.UK Announced

[anthony]

It isn't a Labour or Conservative issue mate, Nominet have a history of in my opinion an innapropirate relationship with the Civil Service. I believe one who was involved in the private email address scandal to avoid the Freedom of Information act, went on to work at Nominet when he left the Civil Service. He no longer works there now, spat out as of no further use maybe?

So it isn't a political issue as such, it's a Civil Servants problem. Imagine "Yes Prime Minister" in real life.

Very true, which in a way is what I was trying to imply. No political party has ever really understood what Nominet is about, I don't see that changing much to be honest.

In all seriousness, what really meaningful things have Nominet ever actually achieved over the past 10-12 years? I cannot think of a single action by them which stands out for end users. And I've never considered the 'charity' as an achievement, any muppet can give money away like that!

 

[Edwin]

In all seriousness, what really meaningful things have Nominet ever actually achieved over the past 10-12 years? I cannot think of a single action by them which stands out for end users. And I've never considered the 'charity' as an achievement, any muppet can give money away like that!

Keeping registration prices stable while .com has gone up, up, up like an escalator every single year. And the DRS is generally viewed to be better than UDRP.

I am 100% opposed to Nominet's handling of direct.uk, but I am not going to conflate that with automatically saying everything they've ever done is bad!

 

[markb]

Maybe nominet need a wider variety of people on its board, so that better decisions can be made in future which dont conflict with their personal interests.

 

[Stephen]

Maybe nominet need a wider variety of people on its board, so that better decisions can be made in future which dont conflict with their personal interests.

Board members without knowledge of domain names are potentially dangerous as can be seen from the Nominet registrar webcast video with the non exec chair.

When Board members regard a domain as a commodity and growth and profits as a measure of success you are heading for trouble.

Although I can see personal interest being an issue, you maybe need somebody retired from those related sectors who has the knowledge.

The executive needs to be held account in all of this, as they should be explaining the potential consequences to the board and governemnt before it got to a consultation document.

On the other hand the board didnt seem to ask many probing questions before the consultation was issued and later they applauded the executive for a good job in getting to a wide range of stake holders?

 

[Stephen]

Nominet not getting everything right

Keeping registration prices stable while .com has gone up, up, up like an escalator every single year. And the DRS is generally viewed to be better than UDRP.

I am 100% opposed to Nominet's handling of direct.uk, but I am not going to conflate that with automatically saying everything they've ever done is bad!

Agree and Nominet have been very pleasant to deal until now with but I also believe that the .wales should be left to the welsh government to take the financial risk and Nominet should be acting as a registrar at commerical rates of fees.

In addition should all of the £ million's surpluses get distributed when clearly there is a need to combat internet security issues (wider than the .uk) in a variety of ways (not just DNDSEC and malware) and those funds could have gone a long way to improve the situation.

Nominet is a not-for-profit organization not a charitable trust.

 

[markb]

In addition should all of the £ million's surpluses get distributed when clearly there is a need to combat internet security issues (wider than the .uk) in a variety of ways (not just DNDSEC and malware) and those funds could have gone a long way to improve the situation.

Nominet is a not-for-profit organization not a charitable trust.

Agree with this, Nominet are giving our money to charity and then trying to get more money off us for new domain extensions which arent needed, and then will give this money to charity. Somethings definately wrong with this.

If businesses wanted to donate to charity, they will and it should be their decision, not nominets.

 

[Nigel]

'legal advice' was from Nominet's 'in house legal team'

Here's the latest reply from Eleanor Bradley, COO at Nominet. It confirms that even the legal advice they got was from their own 'in house legal team'. I have written again to Ed Vaizey (copied to Stephen McPartland) and I've also asked him whether the 'key stakeholders' who helped 'refine' Nominet's consultation back in August 2012 included any Registrars who might profit from the sale of direct.uk if it proceeds.

Dear Nigel,

In answer to your questions.

The legal advice relating to the Data Protection Act was taken from our in house legal team. Nominet employs two qualified lawyers both of whom are experienced in contract law and Data Protection related matters. I am afraid that it is not the case that any third party has a “right” to receive a copy of this advice. I can confirm that Nominet’s Board approved both the consultation document in the form published and the consultation process. The process, as designed by the executive did not include a recommendation to contact every registrant of an existing .uk domain as it was felt that such mass emailing was inappropriate action for a domain name registry to take and instead set out to garner views from a broad range of stakeholders.

