Sophia Bekele

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Ms. Sophia Bekele is an entrepreneur, business executive, ICT activist, and international policy adviser on ICT/Telcom to public and private enterprise. She is the founder and CEO of CBS International and DotConnectAfrica.

CBS International, is a private California-based firm engaged in technology transfer to emerging economies, which also set up SbCommunications Network, an Ethiopian IT company. In 2002 SbCNet was known for being successfully awarded a highly controversial bid for a government contract to build an integrated information network infrastructure for the Ethiopian Parliament. She has served on United Nations-sponsored committees, such as the UNECA-sponsored African Information Society Initiative (AISI), where she represents the private sector in discussions about the economic development of Africa Bekele was then elected member of the ICANN Council of the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization), which advises on global internet policy. During her term, she has championed the IDN Policy Dialog for the international community. Bekele also initiated the first African-run bid for a .africa TLD, and is currently championing it across Africa under the non-profit, non partisan organization [DotConnectAfrica]. DotConnectAfrica has been endorsed by various prominent Pan-African organizations, Communities and African governments.

"…I am most interested in the issues of emerging economies and the use of ICT and the growth of Internet or lack thereof over ::these environments. Therefore, the policies developed by ICANN over issues governing the global Internet particularly domain names could determine the gap in the digital divide within these economies…” Sophia Bekele, Statement of Interest 2005-2007

Sophia is of Ethiopian decent but studied in the USA for her Bachelor's Degree in Business Analysis and Information Systems at San Francisco State University and earned her Master of Business Administration (MBA) in management Information Systems from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, California. She is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) , Certified Control Specialist (CCS), and Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT).

Bekele travels globally for her work and shuttles regularly between her residences in Walnut Creek, California and Africa, where she also has a firm base.

ICANN Work

Ms. Bekele was nominated to serve on ICANN's GNSO policy board from 2005-2007, under the Chairmanship of Dr. Vinton Cerf. Elected by the NomCom, Sophia was the first African to serve and hold a seat the GNSO. During her tenure, Sophia was instrumental in initiating policy dialogue over IDNs as well as the formation of an IDN working group. She was later credited for championing the inclusion of the global IDN community within this policy dialogue. As a result, Ms. Bekele was also nominated to chair ICANN's IDN Working Group. She was one of the co-authors of ICANN's IDN policy guidelines.

Ms. Bekele initiated the formation of the AfriICANN grouping within ICANN.

Championing the International Domain Name (IDN) Policy

As a gNSO adviser to ICANN Bekele participated actively in policy development for IDNs and campaigned and championed the efforts to introduce IDNs in the ICANN policy dialog. Bekele successfully made the case at ICANN on behalf of the global IDN community. In a written Testimonial, and on behalf of the group

"Bekele was very influential in drafting the IDN policy guidelines as well as developed a framework for leading a ::language group. This required contentious and controversial matters with complicated political and commercial implications and ::interests. Ms Bekele strongly advocated and further went on to aggressively bring the voices of the global public of early ::adapters of IDN businesses and countries who implemented IDNs to the policy of ICANN", said Mr. Yoav Karen, then Member of ::ICANN's President IDN Advisory Committee, Current ICANN gNSO Council member and Executive member of IDRU.

"..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. Executive Director 05 December 2010, INTERNATIONALIZED DOMAIN RESOLUTION UNION,.

"The call for such Pan-African brand was largely initiated by Sophia Bekele who is no new-comer to spearheading new ways of ::thinking at ICANN. Years ago, her heroic efforts during her tenure as a newsbie GNSO advisor to ICANN, in reversing the ::disastrous and misguided course that IDN policy took within ICANN at that time is now well documented and clearly attested to by ::the opposite direction in which the IDN portion of the new GTLD process at ICANN has since gone"

Championing the DotAfrica .africa gTLD Project
Following her successful achievement of IDN work for ICANN and for the global internet community, Bekele re-started the DotAfrica initiative following the important experiences gained from her work as gNSO advisor to ICANN. Bekele made a clear case for a DotAfrica (.africa) gTLD for Africa within ICANN and also the global Internet Community on behalf of the global African and Pan-African constituency., ,, ,. She soon led the .africa initiative under a successful venture DotConnectAfrica organization, a non-profit, non partisan self start-up, and traveled throughout the various African countries and globally speaking and advocating the benefit of adapting to a .AFRICA (pronounced as ‘DotAfrica’) Top Level Domain name (TLD) for the African Continent. Her most significant accomplishment so far for the .africa gTLD project is undertaking and sustaining a successful global campaign, energizing it and giving it global momentum and raising its Pan-African and International profile to a position of relevance, and introducing it to the Pan-African inter-governmental organizations – the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC) and getting them to endorse it. , . Bekele's presentations, speeches and publications used for this global campaign and promotional work to create awareness of the .africa TLD are chronicled on the Organization's website.

