"Ethiopian Champion of the .africa initiative" Enterprise Technology, East Africa

June 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Kampala Uganda: Enterprise Technologically (ET) magazine below, an up-market technology magazine in its June 2011, issue 6 titled "The Google Issue", spotlights its Executives of the month, and covered the story of .africa and the Champion behind it, profiling Bekele as "the fun loving..."  

In an exclusive conversation with Bekele, ET asked "What international policy changes would you like to see regarding usage of Internet domains?   "We have seen a major one in this recent past on International Domain Names (IDNs), which exemplifies the benefits made by the international community to support language development to theinternet based on non-English scripts,which was great. The internationalcommunity that were beneficiaries havegiven credence to DCA its contribution to the ICANN policy development process towards this end ad have endorsed our initiative for such. Further to this, I would like to see a continuation of the internet governance such that it remains free of politics - truly independent of any single or group of countries."

BEKELE IS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION DOTCONNECTAFRICA, WHICH ADVOCATES FOR THE ADAPTION OF TH DOTAFRICA TOP LEVEL DOMAIN NAME.  On 11th DECEMBER  2010 THE INTERNATIONALIZED DOMIAN RESOLUTION UNION ENDORSED THE DOTFRICA PROJECT FOR THE DOTCONNECTAFRICA STATING THAT  "Ms. Bekele, as a former gNSO advisor to ICANN, you have worked hard and long to champion Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). You have made the case within ICANN for a policy development process that will see IDNs in service of the world community. And you have done so successfully."

Sophia Bekele is an Ethiopian born executive who has served on numerous international bodies including Internet  Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), United Nations  African Information Society Initiative  (AISI); and has spoken at a host of global  events -UNECA, ISOC, the Africa Union Union Commission.  

A successful entrepreneur with businesses in both North America and her native Ethiopia she has also  spoken at the Stanford Women in Business series, Silicon Valley; and on e-Government at the ITU World Summit on Information Society .  

Bekele is co-founder of the Internet Society for San Francisco Bay and has represented East Africa on the UN sponsored Steering  Committee for African Stakeholders Network.  
                         
"The DotConnectAfrica initiative is really Africa's response to the benefits of a unified continental domain on the internet.  It is a new idea which will be guided by the ICANN policy embodied in the rule-book that's a process which is both competitive and "bottoms up" - Sophia Bekele
 
More for full interview and profile: Bekele's talk with Enterprise Technology, page 16, http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102...

Related News: Key words:

-- DCA PRESS RELEASE on IDRU Endorsement
-- IDRU Endorsement
--Thank you letter
-- Balancing Act Telcome, Internet New in AfricA, United Kingdom
-- ComputerWeekly, USA
-- Sophia Bekele making a case for .africa initiative at ICANN & US Government
http://www.prlog.org/11222383-dotconnectafrica-open-lette...

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DCA is a not-for-profit, non-partisan org incorporated in Mauritius Africa & will sponsor, establish & operate a TLD registry with global recognition & regional significance dedicated to the needs of Pan-African &African community. DCA Reg.ID.CT8710DCA90