Line Identity
dotJoburg will provide a gTLD that gives the City of Joburg a clear, distinct online identity.
The dotJoburg TLD will provide the following added benefits:
- Give local and international businesses, organisations and individuals an opportunity to secure domain names that identify them with Joburg.
- Enable the Joburg Municipality to group all its services and entities under the dotJoburg TLD, thus effectively carrying and promoting Joburg as a brand.
- Provide South African and Joburg tourism bodies an opportunity to group their products and services specific to Joburg under the dotJoburg TLD.
- Enable ZADNA and the South African government to implement a domain name strategy that ensures local geo-gTLDs are complementary to ZA and enjoy an economies of scale advantages of being operated from a reliable, secure and robust registry infrastructure
Benefitting the City of Johannesburg and the South African Internet Community Nationally and Globally
In essence, dotJoburg will benefit registrants particularly in and around Johannesburg in particular to have websites that bear the name of their city, and automatically identify their geographic location.
Local and international organisations and businesses trading in and around Joburg will be able to have websites that clearly identify Joburg as their area of business. Local communities will be able to use dotJoburg to brand and position their community projects better than other gTLDs.
Competition:
In the case of the South African market, dotJoburg will give registrants a more identifiable geographic identity than the general ZA. It will also mean registrants that lost out on their most preferred domain names in ZA and other TLDs can now have an opportunity to register such names and enjoy the reputation and commercial credibility that comes with doing business in, or being identified with, Joburg – South Africa’s economic hub.
dotJoburg is not meant to be positioned as competing with ZA. Instead it is meant to complement ZA in the sense that it will be run from a ZA infrastructure and use ZA policies as far as these are in line with ICANN requirements.
In essence, the population of the City of Joburg is estimated to be around 5 million. This implies that ZADNA does not primarily see dotJoburg as a gTLD for high registration numbers. Rather, ZADNA primarily sees dotJoburg as an enabler of more focused online identity and innovation for the communities and businesses around Joburg.
From this perspective, ZADNA intends to have ZACR operate dotJoburg on a non-profit, cost recovery basis, and intends subsidizing its operations (including ICANN fees) from the ZA domain name fees.
Differentiation:
The important and most obvious advantage dotJoburg gives is clear differentiation, in particular for local and international businesses trading in or with Joburg. For the Joburg City Municipality, dotJoburg provides it with the opportunity to house all its websites, entities and services under one gTLD bearing its name: dotJoburg.
For national government, dotJoburg allows it to be able to have dotJoburg websites for all its projects, programmes, services and divisions servicing or located in and around Joburg.
As a geographic indicator, the dotJoburg TLD will automatically assume the reputation and goodwill of the region it represents. In the mind of the user, Africa represents a unique part of the world, with unique people, challenges and prospects. dotJoburg, as a TLD, therefore presents an opportunity to engage with the region and its people, thereby potentially unlocking the economic and social potential of a vast and diverse city.
Innovation:
Innovation possibilities for dotJoburg are expected to be material. dotJoburg will allow local communities in and around Joburg to group certain websites under the name “Joburg”. For example, the domain name “Soweto.joburg” can allow businesses in Soweto to have 3rd level registrations identifying them clearly to be based in Soweto, Johannesburg.
Think of the Mandela House having mandelahouse.soweto.joburg. The historic June 16, 1976 political uprisings can be found at 1976.soweto.joburg, while the famous restaurants, shops and guesthouses can all benefit from websites such as restaurantA.soweto.joburg, shopB.soweto.joburg and guesthouseC.soweto.joburg.
Such innovation potential, therefore, opens up entrepreneurship opportunities. dotJoburg registrants can become second level “registries” and “registrars”, and sell domain names at the third level.
In addition, dotJoburg allows for the allocation of certain domain names to specific organisations and communities to use for running websites. In this sense, the allocated names can be required to have active, dynamic content to ensure the visibility of dotJoburg online.
ZADNA intends to reserve a limited number of premium names and to use these to generate content that will ensure the online visibility of dotJoburg.
