ISSUE NO 12
COMING
SOON: A SHONA LANGUAGE SITE AND MP3 IN AN AFRICAN CONTEXT
WELCOME TO THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE
If you're on the internet in Africa (as elsewhere), you tend
to see the outside face of it: web sites, your ISP, the company
you bought your domain name from and so on. Beneath this public
face, there's another world. This week's main story by Bretton
Vine describes the conflict between the American-based Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the operator
of South Africa's .za country domain. The story raises issues
of who the internet is for and who runs it. Let us know what
you think...
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ICANN
VS .ZA - WELCOME TO THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE
The story starts with ICANN deciding that it will raise a a third
of its budget from country domain name operators. On 23 May this
year Mike Lawrie, the person responsible for the .za country
domain was billed for US$17,520.18 by ICANN for "undefined
services".
Mike Lawrie is the current ccTLD administrator for .ZA, a position
that he took over in 1994 when the previous administrator, the
late Vic Shaw, retired. Mike Lawrie was the person who obtained
permission through Vint Cerf in 1990 for the .ZA domain to be
used.
The administration of the .ZA domain is currently in the process
of being changed with some efforts in place for a new body to
be appointed to handle the administrative side of the .za ccTLD
which will hopefully be more representative of the overall South
African Internet community. More info is available at http://www.isoc.org.za/namespace.html
There are several points you need to know about the .za domain:
- .za currently
operates without any mechanism in place for generating income
now or for the immediate future. It also doesn't have any funds
available in order to pay anything towards ICANN at the moment.
Mike Lawrie suggests that the costs of implementing a mechanism
for collecting payment are prohibitive.
- .ZA is
the largest ccTLD in Africa
- There
is a serious question as to what value South Africa will be getting
from ICANN in return for the invoiced amount and some comments
have been made to the effect that the money in question is little
more than a tax on the rest of the world by a US organisation
for using the Internet.
- Furthermore
there is no existing contractual agreement between the people
being invoiced and the people doing the invoicing.
- The ccTLD
community is addressing the funding issue. There appears to be
consensus within the community that ccTLDs should help fund ICANN,
but some disagreement over methods for calculating the amounts
involved. The "community" is essentially the registries,
the Address Registries (e.g.. ARIN) that fall under the ASO section,
and the domain registries, falling under DNSO (and the PSO/IETF
to a lesser extent).
- ICANN's
current invoicing was done without global support from the ccTLDs
or the ccTLD funding working group. ZA is not alone in response
to the invoice.
- An ICANN
Task Force on Funding decided that for the year 1999-2000 the
ccTLD community would provide 35% of the income budget of ICANN.
The 35% figure amounts to a contribution of US$1.49M. ICANN invoiced
each ccTLD administrator a portion of the total $1.49M in proportion
to the number of domains registered under that ccTLD. (This is
exactly the same charging model being used for gTLD registrars.)
This is
not the end of .ZA - it is highly unlikely that ICANN has the
authority or the power to suspend any ccTLD for non-payment of
ICANN fees. The South African government is not involved at the
moment but they are aware that some fee needs to be paid. However
it is highly likely that they are mostly ignorant on the whole
issue and relevant processes here. There is a move to attempt
to educate the Department of Communications on the domains and
registries etc. However the consensus from within the internet
community appears to be that government should not be involved
at all. Mike Lawrie has support both within the ccTLD community
and the South African Internet community. However it is possible
that the situation can and will be misunderstood by those outside
of the process.
Furthermore CENTR (A European organisation that deals with domain
names and other issues) are advising their ccTLDs not to pay
the invoices.
ICANN executive Michael Roberts recently told the Wall Street
Journal there's "a little bit of an issue" that the
ICANN as a US organisation should continue to foot the administrative
bill for the work required. If countries won't pay, ICANN will,
according to Roberts, be discouraged from further ""loosening
its control of the Internet.,"
VIEWS ON THE CONFLICT
Mike Lawrie himself:
* "Be that as it may, I must reject out of hand any attempts
by anyone to introduce a charge in arrear - were I to accept
that principle, then who knowswho would demand payment for all
kinds of services dating back to 1990 when..ZA first came into
use."
* "The only service of any nature that the .ZA ccTLD receives
from ICANN is administration of root servers, which I have the
greatest difficulty in believing costs ICANN that kind of money."
(with reference to the fee of $1.49M that ICANN has arbitrarily
apportioned to the ccTLDs.)
* "If I can call on that offer of assistance, ICANN should
take a STRONG view of keeping government interference out of
the administration of a ccTLD, and INSIST on dealing only with
the Internet community of each and every country."
* "That said, I've no doubt that the .ZA Internet community
would, on an equitable basis, be willing to carry its share of
the costs of administering the Internet. It does that to a large
degree already, in paying ARIN no small amounts for the use of
IP numbers."
