Domain Industry Gossip Columnist Kevin Murphy tirades on DotConnectAfrica’s escalation letter to US Congress

— downplaying the serious issues which should benefit the ICANN new gTLD program applicants

DotConnectAfrica has reportedly sent a letter to the Congress on 21 February 2013.   The intent does not appear to have been directed at the issues concerning the ICANN ombudsman Chris Lahatte and  his unsatisfactory response to DotConnectAfrica’s claim,  that there existed a conflict of interest in two board members Chris Disspain and Mike Silber, and advice that they should not be involved in the new gTLD process.  Indeed the two officers updated their Statements of Interest to reflect their affiliations after the complaint.  DotConnectAfrica then followed up with a post-ombudsman’s-review letter on January 31, 2013 to which ICANN hasn’t responded yet!

In an unusual step, Murphy wrote about the letter sent to US congress by DotConnectAfrica, though his view and reaction to the letter and his past deconstructions on DCA activities as related to the .africa case can be said to be the same.   Murphy’s blog, is reportedly famous for being an ICANN insider,  however is questionable,  if his blog is providing latest news or is it a platform for paid op-eds meant to influence the views of his readers.

For instance, in his article “DotConnectAfrica — disconnected from reality?” he has confidently lent his voice to the presence of 60% support of Government endorsment to Uniforum based on hear say only to come back later  after DotConnectAfrica responded in a rejoinder: DCA believes only ICANN Should decide on dotAfrica (.africa) and admit “Uniforum also claims to have individual support from the required 60% of nations, though I have not seen documentary evidence of this.”  Despite this lack of evidence he can present to his readers, he continues with what appears as though he is getting paid to drum up support for the AU affiliated applicant.

It is evident from his blogs covering the .africa story that he is overwhelmingly biased in his reporting. Despite Murphy’s alleged confusion, its clear that DotConnectAfrica letter to congress have several points to put across, including Conflict of interest of the board members, corruption at the African Union and the  lack of transparency within the entire AU RFP process, and that Uniforum was single handedly appointed by the AU, under a mock International bid where they have Zero experience of a gTLD registry matters, except upgrading to an EPP registry under the support of ARI, according to ARI website  “In 2010, ARI Registry Services (ARI) was selected by the .za Domain Name Authority (ZADNA) to provide consulting services to assist ZADNA with their .za Central Registry project“

Notwithstanding, Murphy continues to predict the .africa winner and even taken upon himself to attack other bloggers who are interested in giving an unbiased view of the process.  In his blog “Corruption” claims as .africa fight heats up  he says “I’m not sure if any of this cross-pollination meets the definition of “corruption” or “illegality”, but I can understand why DCA is worried.” Referring to DotConnectAfrica’s corruption complaint about the May 2011 “Exclusive Commentary to the AfTLD Press Release following the Ghana Meeting” meaning Murphy clearly saw the issues that threatened to make the .africa process murky.

Murphy has however been  unremitting in his attack to DCA as an applicant, while at the same time giving the Uniforum a distended image of a clear winner who despite the means used to get the AU’s support has clearly cheated the African Community.  The clarity of his understanding of the unique .africa competition is clouded by his affiliation betrayed in his articles and  analysis of the .africa history thereby misleading the reader.

Given his tweet asking readers whether to blog on DCA’s letter

And the resultant that came a day later, it shows that he is not interested in proper investigation of the facts at hand but actually sounds like he is on a witch hunt to bash DotConnectAfrica’s quest for a regional registry in defense of Uniforum.

The rest of his rants on the African domain sites look like more of a competition of readership on ICANN and industry matters rather than his analytical turned gossip site.

Dear Kevin Murphy,  to reply to your twitter above, yes we are done with that, we wish you to stop your nutty reporting on DotConnectAfrica.