(B) The Development of the Local Domain Name Entrepreneur Market:
In the event that the dotJoburg gTLD is awarded to the ZACR then the dotJoburg TLD is intended to result in the expansion of the South African local Registrar and Reseller market. The initial opportunity will exist through dotJoburg Registrants being able to sell 3rd level registrations. For example, the Soweto.joburg Registrant may sell names to businesses and organisations in Soweto. This possibility means that dotJoburg may open up business opportunities for secondary “Registrars” and Resellers at the 2nd level.
In addition, the dotJoburg Registrants can become second level Registry operators without having to comply with any more formality than simply obtaining a dotJoburg name.
These possibilities are intended to gradually use dotJoburg to encourage local domain name entrepreneurs to grow their businesses to the level where they can obtain ICANN Registrar Accreditation.
(C) The Development of Johannesburg Online Content:
The dotJoburg project is a fantastic opportunity to drive content development focusing specifically on the City of Johannesburg. In essence, in order to kick-start this process and achieve some level of critical mass, the ZACR will reserve (pre-register) certain high-search value names and then utilise these, either on its own or through strategic partnerships with content providers, to develop online content and services.
Some of the broad objectives of this development initiative are to:
- encourage existing city and the broader South African communities and service providers to associate their content with the dotJoburg TLD (and, if possible, to customise it) in order to better engage with this user community. Potential targets for this initiative include South African government departments and agencies, large multi-national and parastatal organisations as well as the broader African internet community.
- develop strategic partnerships and associations with existing, well-established international online content and related services providers, to encourage and assist them to develop and customise their products and services specifically for the South African market. Potential targets for this initiative include social media platforms, search engines providers, and leisure and business service providers.
- establish partnerships and associations with South African and international service providers and businesses with the potential and capacity to develop sound business models for developing and driving online content and services; and assist them by making available high-search value names, start-up funding, technical support and mentoring, etc.
Building a Global Brand with a Focus on Johannesburg and South Africa:
Marketing, Communication and Public Relations:
The aim of marketing and communication is to create awareness of the dotJoburg gTLD and to rally support by keeping stakeholders engaged with the process.
The marketing of the dotJoburg brand will occur in terms of a defined strategy based on the following internal values:
- managing competitive advantage by striving to provide value to stakeholders and users (governments, businesses and individuals within Africa and abroad), by engaging in focussed, time-based marketing strategies to develop and enhance the dotJoburg brand in Africa and abroad. Innovation is key to the success of the dotJoburg domain namespace;
- viewing change as an opportunity by recognising the fluidity in the Internet environment as an opportunity and not a threat, in order to improve processes, systems and culture relevant to the dotJoburg domain namespace;
- developing a strategically managed enterprise by establishing an innovative, well governed and transparent organisation with effective systems, excellent staff and shared values.
The Marketing Campaign will focus on the following strengths:
- the availability of sufficient funding and other resources;
- an able, skilled and qualified management team;
- already available infrastructure and hardware;
- sustainable and strong partnerships in the DNS industry;
- a clear vision of the market need for dotJoburg;
- the know-how to implement and operate the registry services.
- a city that serves as the economic hub of Africa
Target Market:
The purpose of dotJoburg is not primarily to generate profits, although this may be explored over time. The purpose is to provide a unique online identity for the City of Joburg using the ZA registry infrastructure.
However, ZADNA will incorporate dotJoburg within its ongoing marketing, communications and awareness campaigns. The gTLD will be communicated and positioned as being a complementary string to ZA, but with a specific focus to Joburg - South Africa’s economic hub.
Outreach activities will be primarily focused to businesses, organisations and communities in and around Joburg, as these are the markets with a great potential for the growth of dotJoburg.
ZADNA’s plan to reserve a limited number of premium names to use them to generate content that will ensure visibility of dotJoburg on the Internet should help in creating online awareness of the advent of the dotJoburg gTLD.
Emphasis will be on utilising the most appropriate and available media tools depending on access to them by the target market identified above. The vast target market needs to be segmented, in order to develop key messaging for each market sector and to determine our ‘Go to market’ strategy.
A dotJoburg domain name is the perfect platform for global branding, marketing, and visibility with a focus on customers and markets in South Africa and internationally. This can help increase tourism, build and enhance international business relationships with the city as well as South Africa, and boost economic benefits. In fact, the very act of registering a dotJoburg domain name tells the world that this is a registrant proud of its association with the city of Joburg and deserving of recognition.