- - - - - - - - -
Mike Roberts [roberts@icann.org]:
* "ICANN has been created to assume responsibility for policy
development and administration of a number of technical management
responsibilities associated with Internet domain names and addresses
and protocols. We are not a service organization except to the
minor extent required by administration of our policy responsibilities."
- - - - - - - - -
Anthony Brooks [ant@hivemind.net]:
* "I support Mike's [Lawrie] position wholly. I find it
very difficult to see ICANN's demand for money from the ccTLDs
as anything other than an arbitrary US tax on the rest of the
world's Internet users."
* "The services provided by ICANN to .ZA do not, by any
stretch of the imagination, justify a fee of R120k."
- - - - - - - - -
Rosi Stephenson [rosi@iafrica.com]:
* "Now the problem is exactly what authority ICANN has over
domains, and what autonomy do ccTLD admins have? What exactly,
in terms of authority, did ICANN inherit from Jon Postel and
what is the nature of the contract?"
* "I agree that there should be financial contribution towards
maintenance of the root servers. Of course that would be way
less than the Invoice sent out last week."
- - - - - - - - -
Now no-one approached is in disagreement over the fact that ICANN
does need funding and that ccTLDs can (in part) assist with this
funding. The problem appears to be the method of calculating
who pays what and what specifically they are paying for.
ICANN also appears to be jumping the gun and invoicing without
overall consensus on formula's for working out who gets charged
what. (Please note however that ICANN may disagree with this
viewpoint and further info can be gathered at: http://www.icann.org/tff/final-report-draft-30oct99.htm)
Some of the larger, commercial ccTLDs are unlikely to balk at
paying the fee, but there are a large number of ccTLDs that do
not have the resources to pay the amounts involved. Not every
ccTLD is commercial and some of them are unlikely to ever become
commercial let alone implement a mechanism for charging or administrating
financial controls.
This is certainly not the end of .za!
Thanks to Mike Lawrie, Anthony Brooks and Rosi Stephenson for
their time and replies to my questions.
SNIPPETS
* COMPUTER EXCHANGE
World Computer Exchange is a new U.S. non-profit organization
focused on shipping donated working, Internet-accessible computers
through government ministries or NGOs to schools in developing
countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and partnering them
on-line with participating U.S. schools. In early 2001, it plans
to send trained teams of technology-savvy high school and college
students to visit students in developing countries to train them
in use and maintenance of computers and the Internet. It is seeking
to support small for-profits in developing countries interested
in re-manufacturing computers. It also expects to find ways to
help schools with connectivity issues. You can get more information
from its website at http://www.WorldComputerExchange.org.
* BOMB BLAST AT MICROSOFT SA
"There was a blast outside the building in an open courtyard,"
says Terry Annecke, marketing director of Microsoft SA. "There
is no structural damage to the building and the main damage is
broken windows." There seems to be no clear idea of who
placed the bomb.
* SA NAPSTER STUDENT BAN
Some universities in South Africa have been taken action to ban
the use of the US MP3 site, Napster and disciplinary action has
been taken against students in a number of cases.
* E-TEA
The launch of a website for buyers and sellers wishing to deal
in teas grown in African and Asian markets. India-based Teauction.com
already runs a website providing a market for trade in Indian
tea, but the firm plans to expand into Kenya, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh
and Indonesia, setting up joint ventures with indigenous partners
that are familiar with local conditions. Teauction.com
competes with traditional brokers, some of whom are planning
to start internet trading later this year. (Source: Business
Africa)
* UK'S LASTMINUTE.COM INTO SOUTH AFRICA
The launch of a South African version of retail website lastminute.com.
The UK-based company will link up with leading South African
tourism group Tourvest, which will use its existing links with
hotels, airlines and travel agents to create a "last-minute"
travel marketplace in South Africa. Services will include air
reservations and tickets, and theatre, hotel and restaurant bookings.
Tourvest will own 74.9% of the new venture, whose website will
be launched in September. (Source: Business Africa)
* PAKISTAN'S COMSATS PROVIDES AFRICAN INTERNET SERVICES
The provision of internet services to Ghana, Tanzania and other
African countries by the Pakistan-based Commission on Science
and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (Comsats).
Comsats, which has 21 member countries, played a pioneering role
in promoting internet usage in Pakistan. (Source: Business Africa)
USEFUL WEB SITES....
* For those interested in North Africa. www.al-bab.com
provides an excellent country-by-country guide that covers: Algeria,
Egypt, Djibouti, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan and
Tunisia.
* A useful French language site covering Benin is Benin Contact
(www.bj.refer.org/benin_ct)
This provides information on academic research, the economy,
the media and culture.
* An excellent site covering Cameroun is produced by eCameroun
(www.ecameroun.com).
It provides information in both English and French, including
daily news.
* Zambesi Times Online (www.babinmedia.com/zambesi.html)
is a web page that provides updated news for the Zambian market.
The June 4 edition carried a story on Zambia's view of ceasefire
violations in the Congo, an interview with Youssou N'dour and
a report on poverty reduction approaches by the World Bank and
the IMF.