Bekele therefore was recognized and credited for her efforts by the global internet community as well as various leading African and International media. As such, she was mentioned in the Economist article as "leading the .africa initiative". The Diplomat East Africa named her "Brains Behind .africa" . Enterprise Technology Magazine called her "Sophia Bekele: Champion of .africa initiative" CIO East Africa calling her views "controversial" on who should run gTLDs, saying "Sophia Bekele has been in the news if not for promoting DotConnectAfrica’s bid for the DotAfrica geographical gTLD for the past three years, then in a controversial statement about the same":

".. Governments have a role to play, especially regarding the establishment of an enabling and supportive environment for ICT ::initiatives to thrive. However, there is a role for everybody, and global Internet governance is currently based on a multi-::stakeholder modeled by ICANN. Governments already have their two-code country-level top-level domains (cc TLDs), but they ::also have a role to endorse geographical gTLDs. The problem is that this power to endorse is often interpreted and extended to ::include overall sovereignty over the new gTLD. We believe this should not be the case since it is monopolistic and anti-competitive coupled with problems of lack of transparency and accountability...-Sophia Bekele, in an interview on 09 March 2012, for the main story of CIO East Africa, ."

Ms. Bekele currently oversees the .africa new gTLD initiative of DotConnectAfrica Trust. As Executive Director of DCA Trust & CEO of DotConnectAfrica Registry Services Limited, she has led a multi-national team of experts to prepare and submit an application for the DotAfrica (.AFRICA) generic Top-Level Domain. DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust) has already submitted an application in May 2012 for the .AFRICA (pronounced as ‘DotAfrica’) geographic name string to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a U.S.-based non-profit organization that is overseeing the global Internet expansion project to introduce new generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs) under the new gTLD Program. .

Controversies

In October 2012, DCA published a press release saying that their Wikipedia sites willfully sabotaged. Entries on DCA, .africa, and Sophia Bekele , the Executive Director of DotAfrica, were changed. According to DCA, some information that had been unmodified for over five years were removed from Wikipedia and replaced by new versions where DCA's involvement with .africa, DCA's working history, and Bekele's credentials were downplayed. The Press Release states this was done by opponents on .africa controversies.The information from Wikipidia was captuared at the

CBS International

Ms. Bekele founded CBS International, a private corporation with the goal of supporting technology in organizations working in emerging markets. The company's self-described mission is to: "Utilize our experience in consulting services in sales, software training, and provide our clients with a total systems solutions to help lower their cost and maximize efficiency in the delivery of quality products and services." CBS also consults on Business Process Engineering, implementation of Corporate Strategy & Governance & Sarbane Oxley compliance initiatives. It is based near Silicon Valley, California.

DotConnecAfrica (DCA)

Bekele’s recent venture is the establishment of the DotConnectAfrica Trust and DotConnectAfrica Registry Services Limited, which is well-known for its successful six year Yes2dotAfrica global awareness campaign for the .Africa Top Level Domain Name. Bekele made a clear case for a DotAfrica (.africa) gTLD for Africa within ICANN and introduced it to the PanAfrican organizations in Africa such as UNECA and African Union and the global publics. She then received endorsements from both organizations in 2008 and 2009 respectively, and the global IDN working group for her DotAfrica Initiative. Currently, Bekele's focus is on the .africa – a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) for the Africa geographic name that she initiated during her appointment at ICANN. The project will be introduced and delegated for operation under ICANN’s new gTLD programme.

Other Endeavors

Bekele is a Alumni Board Member of the Golden Gate University, Founder and Board Member of ISOC San Francisco Bay, a former board member of Information Systems and Control Association (ISACA-SF), advisory member to the World Affairs Council of Contra Costa County, and adviser to United Nation Agencies, where she serves as expert advisor on ICT policy for various UN Agencies Boards and committees, including UNECA (Economic commission for Africa), UNPAN, UNGAID.

Advocacy

Bekele has written articles and editorials on issues concerning technology for development, good governance, regional economic integration, politics, and Internet Governance that is of global public interest and Africa.

Watch Sophia Bekele, discuss the domain industry during the African development Bank (ADB) annual meeting at Abidjan capital of Ivory Coast for the Movers & Shakers of Africa hosted by Jeff Koinange of K24 a Leading TV station in Kenya. <videoflash>OfjOAtv-fMs</videoflash>

