On 6 July 2012 12:40, McTim <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > the outreach program was certainly pathetic, though it attracted not one > but two applications for .africa -- > > one actually > > and one for .DotAfrica. > > a clever way to avoid name collision. > From http://www.biztechafrica.com/article/dca-partners-set-dotafrica-registry-kenya/3278/ *DotConnectAfrica Trust said in a statement on 14 June that it had applied > for the same geographical string name for ‘Africa’, pronounced as > 'DotAfrica'. It said: “It is important to note that the initial evaluation > process will also consider string similarity - and all strings applied for > will be reviewed; and applications for the same or similar strings will end > up in the same “String Contention Set”. The prescriptions of the ICANN new > gTLD Guidebook (Section 2.2.1.1) are quite clear in this regard. > * When I first saw the application list I also never thought that .africa and .dotafrica would survive the contention process as separate strings. Apparently this was by design, though I'm not really sure of the rationale; I find it one of the more fascinating quirks of this application round. - Evan