Value proposition
Joburg is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Joburg makes Gauteng the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa. The city is one of the 50 largest metropolitans in the world, and is also the worldʹs largest city not situated on a river, lake, or coastline.
The city is the source of a large-scale gold and diamond trade, due to its location on the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills. Joburg is served by O.R. Tambo International Airport, the largest and busiest airport in Africa and a gateway for international air travel to and from the rest of Southern Africa. More recently Lanseria International Airport (in Joburg north) has started international flights, and is situated conveniently on the opposite side of the metropolis.
Johannesburg is one of the worldʹs leading financial centres, and it is the economic and financial hub of South Africa, producing 16% of South Africaʹs gross domestic product, and accounts for 40% of Gautengʹs economic activity. In a 2007 survey conducted by Master Card, Johannesburg ranked 47 out of 50 top cities in the world as a worldwide centre of commerce (the only city in Africa).
dotJoburg presents a great opportunity for the city of Johannesburg to differentiate itself from other major cities, and to provide innovative potential socially, economically and politically.
Marketing and Communication Platforms:
The marketing and communication campaign for dotJoburg will utilise a number of communication platforms to create awareness and communicate with the various stakeholders, including:
- Facebook & Twitter: for instant real time communication with all stakeholders;
o facebook.com⁄dotJoburg
o twitter.com⁄dotJoburg
- dotjoburg website: for information and regular news feeds;
PR platforms:
These platforms will be used to disseminate press releases and publicity information to external stakeholders. Traditional media such as newspapers, and radio will be used to spread the dotJoburg message, and also digital media platforms.
Registry Operations:
From a technical⁄operational perspective the dotJoburg TLD registry will operate on the Extensible Provisioning Protocol platform, which is an internationally accepted standard for registry functions across the world and which has the flexibility to incorporate extensions such as DNSSEC and extensions pertaining to domain specific policy requirements.
The dotJoburg registry platform is wholly developed, maintained and hosted in South Africa. The applicant has a highly experienced team of experts dedicated to the on going development, maintenance, administration and training of the core registry services, including the back and front office support functions. The dotJoburg registry platform, which has been developed, implemented and maintained on the back of over 17 years registry experience by the Applicant (ZACR), also provides WHOIS services, Secure EPP Message Handling, DNS and DNSSEC services. A key point of the registry system is the flexible Policy Integration and configuration independent of the core development team.
Being part of the global DNS environment and subscribing to international best practices and procedures, the dotJoburg registry platform also integrates with specialist 3rd party DNS related systems and services, which when viewed collectively, provides a mature comprehensive, well-balanced world-class registry solution for dotJoburg.
External systems and services compliant with industry best practises and ICANN requirements include:
- Data Escrow services.
- Anycast and Unicast services.
- Off-site Hot Standby Failover Hosting.
Apart from providing a platform for growth of the ccTLD and registrar communities, the registry solution (which is more fully described in the technical submissions) allows registrars access to a number of key services including an automated Registrar Accreditation Process, Issue reporting and tracking, a Registry Notification Portal, and a secure flexible interface for retrieving financial statements and invoices. This allows for the registration and maintenance of domain names by registrars and results in ease of domain registration for registrants. More importantly it provides a registry platform that promotes simple, accessible, secure, accurate and abuse free domain registration by registrars and ultimately the end user.
The dotJoburg TLD registry function will be managed in a way that is service driven, secure and stable.
Registration Policy:
The dotJoburg registration policy will be established, implemented and maintained through the ZACR as an unrestricted gTLD under the ICANN framework. The registration policy will be based on the premise that it will set out the technical and administrative procedures and criteria used by the registry with regards to domain name registrations or requests for such registrations, including cancellations, transfers, suspensions, revocations, etc. The policy will be informed and guided by the consensus-driven policies and procedures developed through the ICANN multi-stakeholder process.
