By Mbatjiua Ngavirue
WINDHOEK
The ICT alliance will hold a workshop on the regulatory framework surrounding the administration of Namibia’s Internet domain today.
The aim of the workshop in Windhoek is to prepare a strategy to deal with the administration of Namibia’s country code domain, the .na Internet domain.
In a statement, the ICT alliance said the issue needs input from all stakeholders.
This includes Internet service providers, the present .na domain administrators, Website administrators and government representatives.
The alliance said it also needed input from existing ICT alliance members, Afrispa represented by Eric Osiakwan, the ICT industry as a whole and existing public end-users of .na.
Industry sources that wish to remain anonymous say controversy has surrounded Namibia’s domain for a number of years now.
The common practice in most other countries is that in the public interest a broad-based non-profit organisation controls the domain.
In Namibia however Dr Eberhard Lisse, Dr Bennet Fuller and a third partner allegedly control the .na domain through their own close corporation for private profit.
In the early days of the Internet in Namibia, Dr Lisse apparently saw a gap in the market and registered the .na domain in his own name.
He is a gynaecologist by profession, but became interested in the Internet at its dawn and has since acquired considerable expertise in the field.
The partners run the domain through the private company Ondis Internet Services cc., with information on the company available at www.ondis.co.na.
Some industry sources however complain that the manner in which Ondis runs the domain has reduced the appeal of the .na domain for both service providers and the Namibian public.
Sources New Era spoke to complained about the allegedly comparatively high cost of registering a site on Namibia’s top-level domain.
It costs an estimated US$8-10 to register a .com domain name (N$58 to N$72), whereas the cost of registering a Namibian domain runs as high as
N$500.
Industry sources complain about the fact that in Namibia, unlike in other countries, it is not possible to register a domain online.
They see the process of registering a domain through Ondis Internet Services as too long and cumbersome.
“Most people avoid the .na domain because of the problems they have experienced. Others however like a Namibian domain name because they want to be associated with the country,” one source said.
Several years ago interested parties attempted to change the status quo and unseat Ondis as the domain name administrator, but failed to gain any momentum.
Personality clashes also seem part of the mix, with some describing Dr Lisse as an awkward and abrasive personality to deal with Dr Bennet Fuller, who contrary to some reports is not a medical doctor, however strongly defended Ondis saying the dispute largely revolved around personal attacks on Dr Lisse.
He denied that it takes long to register a Namibian domain name.
“We always have a problem when it comes to invoicing. When the time comes to pay this suddenly always becomes an issue.
“Furthermore, a country domain cannot be run on the basis of personalities.
We should not be making policy recommendations or changes in the law based on people’s likes or dislikes of an individual,” he said.
Fuller further said the costs of registering an Internet domain name in Namibia is more or less equivalent to the cost in other small countries.
Small countries of Namibia’s size do not have the same economies of scale of bigger countries.
He further disputed that it takes particularly long to register a domain name in Namibia.
Applicants have to follow certain technical requirements to register a domain name, otherwise they cannot register the domain.
“Many people try to do it without meeting the technical requirements. If people don’t know what they are doing it takes a long time,” he said.
Ondis is currently cooperating with the administrator of the Czech Republic country domain to develop software that will allow online domain name registration in Namibia.
Fuller said Ondis Internet Services would not participate in the ICT Alliance workshop because the alliance allegedly never invited them – even though it mentions them as a stakeholder
“We hear their modus operandi is to make proposals without consulting us so that we should have no opportunity to respond.”
He further challenged the argument that Ondis has held back the development of Namibia’s country domain name.
“It’s true that Namibia has only 1 500 to 2 000 domain names registered while South Africa has 200 000 to 300 000, but then Namibia’s entire population is not much bigger than Johannesburg’s Soweto township.”
Fuller said that when the ICT Alliance called a similar meeting some years ago, Ondis said it was willing to meet them.
They however requested that before the meeting takes place, the ICT Alliance provide them with a list of its members and its Articles of Association.
“They replied, but without ever providing us with their bona fides. From what we see their strategy is not to engage us, but rather to exert political pressure.”
He pointed out that Dr Lisse is Chairperson of the committee appointed by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to develop best practice for country code domains.
“He must know something. They complain that he has rules, but he has rules for a reason, without which the Internet would not function properly.”