I'll be at the London Domain Summit - what do you want me to talk about?

[Kieren]

Hi all,

I'll be at the London Domain Summit later this month (https://www.summit.london/)

I'll be on the Main Stage for 40 minutes at 3pm and the rough topic is "Governance of Nominet" seeing as I am a member-elected non-executive director of Nominet.

Here's my question: it's a domainer conference, so what do you most want to know about, hear about, ask questions about?

In my head, there are several things that may make sense, and each would come with a different degree of interaction:

• What my experience has been after one year on the Board, especially given that I have been an observer and frequent critic of Nominet's governance - what I think is working, what I am working on, where I think more work needs to be done

• What governance issues Nominet is facing right now and why they may be of interest to domainers - the biggest topic will be the ongoing Articles consultation (first round of comments close next week - 9 Aug - https://www.nominet.uk/articles/

• Nominet's relationship with domainers and what can be done to improve it

• Topics / issues / ideas for how Nominet can better serve the secondary market - this would be you coming up with suggestions and us discussing them in a back-and-forth

Any preferences for any of those, or other ideas?


Kieren

 

[super-whois]

How about you answer the simple question that has been asked of you?

How long did your screening take with Reed last year?

 

[super-whois]

The question has been asked for over a week on the Nominet forum, along with others. Kieren just prefers to resort to DARVO.

He won't answer at the Summit, I can guarantee that.

 

[Helmuts]

Good morning @Kieren, great initiative!

@super-whois

 

[super-whois]

Good morning @Kieren, great initiative!

https://jimdavies.co.uk/?p=559

Are you endorsing this @Helmuts?

 

[Kieren]

How about you answer the simple question that has been asked of you?

How long did your screening take with Reed last year?

Ok. I guess it will take me an hour or so to go through emails and find the information and I will share that information at the conference.

Now, what would people like to do with the remaining 39 minutes?


Kieren

 

[Whois-Search]

Now, what would people like to do with the remaining 39 minutes?

If I put “domainers” in to TheRegister search box many articles come up from over the years. While I’m not going to personally blame you for writing many of those articles (stuff did happen)…In my opinion many of those articles led to the disconnect between Nominet and the secondary market today.

I get the fact you stood on a platform of bridging the gap in the industry (see your twitter thread) but I think you were voted on the board by larger members. The secondary market were behind @JimDavies who was leading in the first round against you. As is the case today now you sit on the nominations committee at Nominet deciding the election rules.

Also the secondary market has changed:

(1) It is now 2023 and a lot of consolidation has happened - people are even selling platforms and portfolios. The game keepers are now the poachers. In fact the aftermarket and expiry period is one of the most highest revenue earners for a large registrar. Sedo for example will be at the conference and they are owned by United Internet.

(2) Consolidation is also happening amongst the Nominet membership. Yet another merger last month with Google Domains going to Squarespace. Therefore I think you will find if you order the latest Nominet voting rights CSV by votes (DUM + Equal Vote) you will see many secondary market companies at the very top of the membership eg. Media Elite Holdings now has 200,000 domains.

(3) The threat of regulation which you first wrote about here in 2012 as “Nominet 'sought govt protection from takeover by domain hawkers'” has reared its ugly head again in 2023. As I understand it the government wishes to take section 19-21 of the DEA 2010 act and turn it in to a statutory instrument. Passing it through Parliament in Q1 2024. Read the Nominet blog here supporting the consultation.

So although many of the faces haven’t changed over the years the industry certainly has. You can’t teach a DNMUM how to suck eggs and remember your audience when you do your speech.

Good luck.

 

[isurveyor]

What are you views on providing discounts on new registrations and domain renewals to encourage further uptake in .co.uk's and .uk

 

[diablo]

What are you views on providing discounts on new registrations and domain renewals to encourage further uptake in .co.uk's and .uk

Might be just me, but the Promotions link on the Registrar online services dashboard doesn't appear to work any more.

 

[Whois-Search]

Might be just me, but the Promotions link on the Registrar online services dashboard doesn't appear to work any more.

Promotions stopped for a financial year when the board had to write off Cyglass etc. Last year Nominet made a £4.4 million loss - see page 9.

Knowing Nominet, I expect prices will be going up and not down

The latest board report from Nominet does indicate that way:

.UK Pricing Review – Eleanor Bradley (MD-Registry & Public Benefit) provided the Board with a summary of market and economic factors that are impacting the registry’s cost base. The Board acknowledged the broader economic conditions had become increasingly challenging over the past 12 months and decided to discuss the matter further at the November Board meeting.

However officially the board will make a decision in November (after the AGM in October).

I would be interested to know the total number of .co.uk's and .uk's registrations year on year, as I am sure lots of large portfolios have been dropped recently due to the fact Nominet haven't offered any promotions since 2021.

.UK Statistics are here for 2023.

Previous years on bottom of here.

 

[Nigel]

Ok. I guess it will take me an hour or so to go through emails and find the information and I will share that information at the conference.

Now, what would people like to do with the remaining 39 minutes?

Kieren

First of all Kieren I'd like to say that I used to enjoy reading your articles in the Register. Good journalism - particularly when it concerned nominet and all it's goings on. And I think this screening of nominet election candidates might have made your ears prick up back then, and I think it merits full investigation now.

Why is it election candidates voted on by the members are screened? When was this introduced and by whom. Was there any discussion on this subject? Was there any public announcement at the time?