We have just completed the consultation on direct.uk, this is a genuine consultation and no decision has been taken on whether to proceed with direct.uk in its current or an alternative form. Similarly, no decision has been taken on how registrants of existing .uk domain names will be made aware of the launch of direct.uk if the decision is to proceed.

Kind regards

Eleanor

 

[Stephen]

Nominet stance?

....The process, as designed by the executive did not include a recommendation to contact every registrant of an existing .uk domain as it was felt that such mass emailing was inappropriate action for a domain name registry to take and instead set out to garner views from a broad range of stakeholders......[/I]

Thanks for sharing your reply and having the tenacity to keep chasing.

It is not clear to me whether Nominet are now saying it was against the law, which was there line until now or they are changing it to, it was simply not the right thing to do in their view?

Maybe the latter as maybe their internal legal advise was legally wrong?

...... Similarly, no decision has been taken on how registrants of existing .uk domain names will be made aware of the launch of direct.uk if the decision is to proceed...

That is contary to what Nominet has stated so far at several roundtable meetings, when they stated they would email registrants if it went ahead but could not explain the change on how that would not be effected by the law on email sending yet the email on consultation was not possible under the law.

It does not make any sense not to email registrants if they were to proceed as virtually the only people who would be aware of the .uk launch would be domainers?

and the consequences many people have speculated about different .uk and .co.uk ownership would be more widespread than anybody would have predicted?

I think it just shows even more effort is needed to make Nominet see the big picture.

 

[foz]

Board members without knowledge of domain names are potentially dangerous as can be seen from the Nominet registrar webcast video with the non exec chair.

To my mind the only board members that are worthy of the position are ones that eat, breath and sleep domain names. Ex bankers need not apply.

 

[Nigel]

Thanks for sharing your reply and having the tenacity to keep chasing.

It is not clear to me whether Nominet are now saying it was against the law, which was there line until now or they are changing it to, it was simply not the right thing to do in their view?

Maybe the latter as maybe their internal legal advise was legally wrong?

That is contary to what Nominet has stated so far at several roundtable meetings, when they stated they would email registrants if it went ahead but could not explain the change on how that would not be effected by the law on email sending yet the email on consultation was not possible under the law.

It does not make any sense not to email registrants if they were to proceed as virtually the only people who would be aware of the .uk launch would be domainers?

and the consequences many people have speculated about different .uk and .co.uk ownership would be more widespread than anybody would have predicted?

I think it just shows even more effort is needed to make Nominet see the big picture.

Yes I agree that they seem to have muddied the waters there a little - seem to be shifting away from the purely 'legal advice' reason originally given to me. As you say its probably not a strong position particularly as we now have in writing that the advice was from their own employees, and they are in a dilemma as they don't know how they're going to contact existing registrants (which they'll need to to maximise auction revenue, maximise reg fees etc) if direct.uk proceeds because they had already said, in writing and at roundtables, that it was against the law to mass email.

 

[anthony]

But aren't Nominet completely missing the point, this is not a stakeholder issue, it is a registrant issue. It is they who stand to be affected bu .uk, yet Nominet haven't made any attempt to inform registrants of it's proposals. Suitable advertising in the Press and technical media is where it should be spending its money, for once!

Here's the latest reply from Eleanor Bradley, COO at Nominet. It confirms that even the legal advice they got was from their own 'in house legal team'. I have written again to Ed Vaizey (copied to Stephen McPartland) and I've also asked him whether the 'key stakeholders' who helped 'refine' Nominet's consultation back in August 2012 included any Registrars who might profit from the sale of direct.uk if it proceeds.

Dear Nigel,

In answer to your questions.

The legal advice relating to the Data Protection Act was taken from our in house legal team. Nominet employs two qualified lawyers both of whom are experienced in contract law and Data Protection related matters. I am afraid that it is not the case that any third party has a “right” to receive a copy of this advice. I can confirm that Nominet’s Board approved both the consultation document in the form published and the consultation process. The process, as designed by the executive did not include a recommendation to contact every registrant of an existing .uk domain as it was felt that such mass emailing was inappropriate action for a domain name registry to take and instead set out to garner views from a broad range of stakeholders.

