.UK Announced

[websaway]

lets' just face it - domain.uk is better than domain.co.uk

why fight it, we need to move with the times...

One world, one people, would be nice but it's a bit difficult when the lines have already been drawn through evolution.

 

[aZooZa]

It was in one of the discussion points somewhere, I can't remember which one, but there was something about restricting to registrars meeting quality & capability requirements (no doubt in reality just the "big" ones)

Look for another ruckus on this should the ridiculous proposal go through.

 

[Edwin]

I wonder if the supposed delay has come about because the initial discussion was "too close to call" with no clear-cut outcome.

After all, it must be easy from a PR perspective to prepare for an out-and-out "no" and an unchanged, proceed as per initial consultation "yes". There's no need to wait for the outcomes of a particular meeting to stockpile possible press releases and associated documents for both "extremes" of the possible results spectrum (just like newspapers don't wait for famous older people to die before getting cracking on their obituaries, then stockpiling them against the "inevitable day" when they actually get published).

Of course, we're going to find out soon enough - whether it's hours or days - but perhaps the delay's a modestly good sign (or a modestly bad sign).

 

[stevebrowne]

Maybe the board is split.

The consultation says NO but certain board members want it to be YES. I could imagine that would be a long meeting...

Do we have a list of twitter accounts/blogs or anything for the whole board in case something has been slipped?

 

[cm1975]

I wonder if the supposed delay has come about because the initial discussion was "too close to call" with no clear-cut outcome.

I would have thought the further consultation option would have been the result of a tied or marginal outcome??

 

[websaway]

Maybe resignations.

 

[Edwin]

I would have thought the further consultation option would have been the result of a tied or marginal outcome??

Those in the "yes to direct.uk camp" must realise that the more people they ask, the more "no" is going to be dominant. Imagine asking the owners of all 10,000,000 existing .co.uk domains for example (assuming that the repercussions of direct.uk are explained clearly and simply enough).

More consultation means more chances for Nominet to get hauled up in Parliament, exposed in the mass media, etc. even while collecting more and more negative responses to the whole concept.

I could be wrong (we're all guessing here I believe) but I feel that "more consultation needed" is the least likely of all outcomes.

The folks at Nominet can perhaps be accused of many things: greed, short-sightedness, a willingness to disregard the prevailing public opinion, etc. But stupidity? I don't think so... and it would be a genuinely stupid move to re-open the consultation process and invite another round of public pillorying.

 

[Stephen]

Maybe the board is split.
The consultation says NO but certain board members want it to be YES. I could imagine that would be a long meeting...

I don't think Nominet would change the Consultation response document after it was presented to the Board but I doubt it has a recommendation yet it may have a summary of YES / No's in a biased way as the questions were originally framed for a YES vote.

Nominet have stated they will release the Consultation summary at the same time as the board decision on .uk, so hopefully we will see both soon!

 

[Stephen]

Nominet prepared briefing paper for Parliament

I did receive today a Nominet prepared briefing paper for Parliament dated February 2013 about Nominet's handling of the .uk consultation.

Basically a reprint of the "'.uk consultation Nominet website section and their related FAQ's" but at least they know people from above are watching them and taking an interest.

Note this is not the conculsion only the .uk consultation process.

 

[markb]

It is obvious that over 90% of the responses to the consultation period will be a BIG "No". So to be able to push it through still, they are going to have to change the proposal significantly, so maybe they are just trying to agree on the finer implementation details, before they announce.

 

[Edwin]

I don't think Nominet would change the Consultation response document after it was presented to the Board but I doubt it has a recommendation yet it may have a summary of YES / No's in a biased way as the questions were originally framed for a YES vote.

Nominet have stated they will release the Consultation summary at the same time as the board decision on .uk, so hopefully we will see both soon!

I agree. It's unlikely the Secretariat would want to take on the responsibility of providing a single, clear-cut, unambiguous recommendation, because then the buck clearly stops with them.

As Stephen says, it's more likely they've produced a "wide range of opinions" document, designed to facilitate any decision the Board wishes, and with a consequent dampening down of the criticism aimed at the proposal. This was already evidenced at the face-to-face meetings at the summing up stage, where the Chair tried to close things off with a "Well, as we can see there have been views both for and against _____" something which I pointed out at the time was an inaccurate summary of the arguments expressed only minutes before.

It's like the different ways of taking an "average" from a set of data:
- 1, 2, 3, 4 and 40 - mean is 10.
- 1, 2, 3, 4 and 40 - median is 3.

In other words, you can manipulate one strong opinion that's contrary to the norm and make it "counterbalance" the other arguments if you care to massage the reality of the situation enough.

 

[Edwin]

It is obvious that over 90% of the responses to the consultation period will be a BIG "No". So to be able to push it through still, they are going to have to change the proposal significantly, so maybe they are just trying to agree on the finer implementation details, before they announce.

Unfortunately, that will probably never be "obvious" since we won't get to see the 500+ consultations that weren't published anywhere. Oh, I agree with your assessment entirely, but PROVING it? Now that's unfortunately another matter entirely...

 

[websaway]

Those in the "yes to direct.uk camp" must realise that the more people they ask, the more "no" is going to be dominant. Imagine asking the owners of all 10,000,000 existing .co.uk domains for example (assuming that the repercussions of direct.uk are explained clearly and simply enough).