Although a comprehensive final registration policy must still be approved, the broad parameters of the registration policy will include the following:
a. Eligibility
dotJoburg will be available to all interested parties. A limited opportunity will be given to Joburg Municipality to reserve a number of names for its entities and projects during the sunrise phase. A similar opportunity will be given to the South African national government.
b. First-come, first-served
Following the Sunrise and Land Rush periods, registrations will generally be delegated on a “first-come-first-served” basis upon the payment of requisite fees.
c. Renewal
dotJoburg names shall be renewed on an annual basis on the anniversary of the registration. ZACR may, in consultation with ZADNA and ICANN, decide to allow for multiple year registration and renewal, but this shall not exceed more than 3 years.
d. Registrar services
Domain names will be registered through ICANN-accredited registrars. Each registrar will be required to pay an upfront deposit, which shall not be less than R250.00. Each registrar shall ensure that the minimum deposit available at any given time is not less than R250.
e. Determination of fees
ZADNA, in consultation with ICANN and ZACR, will determine dotJoburg domain name fees. Any fee changes shall be upon a minimum notice of 3 months.
f. Policy development
ZADNA is responsible for developing and reviewing dotJoburg policies and shall manage this responsibility in consultation with ZACR and ICANN.
g. IDNs
There is no plan to secure an IDN version of doJoburg.
Privacy protection
The establishment, implementation and maintenance of a privacy policy for the dotJoburg TLD will be based on international best practices as well as local and international standards and requirements. The registry will strive to protect the rights and privacy of all individuals or companies associated with dotJoburg TLD names. dotJoburg names will be publicly accessible through a dotJoburg Whois according to ICANN’s Whois specifications. Registrars will be allowed to provide private registration services.
Financial Aspects:
The ZACR, throughout its over 17 years of administering the successful CO.ZA domain in South Africa, has demonstrated an ability and capacity to manage and administer its financial affairs in a professional and transparent manner.
The ZACR has managed to keep the fees charged to registrars highly competitive and within reasonable international parameters. Simultaneously it has generated reasonable surplus funds, not only to provide a suitable operating buffer for the efficient and effective operation of the registry, but also to fund social development initiatives and projects.
The ZACR will, under the scrutiny and oversight of ZADNA apply similar financial disciplines and procedure to the administration of the dotJoburg TLD. As outlined above, the operating revenues generated through the administration of the dotJoburg TLD will be accounted for in accordance with national and internationally-accepted accounting practices.
The financial parameters and policies to run the dotJoburg TLD must still be finalised and approved by the ZADNA in consultation with the ZACR.
| gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | | .durban | UniForum SA (NPC) trading as ZA Central Registry | dundas.co.za | View |
Building a dotDurban Brand Identity
- Creating a unique On-Line Identity
- Benefiting South Africa
- Building a Global Brand
• Durban
• Differentiating dotDurban from other major cities
• Marketing, Communications and Public Relations
- Registry Operations
- Financial Aspects
Creating a unique On-Line Identity
dotDurban will provide a gTLD that gives the City of Durban a clear, distinct online identity.
The dotDurban TLD will provide the following added benefits:
- Give local and international businesses, organisations and individuals an opportunity to secure domain names that identify them with Durban.
- Enable the Durban Municipality to group all its services and entities under the dotDurban TLD, thus effectively carrying and promoting Durban as a brand.
- Provide South African and Durban tourism bodies an opportunity to group their products and services specific to Durban under the dotDurban TLD.
- Enable ZADNA and the South African government to implement a domain name strategy that ensures local geo-gTLDs are complementary to ZA and enjoy an economies of scale advantages of being operated from a reliable, secure and robust registry infrastructure
Benefitting the City of Durban and the South African Internet Community Nationally and Globally
In essence, dotDurban will benefit registrants particularly in and around Durban in particular to have websites that bear the name of their city, and automatically identify their geographic location.
Local and international organisations and businesses trading in and around Durban will be able to have websites that clearly identify Durban as their area of business. Local communities will be able to use dotDurban to brand and position their community projects better than other gTLDs.
Competition:
In the case of the South African market, dotDurban will give registrants a more identifiable geographic identity than the general ZA. It will also mean registrants that lost out on their most preferred domain names in ZA and other TLDs can now have an opportunity to register such names and enjoy the reputation and commercial credibility that comes with doing business in, or being identified with, Durban – South Africa’s economic hub.
dotDurban is not meant to be positioned as competing with ZA. Instead it is meant to complement ZA in the sense that it will be run from a ZA infrastructure and use ZA policies as far as these are in line with ICANN requirements.
