Developing Regional Indicators for Measuring the DNS

03/06/2024

By Rocío de la Fuente, LACTLD General Manager

Together with the DNS Research Federation (DNSRF) and NIC Chile Labs, LACTLD is proposing the development of a system of indicators to measure the evolution of the DNS ecosystem in Latin America and the Caribbean with a focus on ccTLDs.

With the support of the FRIDA Program, the project will seek to build a data matrix with the main variables for analyzing the DNS in the region, including contributions from the regional ccTLD community. The data will be processed and analyzed using the DNSRF Analytics Platform and used to generate a set of indicators to identify trends and development opportunities in the DNS ecosystem. The launch of the indicators will be accompanied by the production of a diagnostic report analyzing the trends observed at the time of publication.

The goals of this measurement project are to advance the understanding of the DNS ecosystem, study achievements and development opportunities for the ccTLD community, and document its contribution to digitalization processes in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this sense, the project aims to fill a gap in the information available on the regional DNS.

Aggregating and processing ccTLD registry data in the region will provide key insights and information for studying DNS trends in Latin America and the Caribbean. The results of this exercise are expected to provide value to the actors of the Internet ecosystem as a whole. In its regional role, LACTLD will serve as a trusted platform to facilitate the collection and aggregation of DNS data. In turn, the DNSRF will contribute its technical expertise for data processing, and NIC Chile Labs will participate in the development and analysis of regional indicators.

The indicators to be analyzed will include statistics on market players (registries, ICANN-accredited and non-ICANN-accredited registrars, resellers, etc.), statistics on domain registration and their evolution, trends in domain usage, abuse level indicators, and others to be determined by LACTLD and the DNSRF.

The project will use the DNSRF Data Analytics Platform (or DAP.LIVE) as its primary tool. The platform comprises more than 40 databases on the global DNS and offers advanced functionalities for large-scale data processing and visualization. It will integrate data provided by regional partners to produce the analysis and visualizations required for each indicator.

We believe the study we are promoting presents an opportunity for the regional ccTLD community and for the various actors who are part of the LAC ecosystem, as it seeks to fill a gap in the information available on the regional DNS.

The purpose of the DNS measurements we are conducting is to generate a set of indicators for identifying trends and information of value for the actors in the regional Internet community. The study not only seeks to analyze the evolution of the domain name ecosystem in Latin America and the Caribbean, but also to correlate DNS data with other indicators and information sources at both regional and global levels, thus exploring new ways of measuring the digitization processes within the region.

The results of these measurements are expected to contribute to the development of best practices, policy formulation, and the strengthening of DNS management and operation. These results will impact both the ccTLD community and other actors in the regional ecosystem directly or indirectly operating with the DNS.

The project is currently in its development phase. A few weeks ago, initial results and observations were presented to the ccTLD member community during the LACTLD 2024 Workshop, held in conjunction with the LACNIC 41 meeting in Panama City. The proposal is to move forward with a larger sample of participating ccTLDs to consolidate the development and analysis of the indicators.

This project will rely on LACTLD’s collaborative model, which will facilitate the collection and aggregation of DNS data from the ccTLDs in the region, while the DNSRF will contribute its technical expertise and its Data Analytics Platform (DAP.LIVE). Combined, these elements will ensure that the project has the necessary resources to sustain itself in the long term and can continue to generate relevant results in the field of DNS.