More consultation means more chances for Nominet to get hauled up in Parliament, exposed in the mass media, etc. even while collecting more and more negative responses to the whole concept.

I could be wrong (we're all guessing here I believe) but I feel that "more consultation needed" is the least likely of all outcomes.

The folks at Nominet can perhaps be accused of many things: greed, short-sightedness, a willingness to disregard the prevailing public opinion, etc. But stupidity? I don't think so... and it would be a genuinely stupid move to re-open the consultation process and invite another round of public pillorying.

When you consider this whole fiasco I can't see how you rule out the stupid bit.
After all the lack of other qualities you allude to amount to stupidity

 

[Nigel]

It's interesting when you look at the FOI release from August 2012. Nominet are in discussion with a Government department - obviously anxious to get them on board. Of course the Government dep't are going to like the idea of a more secure domain space - but there is no mention in that email that Nominet were proposing to use the shorter .uk domain. I wonder when Nominet first broke the news to Government officials that they proposed offering the new secure service on the shorter .uk version - thus relegating .co.uk, .org.uk and .ac.uk etc?

I think it is likely that the Information Commissioner would have been one of the 'key stakeholders' worthy of being copied the draft document back in August. Nominet won't tell us who the 'key stakeholders' were but we all owe the Information Commissioner a great deal of gratitude. Whilst Nominet, never mentioned the detrimental effect the new domain could have on existing domains - either in the consultation process or document or in any of the meetings, the ICO could see beyond Nominet's words and actions and said:

'We assume that Nominet will be planning to ensure that the introduction of direct.uk domains does not have a detrimental effect on the reputation of existing domains.'

http://www.ico.gov.uk/about_us/cons...onsultation_on_a_new_domain_name_service.ashx

 

[ANY-Web]

The folks at Nominet can perhaps be accused of many things: greed, short-sightedness, a willingness to disregard the prevailing public opinion, etc. But stupidity? I don't think so... and it would be a genuinely stupid move to re-open the consultation process and invite another round of public pillorying.

Edwin - re-opening the consultation process is the most likely result in my view. Nominet is likely to follow the model of the New Zealand .nz consultation period, which started on 30th May 2012 and closed on 27th September 2012.
This is around 4 months ahead of Nominet's timetable for .UK and is now going into a phase of further research and crucially a second round of consultation in 2013:
http://dnc.org.nz/second_level_proposal_c1_update?m=309
We should expect Nominet to consult further and taking a while to make a considered decision.

 

[Stephen]

Edwin - re-opening the consultation process is the most likely result in my view. Nominet is likely to follow the model of the New Zealand .nz consultation period, which started on 30th May 2012 and closed on 27th September 2012.
This is around 4 months ahead of Nominet's timetable for .UK and is now going into a phase of further research and crucially a second round of consultation in 2013:
http://dnc.org.nz/second_level_proposal_c1_update?m=309
We should expect Nominet to consult further and taking a while to make a considered decision.

Before that there will be an Nominet AGM which should be part of the Boards thinking!

 

[foz]

Edwin - re-opening the consultation process is the most likely result in my view. Nominet is likely to follow the model of the New Zealand .nz consultation period, which started on 30th May 2012 and closed on 27th September 2012.
This is around 4 months ahead of Nominet's timetable for .UK and is now going into a phase of further research and crucially a second round of consultation in 2013:
http://dnc.org.nz/second_level_proposal_c1_update?m=309
We should expect Nominet to consult further and taking a while to make a considered decision.

I think the DNC are waiting for Nominet to blink before it discusses .nz further.

 

[Nigel]

Before that there will be an Nominet AGM which should be part of the Boards thinking!

And they'll also have to release registration numbers soon - which will, I imagine, show that they are now in decline (suspended domains from a renewal date of 1st Oct 2012 will have started dropping from 1st week of January)

 

[websaway]

Edwin - re-opening the consultation process is the most likely result in my view. Nominet is likely to follow the model of the New Zealand .nz consultation period, which started on 30th May 2012 and closed on 27th September 2012.
This is around 4 months ahead of Nominet's timetable for .UK and is now going into a phase of further research and crucially a second round of consultation in 2013:
http://dnc.org.nz/second_level_proposal_c1_update?m=309
We should expect Nominet to consult further and taking a while to make a considered decision.

New Zealand Population 4 million. A lot less than the west midlands.

 

[Stephen]

Growth?

And they'll also have to release registration numbers soon - which will, I imagine, show that they are now in decline (suspended domains from a renewal date of 1st Oct 2012 will have started dropping from 1st week of January)

Totally agree, especially Piers White how made a massive play for the growth of Uk was a sign of its success and the 9%+ growth rate and year on year growth, 2nd ctld biggest in the world etc...

See the April 2012 (not 1 year ago) Press release for growing .co.uk with the new campaign of "a Great place to be"

http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/press-releases/nominet-targets-offline-businesses-uk-brand-push

The last line :

The campaign is targeted with increasing the annual growth rate of the .uk register - currently at 9.3%.

So yes, Nominet have not succeded in their stated aim by a long way.