External Links

1. Open letter to Congress, Sophia Bekele wrote an open letter to congress to defend status quo of internet governance, July 13, 2012
2. Application to ICANN, DCA Trust has applied to ICANN for the ".Africa" Geographic name, June 05, 2012
3. Defending Multi Stakeholder model, Bekele writing on Internet Governance:, April 5, 2012
4. DotConnectAfrica Welcome 2012 - The Year for new gTLDs,Welcome 2012 - The Year for new gTLDs - Yes2dotAfrica Campaign, Jan 14, 2011
5. DotConnectAfrica to ICANN, DCA's Executive Briefing Note following, Executive Briefing Note at the ICANN-42 Public Forum Meeting at Dakar, Senegal, Oct 23, 2011
6. Champion of .africa, Sophia Bekele names as Champion of the .africa initiative,, June, 21, 2011
7. Thank you Note, Bekele thankful for support and encouragement of the .africa initiative , June 11, 2011
8. Open letter to NTIA-US Department of Commerce, Sophia Bekele sent an open letter to the NTIA making a preliminary case for the .africa gTLD, Jan 20, 2011
9. DotConnectAfrica, spoke on way-forward on the contribution of the ".africa" name to an ICT enabled environment, and launched its "Yes to a .africa Campaign", at the AITEC ICT summit held in Nairobi, Kenya.html, Sep 11, 2010
10. Bekele, Ms.Sophia Bekele, provided a Keynote address for AITEC Summit during the opening panel discussions.html, Sep 11,2010
11. DotConnectAfrica, DotConnectAfrica registered maximum success in East Africa as the voice was echoed globally.html, April 06, 2010
12. Policy Development,Statement of Interest (SOI) Members of the Vertical Integration Policy Development Process Working Group, April, 01, 2010
13. Public Forum announcement, African Union endorsment of ".Africa" and urging for ICANN to expedite process for TLDs,Nairobi, March,11,2010
14. DotConnectAfrica, African Union endorsed the domain name ".Africa" to DotConnectAfrica org, Addis Ababa, February 18, 2010
15. Policy Development,Statement of Interest (SOI) for the Policy Development Process Steering Committee-Policy Development Team, March 19, 2009
16. Internet Governance, Internet Governanace & Policy Divide, San Francisco, March 10, 2009
17. Public Forum announcement, Continuing interest in the work of ICANN, IDNs and DotAfrica, Paris, June 25, 2008
18. Farewells, ICANN Meeting...and had a lot of respect for, Cary Karp from registries, Mawaki Chango, noncommercial, Ross Rader, registrar, and Sophia Bekele, the NomCom appointee..., ICANN Public Forum, Part 2 Thursday, 1 November 2007
19. DotAfrica, [http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/jpacomments2007/jpacomment_069.pdf DotAfrica�s position on JPA -National Telecommunications and Information Administration], NITA, Los Angeles, California, Feb 2008
    
20. AfriICANN-discuss, A debate on dot.africa, Nov 2007
    
21. AfrICANN-discuss, DotConnectAfrica's initiation of DotAfrica), Nov 2007
    
22. Aftld-Discuss [AfriICANN-discuss], Who is DotAfrica?, Nov 2007
    
23. ICANN IDN, GNSO Final report, Oct 2007
    
24. AfriICANN-Discuss, [http://lists.aftld.org/pipermail/aftld-discuss/2007-October/000183.html Dot Africa�s position on fast tracking of IDN ccTLD], Oct 2007
    
25. GNSO IDN, Comments in Response to the ccNSO-GAC Issues report on IDN Issues, Aug 2007
    
26. GNSO IDN, Outcome Report of the GNSO IDN Working group, Mar 2007
    
27. At-Large policy, Policy matters for conference call agenda, Mar 2007
    
28. AfriIcann, Going forward with ICANN- The African Region Perspective, Mar 2007
    
29. AfriICANN, ICANN - GNSo Policy update - presentation to African Group by Sophia Bekele, Lisbon, Mar 2007
    
30. GNSO IDN, Outcome Report of the GNSO IDN WG, Mar 2007
    
31. GNSO IDN Regarding IDN Working Group membership issues, Mar 2007
    
32. ICANN IDN, IDN Working Group, Jan 2007
    
33. GNSO-IDN-WG, IDN Chair Nomination, Oct 2006
    
34. ICANNwiki, ICANNWiki Caricature, Wellington New Zealand, Mar 2006
    
35. DotConnectAfrica's Website,dotconnectafrica.org - African's Map on Digital Inclusion, Mar 2006
    
36. GNSO IDN, On IDN dialog - a debate with John C. Klensin, Mar 2006
    
37. ICANN, Nominating Committee | Biographical Information on the ..., Nov 2005
    
38. ICANN NomComm ICANN | Nominating Committee Announces Final Selections for Key leadership positions..., Vancouver, Canada Nov 2005
    
39. ICANN, Sophia Bekele, Statement of Interest, Nov 2005
    
40. ISOC, appointment to a founding member & board of directors of Internet Society, San Francisco (ISOC-SF), San Francisco, Ca, March 2009
    
41. GGU, Internet Governance and the policy divide, San Francisco, Ca, March 2009
    
42. IP Justice, New Domain Names (gtlds), Sao Paulo Brazil, Dec 2006
    
43. Andrew Mack, Andy's Global View: In a world of .com and .org, why not .Africa?, Sept 2007
    
44. Del Rey Studios "A New Hope" the idea of 'ICANN The Movie' was born! Mar 2007
    
45. TWiNic, NomComm announcement - Sophia Bekele, Nov 2005
    
46. JPNic,NomComm announcement -Sophia Bekele, Nov 2005