In essence, the population of the City of Durban is estimated to be around 3,5 million. This implies that ZADNA does not primarily see dotDurban as a gTLD for high registration numbers. Rather, ZADNA primarily sees dotDurban as an enabler of more focused online identity and innovation for the communities and businesses around Durban.
From this perspective, ZADNA intends to have ZACR operate dotDurban on a non-profit, cost recovery basis, and intends subsidizing its operations (including ICANN fees) from the ZA domain name fees.
Differentiation:
The important and most obvious advantage dotDurban gives is clear differentiation, in particular for local and international businesses trading in or with Durban. For the Durban City Municipality, dotDurban provides it with the opportunity to house all its websites, entities and services under one gTLD bearing its name: dotDurban.
For national government, dotDurban allows it to be able to have dotDurban websites for all its projects, programmes, services and divisions servicing or located in and around Durban.
As a geographic indicator, the dotDurban TLD will automatically assume the reputation and goodwill of the region it represents. In the mind of the user, Africa represents a unique part of the world, with unique people, challenges and prospects. dotDurban, as a TLD, therefore presents an opportunity to engage with the region and its people, thereby potentially unlocking the economic and social potential of a vast and diverse city.
Innovation:
Innovation possibilities for dotDurban are expected to be material. dotDurban will allow local communities in and around Durban to group certain websites under the name “Durban”. For example, the domain name “umlazi.Durban” can allow businesses in Umlazi to have 3rd level registrations identifying them clearly to be based in Umlazi, Durban.
Think of the uShaka Marine World having ushaka.ethekwini.Durban, while the famous restaurants, shops and guesthouses can all benefit from websites such as restaurantA.ethekwini.Durban, shopB.ethekwini.Durban and guesthouseC.ethekwini.Durban.
Such innovation potential, therefore, opens up entrepreneurship opportunities. dotDurban registrants can become second level “registries” and “registrars”, and sell domain names at the third level.
In addition, dotDurban allows for the allocation of certain domain names to specific organisations and communities to use for running websites. In this sense, the allocated names can be required to have active, dynamic content to ensure the visibility of dotDurban online.
ZADNA intends to reserve a limited number of premium names and to use these to generate content that will ensure the online visibility of dotDurban.
(B) The Development of the Local Domain Name Entrepreneur Market:
In the event that the dotDurban gTLD is awarded to the ZACR then the dotDurban TLD is intended to result in the expansion of the South African local Registrar and Reseller market. The initial opportunity will exist through dotDurban Registrants being able to sell 3rd level registrations. For example, the Soweto.Durban Registrant may sell names to businesses and organisations in Soweto. This possibility means that dotDurban may open up business opportunities for secondary “Registrars” and Resellers at the 2nd level.
In addition, the dotDurban Registrants can become second level Registry operators without having to comply with any more formality than simply obtaining a dotDurban name.
These possibilities are intended to gradually use dotDurban to encourage local domain name entrepreneurs to grow their businesses to the level where they can obtain ICANN Registrar Accreditation.
(C) The Development of Durban Online Content:
The dotDurban project is a fantastic opportunity to drive content development focusing specifically on the City of Durban. In essence, in order to kick-start this process and achieve some level of critical mass, the ZACR will reserve (pre-register) certain high-search value names and then utilise these, either on its own or through strategic partnerships with content providers, to develop online content and services.
Some of the broad objectives of this development initiative are to:
- encourage existing city and the broader South African communities and service providers to associate their content with the dotDurban TLD (and, if possible, to customise it) in order to better engage with this user community. Potential targets for this initiative include South African government departments and agencies, large multi-national and parastatal organisations as well as the broader African internet community.
- develop strategic partnerships and associations with existing, well-established international online content and related services providers, to encourage and assist them to develop and customise their products and services specifically for the South African market. Potential targets for this initiative include social media platforms, search engines providers, and leisure and business service providers.
- establish partnerships and associations with South African and international service providers and businesses with the potential and capacity to develop sound business models for developing and driving online content and services; and assist them by making available high-search value names, start-up funding, technical support and mentoring, etc.
