ZISPA (The Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association) is a name that anyone trying to understand the domain registration dynamics in Zimbabwe will have probably heard of.
It’s the non-profit collective of internet service providers which has been the focal point for some limited lobbying efforts while mostly being involved in the administration of local domain names like the co.zw sub-domain.
However, in the past, ZISPA has had its fair share of challenges managing its own website because of some cases of downtime, something that’s a major problem since people have to access the site to verify domain name availability.
Another one of its shortcomings has been a very bland website that doesn’t shine the best sort of light on Zimbabwean web services. These concerns have been raised by local internet users for a while now.
Anyone trying to access the ZISPA site since December 2015 might have noticed that the website hasn’t been available resulting in people who need its web-based services turning to other domain service providers like name.co.zw to verify and secure domains.
When we got in touch with ZISPA, one of the team members, Bali Ndlovu pointed out that they had taken down the old website which was no longer in tune with the demands of a modern web platform.
According to Ndlovu, since December 2015, they have been working on an improved platform with a revamped user interface and better user experience. The new ZISPA site is expected to be ready in early February and the ZISPA team is hoping that it can deliver convenience that matches the changes in the way people access domain registration services.
From the looks of things, this is an adaption to the changes in local domain registration space where other service providers are pretty much filling the gap that ZISPA initially addressed on its own some four years ago.
The promises of an updated website sound encouraging and from what ZISPA has shared so far, they seem to have some improvements to their service lined up. However, this is something that we’ll be keen on observing since ZISPA has promised updates in the past that didn’t bring any changes.
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7 comments
LMAO thats bad – they should have left the old one up with a note to that effect or put up a holding page saying such. Should we really be trusting these guys with domain registrations to start with?
True, that is a big red flag right there. What sane organisation takes a website offline whilst the replacement is still being developed?
I think something broke, they couldn’t fix it so they started looking at a replacement.
True. Why take down the old site which was plain, but functional, to put a doomsday counter. I bet the developer was paid for that “Under Construction” page, it’s just padding invoices to justify costs.
I do not buy that! So you take what is working and replace it with what? What a way of showing leadership.
Zispa is selling yellow snow here!
ZISPA guys don’t know nothing, the don’t even know where their offices are, its a damn shame I would actually advise anybody to go see anyone else but ZISPA in fact rather register your domain with godaddy.com or hostgator.com or domain.com
Reckless Ren – you are Reckless in thought, speech and I have no doubt action
Do you even know what you’re talking about?
Do you know what ZISPA is? Who administers the .co.zw space? Even if godaddy et al registered .co.zw domains(which I doubt), who do you think they would go to to register the domains?
Go drink mahewu or something