Cocca (Council of Country Code Administrators) is up and running and doing well. Cocca is a forward-thinking assocation of smaller ccTLDs who are pooling their resources in an intelligent way.

This is an effort that’s been ticking away in the background for many years and I’m really pleased to see it finally made public.

Cocca provides its members (ccTLDs) with:

• Open source, standards-compliant, thick-registry EPP-protocol shared registry software. (”Thick” registry means that customer information is kept at the registry level, so it’s easier for customers to change registrars, who can’t hold their information and settings as ransom. A “thin” registry is used by .COM and .NET — the result of a self-serving effort by the old Network Solutions to “own” customer data.)
• A common policy framework for registration agreements, dispute resolution, etc. These are modified as needed by the local Cocca member to conform with local laws and to suit the needs of the local community.
• Single sign-up for registrars, so that anyone who wants to be a registrar can sign up once and register names with any of the Cocca registrars. This will help sales for all Cocca members, since it gets rid of the cost incurred by registrars in integrating multiple small registries. A bunch of registrars have already signed up.
• A common WhoIs server, reducing or eliminating administration and cost. Politically, Cocca provides strength in the ever-growing pull and tug between privacy interests and the desire for open information (in an illustration of the “politics makes strange bedfellows” truism, open WhoIs is being pushed largely by intellectual property interests who are keen to know the identity of putative infringers.)
• Importantly, a common front in the face of ICANN perfidy fair and balanced redelegations.

The driving force (though not the only one, I’m sure) behind the project is Garth Miller. If you’ve been to ICANN meetings, you’ve seen Garth - tall, lanky, looks like a surfer dude, which he may well be.

I first met Garth when I was running the now-defunct IATLD (International Association of Top Level Domains), and he was trying to protect the Christmas Islands TLD (.CX) from the underhanded predations of the Australian government.

So far, Cocca’s TLD members (they have associate members too) are:

• (.AF) Muhammad Aslam - Ministry of Communications Afghanistan http://www.nic.af
• (.CX) Brad Waugh - Christmas Island Internet Administration http://www.nic.cx
• (.DM) Jennifer Aird - DotDM Corporation (Dominica) http://www.nic.dm
• (.KI) Bwanouia Aberamm - Kiribati Telecommunications Authority (Kiribati) http://www.nic.ki
• (.NF) Rob Ryan - Norfolk Island Data Services http://www.nic.nf
• (.TL) Flavio C Neves - Timor Leste Ministry of Communications (East Timor) http://www.nic.tl
• (.MN) Baasansuren Burmaa - Datacom Co., Ltd. (Mongolia) http://www.nic.mn/
• (.NA) Dr Eberhard W Lisse - NA NIC (Namibia) http://www.na-nic.com.na/
• (.GS) Paul Shafi - Atlantis North (South Georgia and Sandwich Islands) http://www.nic.gs

If you have a look at the websites, you’ll see they’re all similar but significant local variations. (Get some domain names while you’re at it!)

This is a great initiative and it deserves praise and credit.

Posted by Antony in: Domains