[Ubuntu-ZW] [ZOSS-General] Fwd: Something to think about.

Sun Feb 7 12:39:23 GMT 2010

Apologies for cross-posting but I thought this topic is very important.

@Ronald, thank you very much for forwarding this critical topic and it
came at the right time. You have no idea how much I am thanking you. I
am actually in the process of completing a small research to submit a
comprehensive paper to authorities in charge with a view to propose a
new direction of the administration of top level domains in Zimbabwe.
I hope Kalpesh will not mind if I include some of his suggestions.

The analysis by Kalpesh is very correct and in my findings, everything
he said is true and a lot of people are actually now advising their
clients to go for the cheaper and more efficient international
domains. This works against the current effort to Rebrand Zimbabwe. It
may appear trivial but the .zw domain is a critical part of the
jig-saw puzzle in ICT development in the country. In South Africa,
everyone is proud of the .co.za namespace.

I have been out of the country and only returned end of last year. The
first institution that frustrated me was ZISPA! They are like so so
behind and most stuff in the hardly manned office have no clue of how
they should be assisting.

Over and above what Kalpesh said, ZISPA used to allow non-members to
register domains. When they changed this policy, they should have
requested ISPs to accept domain only registrations. At the moment,
most ISPs refuse domain only registrations. They are now using the
.co.zw domain as a leverage to force clients to buy more unwanted
products.

My opinion is that if ZISPA does not change as a matter of urgency,
the .co.zw namespace should be moved from them! They have no business
administering a national resource when they are so incompetent

On another note, await for the renewal of ZOSS. It will be "Reloaded" very soon!

Thanks and regards,

Moses

On 2/5/10, Ronald Munjoma <ronald at ubuntu.org.zw> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Moses once raised this issue before, I thought you might be interested in
> joining the debate/discussion.
>
> warm regards
> Ronald
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Kalpesh Thaker <luminary06 at gmail.com>
> Date: 5 February 2010 10:06
> Subject: [Ubuntu-ZW] Something to think about.
> To: ubuntu-zw <ubuntu-zw at lists.ubuntu.com>
>
>
> Hi Guys...
>
> Firstly.. apologies for posting another unrelated ubuntu topic on the
> list.....
>
> However, i'd like to do some research here...and since most of the people on
> this list are IT related... it might end up being a constructive
> topic .
>
> How many guys out there, deal with ZISPA for domain registrations?
>
> I have a gripe.. and hopefully, if this is a common issue, we might be able
> to pool ideas, to create suggestions/recommendations and/or
> resolutions that can be implemented.
>
> At the moment, to register a .co.zw domain, you need be a registered ZISPA
> member..which is perfectly normal.
> However, the actual procedure of registering a domain is as follows:
>
> The applicant needs to submit a ZISPA template ( a txt file attachment on
> email.. whereby you specify the registrants address, contact details, etc as
> well as the technical contacts nameserver ip's.)
>
> The registrant also needs to attach a letterhead from the company/individual
> stating the domain registration on behalf of the nominated ISP, as well
> as a signed copy of the ZISPA terms and conditions.
>
> It is ZISPA policy that one template attachment be sent for each domain to
> be registered, on a seperate email.
> So ive you want to register 10 domains, you have to compile 10 emails, then
> send it off for processing.
>
> The 'template' system applies for domain nameserver modifications and
> transfers.
> I've just remembered, that .org.zw domains with Telone, follow the exact
> same procedure!
>
> With regards to domain transfers, the current registrar needs to send a
> domain release note to the new registrar, who then compiles a
> "template" with the new details, then sends it along with the domain release
> to ZISPA, who then processes it, and sends confirmation.
>
> Modifications as noted, are also done through templates. So even the
> smallest nameserver or IP address change of the primary/secondary
> authoritative nameserver, has to be compiled into a template, then sent to
> ZISPA for processing.
>
> ----------->
>
> Ok, so this is my thoughts on this:
>
> 1 - templating via .txt files for domain registration is overly complicated
> 2 - the domain registration process is extremely outdated and inefficient.
> 3 - the facilities supplied by ZISPA/Telone as the authorative .zw
> registrars is not flexible enough to allow
> domain modifications/transfers on the fly without multiple parties having to
> be involved. This increases admin
> and processing time for everyone involved.
> 4 - templating requires human intervention for each and every application
> for domain processing, which means unnecessary
> delays if ZISPA experience any issues..as well as a waste of HR for ZISPA.
> (Some poor soul, has to process
> 100's of email templates a day, everyday, for all ZISPA customers)
> 5 - the registration of multiple domains takes time, as each domain template
> has to be compiled for each, with a domain registration
> letterhead and signed terms/conditions attached on each individual email.
> (This increases admin time on the registrants side.)
> 6 - i do believe that the collection of individuals physical contact details
> and other information kept by ZISPA can reasonably pose privacy
> concerns to individuals.
> 7 - The current system does not facilitate WHOIS functionality (just to
> remind you, we are in the year 2010! not 1986!!)
>
> Overall, i think the current domain registration process, is so 1980's,
> inflexible, too strict, slow, and completely outdated.
>
> At the moment, we've had a huge increase in demand for local domain
> registration, and i think the current system is just
> not good enough. As compared to South African and other COMESA regions, our
> domain registration system really is a dinosaur.
>
> I'd like to see a system that follows international trends, such as the ones
> available for .com domains. Where the users are
> allocated a control panel for domain management. These control panels cater
> for domain transfers, modification, WHOIS detail editing,
> etc. For your information, a .com/.org/.net address can be registered, and
> put into production, in under 20 minutes!
>
> Improvement on our local registrar system can be done, and there is no
> excuse not to keep up with the rest of our neighbours when it comes to
> ICT infrastructure.
>
> Its obvious that the current system was developed by some gifted individual
> many many many years ago (which at the time was cutting edge), but
> has never been revised or improved since in any constructive way. that too
> is highly unacceptable in my opinion. We have a wealth of knowledge in our
> IT community, and i believe if it is pooled together, we can help improve
> our current ICT "crisis" in zimbabwe. starting with our domain registrars.
>
> Any thoughts, comments, suggestions, criticism are most welcome...please
> feel free to forward this email to as many professional IT individuals that
> you
> know, so that we can somehow all our ideas can come together.
>
> Apologies again for hi-jacking the ubuntu list with this post... if need be,
> i'd be most happy to migrate this to another mailing list.
> However, due to the large subscriber base of IT professionals on this list,
> it seems ideal at the moment.
>
> Yours sincerely in IT.
>
> kalpesh.
>
> p.s for more information on ZISPA, see the following pages:
>
> http://www.zispa.org.zw/reg_proc.html
> http://www.zispa.org.zw/template.txt
>
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