Building a Global Brand with a Focus on Durban and South Africa:
Marketing, Communication and Public Relations:
The aim of marketing and communication is to create awareness of the dotDurban gTLD and to rally support by keeping stakeholders engaged with the process.
The marketing of the dotDurban brand will occur in terms of a defined strategy based on the following internal values:
- managing competitive advantage by striving to provide value to stakeholders and users (governments, businesses and individuals within Africa and abroad), by engaging in focussed, time-based marketing strategies to develop and enhance the dotDurban brand in South Africa and abroad. Innovation is key to the success of the dotDurban domain namespace;
- viewing change as an opportunity by recognising the fluidity in the Internet environment as an opportunity and not a threat, in order to improve processes, systems and culture relevant to the dotDurban domain namespace;
- developing a strategically managed enterprise by establishing an innovative, well governed and transparent organisation with effective systems, excellent staff and shared values.
The Marketing Campaign will focus on the following strengths:
- the availability of sufficient funding and other resources;
- an able, skilled and qualified management team;
- already available infrastructure and hardware;
- sustainable and strong partnerships in the DNS industry;
- a clear vision of the market need for dotDurban;
- the know-how to implement and operate the registry services.
- a city that serves as the third largest economic hub of South Africa
Target Market:
The purpose of dotDurban is not primarily to generate profits, although this may be explored over time. The purpose is to provide a unique online identity for the City of Durban using the ZA registry infrastructure.
However, ZADNA will incorporate dotDurban within its ongoing marketing, communications and awareness campaigns. The gTLD will be communicated and positioned as being a complementary string to ZA, but with a specific focus to Durban - South Africa’s third economic hub.
Outreach activities will be primarily focused to businesses, organisations and communities in and around Durban, as these are the markets with a great potential for the growth of dotDurban.
ZADNA’s plan to reserve a limited number of premium names to use them to generate content that will ensure visibility of dotDurban on the Internet should help in creating online awareness of the advent of the dotDurban gTLD.
Emphasis will be on utilising the most appropriate and available media tools depending on access to them by the target market identified above. The vast target market needs to be segmented, in order to develop key messaging for each market sector and to determine our ‘Go to market’ strategy.
A dotDurban domain name is the perfect platform for global branding, marketing, and visibility with a focus on customers and markets in South Africa and internationally. This can help increase tourism, build and enhance international business relationships with the city as well as South Africa, and boost economic benefits. In fact, the very act of registering a dotDurban domain name tells the world that this is a registrant proud of its association with the city of Durban and deserving of recognition.
Value proposition
Durban is s the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism because of the cityʹs warm subtropical climate and extensive beaches. The municipality, which includes neighbouring towns, has a population of almost 3.5 million, making the combined municipality the biggest city on the east coast of the African continent.
.
The Durban Metropolitan Area (DMA) has a large and diversified economy with strong manufacturing, tourism, transportation, finance and government sectors. Its coastal location and large port gives it comparative advantage over many other centres in South Africa for export-related industry. Durbanʹs mild climate, warm marine current and culturally diverse population has also provided a drawcard for tourism to the region.
dotDurban presents a great opportunity for the city of Durban to differentiate itself from other major cities, and to provide innovative potential socially, economically and politically.
Marketing and Communication Platforms:
The marketing and communication campaign for dotDurban will utilise a number of communication platforms to create awareness and communicate with the various stakeholders, including:
- Facebook & Twitter: for instant real time communication with all stakeholders;
o facebook.com⁄dotDurban
o twitter.com⁄dotDurban
- dotDurban website: for information and regular news feeds;
PR platforms:
These platforms will be used to disseminate press releases and publicity information to external stakeholders. Traditional media such as newspapers, and radio will be used to spread the dotDurban message, and also digital media platforms.
Registry Operations:
From a technical⁄operational perspective the dotDurban TLD registry will operate on the Extensible Provisioning Protocol platform, which is an internationally accepted standard for registry functions across the world and which has the flexibility to incorporate extensions such as DNSSEC and extensions pertaining to domain specific policy requirements.
The dotDurban registry platform is wholly developed, maintained and hosted in South Africa. The applicant has a highly experienced team of experts dedicated to the on going development, maintenance, administration and training of the core registry services, including the back and front office support functions. The dotDurban registry platform, which has been developed, implemented and maintained on the back of over 17 years registry experience by the Applicant (ZACR), also provides WHOIS services, Secure EPP Message Handling, DNS and DNSSEC services. A key point of the registry system is the flexible Policy Integration and configuration independent of the core development team.