* South African-based Empowerment for African Sustainable Development
publish a newsletter for the environmental community in Africa
dealing with strategic environmental management at http://easd.org.za/ceika.htm.
LETTERS
* SOUTH AFRICAN MARKET - IT'S NOT ALL JUST ABOUT BANDWIDTH...
In New Update you quoted the following internet usage figures
for South Africa:
> Estimated number of Internet users:1.25 million (3.2% of
total population)
> Number of citizens: 38 million
A couple of comments regarding your info on SA internet useage.
Although South Africa, for many years, had one of the fastest
growing net populations,perhaps due to the comparitive wealth
of the trendy white population, the appalling Transvaal education
system and white collar search for jobs external to South Africa,
growth has dropped off as this market was saturated.
The vast majority of the population has either very low incomes
or are unemployed so they are unlikely to have access to the
Net for a good few years.
So South Africa will be likely to have much more typical african
growth rates from nowon. With the downfall of Jay Naidoo, that
happy trans-saharan internetevangalist and 4*4 driver of note,
the Net is now seen as just another revenue source, no matter
what Mbeki tells Slick Willie during this currentUS junket.
Increases in bandwidth requirements, from the now more experienced
users wanting richer media, coupled with the decrease in growth,
resulting in less money available for longterm infrastucture
improvements, yields a slow and surprisingly unstable SA cyberspace.
Already.
Lack of venture capital, indeed the flight of capital out of
South Africa, coupledwith low savings rates and unlikelyness
of the establishment of a representative stable middle class
(in part due to the AIDS pandemic, "asset stripping"
by those heading for Australia and elsewhere, entrenched racism
on all sides and overly enthusiastistic "wealth-redistribution"
taxation) makes the outlook for ecommerce, dotcom wealth and
low cost net access exceedingly bleak.
I've seen a couple of articles (Arthur Goldstuck wrote one a
few months ago in the M&G) like the one in your newsletter,
discussing the problems of the net and its decline in growth
in South Africa, blaming it on Telekom, but they don'tseem to
examine the effect of socio-economics, which I would have thought
is pretty obvious.
Thanks for the newsletter.
Tony Mechin
* HITS VS USERS
I tend to agree with Zambia Online's sentiments about users.
"User sessions" are certainly the most reliable way
to ascertain the popularity of a website although statistics
for repeat visitors need to also be supplied in order to get
the user sessions into perspective so that a good marketing decision
can be made.
If a website for instance has a high repeat visitor rate, it
could mean that there are a small number of people who access
the site several times a day. Depending on the nature of the
site, this would be ideal to an advertiser since he is sure to
show the same people different adverts that are subtle and subliminal
in nature. If most of the visitors are first time visitors, an
advertiser would design his adverts to be bright and catchy,
since most of those visitors shall never return.
As for the relationship between usage and hits, as Zambia Online
correctly pointed out, high hits do not prove anything really.
However, if a website is able to demonstrate the monthly GROWTH
rates of their "hits", then that perhaps would be closer
to the truth, assuming of course that the number of active pages
at any one time is more or less constant.
Finally, the point that you cannot mimic or fake country statistics
is a very important one. To mimic visits from many countries
around the world would require you to be physically present in
those countries. However much anyone tries to produce fake statistics,
an experienced advertiser can easily spot the inconsistencies.
Chileshe Ndhlovu
REVIEW
Dream Deferred: The Story of a High-Tech Entrepreneur in a Low-Tech
World by Monique Maddy Click
Adesemi, an American start-up in Africa, had been trying for
six years to blanket the developing world with desperately needed
wireless communications services. It had raised more than $15
million in venture capital and launched the world's first fully
integrated "virtual" phone system--which incorporated
voice mail, pagers, and hundreds of pay phones--in one of its
poorest countries, Tanzania. Then Adesemi crashed to earth, leaving
its founder, Monique Maddy, with a company that was a shadow
of the powerhouse she had envisioned. The company's demise was
personally and financially devastating to Maddy, a Liberian-born
entrepreneur who grew up wanting to work for the United Nations
and who ultimately trained at Harvard Business School. But in
this detailed first-person account, she says the failure taught
her four important lessons about starting a business in an emerging-market
country. The first is that entrepreneurs should avoid do-good
investors and concentrate on do-well backers who are looking
to make money and who understand risk. The second is that a start-up
with a heterogeneous staff should appoint a seasoned HR guru
to improve cross-cultural tolerance and understanding. The third
is that entrepreneurs should conduct serious due diligence on
potential partners, and partners should be required to invest
their own money in a venture. And the fourth is that a start-up
in the third world should find a visionary, deep-pocketed investor
who is willing to ride out the inevitable bumps.
The article appears in the current Harvard Business Review and
can obtained for US$5.50 in paper or PDF by going to their web
site.
http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/prod_detail.asp?R00307
Back
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