I've looked at reed screening website and I can only find a page on pre-employment screening and a number of checks they may undertake for a company/organisation. Do we know what checks reed are undertaking for nominet? - does it mirror the pre-employment screening checks shown on their website? One of the pre-employment checks is for 'activism' and weeding out people who might be in conflict with the aims of the company/organisation. Is that included? Do nominet tell the candidates what they are being screened for? A person classed as an activist might be just the person who is the members choice to look into things like pay, bonuses, book publication fees, registration costs, the .uk rollout debacle and the long term effects on the uk domain aftermarket, and not forgetting multi millions lost on failed commercial ventures.

So can we have answers from nominet on this screening, what it entails and who is responsible for introducing it, and if it is 'ultra vires' as someone has suggested it needs to be dropped quickly. Nominet should not have the right to block a members vote because they deem the candidate unacceptable to them, whether it is because of the person's views, or due to other factors (such as a credit check, social media activity etc - these are listed also). In my opinion this is a very important matter and not to be treated lightly. Let the members decide if someone is worthy to be elected.

 

[DomainManage]

So those stats generally show a steady decline in .co.uk and increase in .uk this year, interesting.

 

[diablo]

• Auth code for transfer - actioning it ASAP
• Bulk reg ability with nominet
• Pricing offer to encourage adoption

You can already register up to 100 names at a time via Nominet. I'm sure that could easily be increased if there was a demand.

 

[diablo]

Ok - i didn't even realise you could do 100. Thanks for the heads up

Yes, when you click on CREATE A DOMAIN in Web Domain Manager (Online Services), you'll see there is an Add Multiple Domains option.

 

[KevDI]

Hello,

I was invited to join this forum this evening but it turned out I already had an account. Goodness knows why or when I created one, but here I am!

Kieren, I'm curious to know whether IFFOR is still operational.

GoDaddy took over the .xxx Registry Agreement when it bought ICM in 2021, and IFFOR seems to have stopped updating its web sites, such as iffor.org and atfirstsite.org, not long after. It hasn't posted any board minutes since 2018, despite you saying on Acorn that you would update them during the election last year..

We really don't know whether IFFOR has done anything in the last couple of years, or even whether it exists any more.

And the .xxx Registry Agreement with ICANN was due to expire at the end of 2021, but has been extended a few times for reasons that have not been disclosed.

Are the facts that IFFOR is apparently dormant and that .xxx can't seem to sign a new RA related?

Just me being curious!

We can talk about it privately at the Summit if you don't want to be transparent here.

 

[Helmuts]

Hello,

I was invited to join this forum this evening but it turned out I already had an account. Goodness knows why or when I created one, but here I am!

Kieren, I'm curious to know whether IFFOR is still operational.

GoDaddy took over the .xxx Registry Agreement when it bought ICM in 2021, and IFFOR seems to have stopped updating its web sites, such as iffor.org and atfirstsite.org, not long after. It hasn't posted any board minutes since 2018, despite you saying on Acorn that you would update them during the election last year..

We really don't know whether IFFOR has done anything in the last couple of years, or even whether it exists any more.

And the .xxx Registry Agreement with ICANN was due to expire at the end of 2021, but has been extended a few times for reasons that have not been disclosed.

Are the facts that IFFOR is apparently dormant and that .xxx can't seem to sign a new RA related?

Just me being curious!

We can talk about it privately at the Summit if you don't want to be transparent here.

Good morning Kevin Yes, you do have an account and a really old one

 

[Kieren]

Ok, thank you all for this.

So here's my takeaway from your responses, plus what I want to cover. Here's what I'm thinking - roughly


* Quick rundown from me about my experience on the Nominet Board after one year (5 mins)

* Quick rundown on the Articles consultation and why I think you should all respond to it (although the initial consultation will have finished by then - it ends 9 August - go here if you want to take a look, respond: https://www.nominet.uk/articles/ (5 mins)

* Questions about Nominet (10 mins)
- Board thinking on promotions
- Board thinking on pricing
- Recent election saga including Qs on screening

* State of the .UK market -- interactive session (15 mins)
- Trends - consolidation, changes to market
- What role of Nominet could/should/might be in .uk market
- Specific issues - Auth (would like to know more) etc

* Questions (5 mins)


Sounds about right?


Kieren

-----------

Re: IFFOR where I am Executive Director.

IFFOR continues to do the same work it has was set up to do: check on .xxx policies and their effectiveness; do an annual audit; run a grants program; develop policies and do related work that fit it with our remit.

We did expect the .xxx contract between ICM Registry and ICANN to be revisited both at the end of 2021 and 2022. ICANN has extended the contract both times. We now expect it to be revisit at the end of this year. IFFOR does not have a say or any particular insight into those negotiations, so we continue to do the job we were set up to do.

In terms of other work, we have a big launch planned for the start of the new school year over our AtFirstSite program, which was first developed in 2016 and will soon be in its fourth iteration. It's a really good course and I'm proud of it.

 

[KevDI]

Your big launch sounds great Kieren!

Lots of luck.

Maybe just update your sites like you said you would so I don't have to deal with people calling you out for your bullshit.

 

[JimDavies]

Re: IFFOR where I am Executive Director.

IFFOR continues to do the same work it has was set up to do: check on .xxx policies and their effectiveness; do an annual audit; run a grants program; develop policies and do related work that fit it with our remit.

We did expect the .xxx contract between ICM Registry and ICANN to be revisited both at the end of 2021 and 2022. ICANN has extended the contract both times. We now expect it to be revisit at the end of this year. IFFOR does not have a say or any particular insight into those negotiations, so we continue to do the job we were set up to do.

In terms of other work, we have a big launch planned for the start of the new school year over our AtFirstSite program, which was first developed in 2016 and will soon be in its fourth iteration. It's a really good course and I'm proud of it.[/QUOTE]

Just wondering if you could please link me to the grants program and a list of recipients? Many thanks

 

[KevDI]

https://iffor.org/grants/