1.0 Project Progress

Started in April 2013, the member contact update project has been carried on all of AFRINIC's 935 members registered up to 31 December 2012. Considering time and patience that this project requires, we hired an intern to carry out the member information accuracy follow-up. In order to conduct the project efficiently, we divided the same into 3 phases. 

• Phase 1: Verification of files and records: (100% completed).
• Phase 2: Initial contact (100% completed) - all members (LIRs and End-Users) were contacted.         
• Phase 3:  Updating records and following up. 

As of phase 3, only 694 contacts out of 935 (74%) have been updated as at end of April 2014 (after 12 months of follow-up).

We are still chasing the 241 remaining (26 %) to get formal confirmation about the accuracy of their information.

2.0 Recommendations

During the AFRINIC-18 meeting in Lusaka, a policy proposal requiring members to keep their whois contact information up-to-date was discussed, during which we recommended to the author and the community that there is already an initiative internally on the same matter, and that perhaps the proposal is not needed unless that initiative is not successful. Consequently, the author withdrew that proposal.

Considering the time and effort being used by our Member Services Liaison to chase members on this project, we have come to the conclusion that the internal initiative has not recorded the success we were hoping for, and hereby recommend that the PDWG Chairs ask the previous author of the previously withdrawn “AFRINIC WHOIS Database Clean-up” proposal to re-introduce it to the community such that members are compelled through policy to keep their whois contact information accurate and up-to-date.