We have just completed the consultation on direct.uk, this is a genuine consultation and no decision has been taken on whether to proceed with direct.uk in its current or an alternative form. Similarly, no decision has been taken on how registrants of existing .uk domain names will be made aware of the launch of direct.uk if the decision is to proceed.

Kind regards

Eleanor

 

[foz]

But aren't Nominet completely missing the point, this is not a stakeholder issue, it is a registrant issue. It is they who stand to be affected bu .uk, yet Nominet haven't made any attempt to inform registrants of it's proposals. Suitable advertising in the Press and technical media is where it should be spending its money, for once!

I believe Nominet think stakeholders include registrants but have not had the enthusiasm to let them know about the consultation. Perhaps if they hadn't given away all that dough to charity they would have had funds for a marketing campaign rather than just issuing the occasional press statement in the vein hopes it would be picked up.

 

[Nigel]

...Suitable advertising in the Press and technical media is where it should be spending its money, for once!

I'm sure they'll do plenty of that if they can get direct.uk launched

 

[foz]

I'm sure they'll do plenty of that if they can get direct.uk launched

Nah, they will just email each registrant

 

[Edwin]

But aren't Nominet completely missing the point, this is not a stakeholder issue, it is a registrant issue. It is they who stand to be affected bu .uk, yet Nominet haven't made any attempt to inform registrants of it's proposals. Suitable advertising in the Press and technical media is where it should be spending its money, for once!

Is it still considered "missing the point" if Nominet deliberately try and miss it because it serves their interest to do so?

 

[Stephen]

follow up ?

Yes I agree that they seem to have muddied the waters there a little - seem to be shifting away from the purely 'legal advice' reason originally given to me. As you say its probably not a strong position particularly as we now have in writing that the advice was from their own employees, and they are in a dilemma as they don't know how they're going to contact existing registrants (which they'll need to to maximise auction revenue, maximise reg fees etc) if direct.uk proceeds because they had already said, in writing and at roundtables, that it was against the law to mass email.

Perphaps if you have the strenght left, follow up and ask for clarification on the issues she raised compared to the previous answers Nominet have provided on these issues ?

 

[Stephen]

Nominet Trust spending money - but not with UK namespace

Today £1m+ spent by Nominet Trust

http://www.nominettrust.org.uk/news-events/news/more-%C2%A31-million-to-support-young-people

I wish Nominet would promote UK namespace with the money they spend, see which websites the winners of the grants use, out of 19 recipients : 8 don't use the UK namespace (of which 6 of 8 could use the equivalent .org.uk) and 1 unknown. :

A Very Good Company - averygoodcompany.com - .org.uk available
Action in rural Sussex - ruralsussex.org.uk
Alive Activities - aliveactivities.org - .org.uk owned and redirected to .org
Ashram Housing Association - ashramha.org.uk
Canterbury Christ Church University - canterbury.ac.uk
Catch22 - catch-22.org.uk
Dyslexia Action - dyslexiaaction.org.uk
Eastern Enterprise Hub - eehub.co.uk
ivo.org (Red Trust) ivo.org - .org.uk reg 29-4-2012 by Sedo.com
Keyfund Federation Limited - keyfund.org.uk
Middlesex University - mdx.ac.uk
Room for Tea Ltd - roomfortea.com- .org.uk available
sixteen25 - ? unknown tld
The Winchester Project - thewinch.org - .org.uk available


Unlock Democracy - unlockdemocracy.org.uk
The SROI Network - thesroinetwork.org - .org.uk available
Participle - participle.net - .org.uk registered 2006
The Memory Box Network Ltd - memoryboxnetwork.org - .org.uk available
Citizens Online - citizensonline.org.uk

 

[foz]

I have posted a thread in the Exclusive area relating to this topic.

 

[Stephen]

infosecurity-magazine.com article

New article - but same negative message on .uk proposal

http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/30286/nominets-proposals-for-a-more-secure-domain-suffix-under-fire

Nominet, the UK’s internet domain registrar, has proposed a new, more secure direct .uk suffix for the UK; but these proposals have been heavily and widely criticized.

 

[Nigel]

New article - but same negative message on .uk proposal

http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/30286/nominets-proposals-for-a-more-secure-domain-suffix-under-fire

Good article - people are starting to see the dangers of nominet's proposals. Takes a few months for all this to start surfacing.