Being part of the global DNS environment and subscribing to international best practices and procedures, the dotDurban registry platform also integrates with specialist 3rd party DNS related systems and services, which when viewed collectively, provides a mature comprehensive, well-balanced world-class registry solution for dotDurban.
External systems and services compliant with industry best practises and ICANN requirements include:
- Data Escrow services.
- Anycast and Unicast services.
- Off-site Hot Standby Failover Hosting.
Apart from providing a platform for growth of the ccTLD and registrar communities, the registry solution (which is more fully described in the technical submissions) allows registrars access to a number of key services including an automated Registrar Accreditation Process, Issue reporting and tracking, a Registry Notification Portal, and a secure flexible interface for retrieving financial statements and invoices. This allows for the registration and maintenance of domain names by registrars and results in ease of domain registration for registrants. More importantly it provides a registry platform that promotes simple, accessible, secure, accurate and abuse free domain registration by registrars and ultimately the end user.
The dotDurban TLD registry function will be managed in a way that is service driven, secure and stable.
Registration Policy:
The dotDurban registration policy will be established, implemented and maintained through the ZACR as an unrestricted gTLD under the ICANN framework. The registration policy will be based on the premise that it will set out the technical and administrative procedures and criteria used by the registry with regards to domain name registrations or requests for such registrations, including cancellations, transfers, suspensions, revocations, etc. The policy will be informed and guided by the consensus-driven policies and procedures developed through the ICANN multi-stakeholder process.
Although a comprehensive final registration policy must still be approved, the broad parameters of the registration policy will include the following:
a. Eligibility
dotDurban will be available to all interested parties. A limited opportunity will be given to Durban Municipality to reserve a number of names for its entities and projects during the sunrise phase. A similar opportunity will be given to the South African national government.
b. First-come, first-served
Following the Sunrise and Land Rush periods, registrations will generally be delegated on a “first-come-first-served” basis upon the payment of requisite fees.
c. Renewal
dotDurban names shall be renewed on an annual basis on the anniversary of the registration. ZACR may, in consultation with ZADNA and ICANN, decide to allow for multiple year registration and renewal, but this shall not exceed more than 3 years.
d. Registrar services
Domain names will be registered through ICANN-accredited registrars. Each registrar will be required to pay an upfront deposit, which shall not be less than R250.00. Each registrar shall ensure that the minimum deposit available at any given time is not less than R250.
e. Determination of fees
ZADNA, in consultation with ICANN and ZACR, will determine dotDurban domain name fees. Any fee changes shall be upon a minimum notice of 3 months.
f. Policy development
ZADNA is responsible for developing and reviewing dotDurban policies and shall manage this responsibility in consultation with ZACR and ICANN.
g. IDNs
There is no plan to secure an IDN version of doDurban.
Privacy protection
The establishment, implementation and maintenance of a privacy policy for the dotDurban TLD will be based on international best practices as well as local and international standards and requirements. The registry will strive to protect the rights and privacy of all individuals or companies associated with dotDurban TLD names. dotDurban names will be publicly accessible through a dotDurban Whois according to ICANN’s Whois specifications. Registrars will be allowed to provide private registration services.
Financial Aspects:
The ZACR, throughout its over 17 years of administering the successful CO.ZA domain in South Africa, has demonstrated an ability and capacity to manage and administer its financial affairs in a professional and transparent manner.
The ZACR has managed to keep the fees charged to registrars highly competitive and within reasonable international parameters. Simultaneously it has generated reasonable surplus funds, not only to provide a suitable operating buffer for the efficient and effective operation of the registry, but also to fund social development initiatives and projects.
The ZACR will, under the scrutiny and oversight of ZADNA apply similar financial disciplines and procedure to the administration of the dotDurban TLD. As outlined above, the operating revenues generated through the administration of the dotDurban TLD will be accounted for in accordance with national and internationally-accepted accounting practices.
The financial parameters and policies to run the dotDurban TLD must still be finalised and approved by the ZADNA in consultation with the ZACR.