Hi, I'm standing for the Nominet elected Non Executive Director role this year

This is ludicrous. I had no idea of the scale of the entitlement.

How did it ever come to this?

Am I wrong, or was Nominet originally a public body accountable to Parliament like other functions of state?

Shouldn't the UK's namespace be protected and overseen by... the UK?

Who precisely is Nominet accountable to?

 

Well I'm simply a nurse, not part of the domain industry. Does anyone know how this floats? Has Nominet always been profit-making rather than non-profit? Who is Nominet accountable to?

Even ICANN, ultimately, is accountable to the Department of Commerce. Should politicians be lobbied to bring the UK namespace under UK control and oversight and accountability, even if day-to-day administration is delegated to them?

The UK namespace should not just be a private business to be used to cream off profit for its directors. It is part of national infrastructure.

Anyone know the accountabilities?

 

This gives a little insight into who they are accountable to -

Sir Michael Lyons tells .uk registry Nominet: Time to grow up

tl;dr - no one

 

.uk was delegated in 1985 by IANA:
https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/uk.html

Nominet wasn’t formed until 1996 by a guy called Dr Willie Black:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominet_UK

No it’s always been a private company limited by guarantee (no share holders):

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03203859/filing-history

Since 2010 (Digital Economy Bill) the Secretary of State has the power to regulate any internet registry in the UK:

http://domainincite.com/466-nominet-bill-set-for-uk-law

If that registry fails...

Technically the members of the company own the company and the board is accountable to the members who vote at an AGM or call an EGM.

However obviously some members are bigger than other members due to the voting rights policy: https://media.nominet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/58367_votingrightspolicy17052012.pdf

So even if you called an EGM (with 5%) then you wouldn’t be able to pass a special resolution (75% majority) due to the voting rights. At that point the Government would most likely also activate its emergency powers.

 

Thank you for that - and in the three years since that article... has Nominet shown any signs of "growing up"... and into what?

Let me give you an example of the way the general public and ordinary internet users are frankly given reduced status in accessing uk namespace details.

If I want to search uk namespace by domain name, then I can do that through the basic WHOIS.

But if I want to search by registrar - to see what names a registrar has registered, I have to pay £400 for that advanced search. Why?

Why can't ordinary users and the public get easy access to simple searches like that, and access to information about what is, after all, this country's namespace?

I feel happy if day-to-day executive freedom is delegated to the Nominet executive and board and members. But I still think, as guardians and custodians of the country's namespace, they should remain accountable to the people of this country, as represented by Parliament.

Otherwise we will probably end up paying £50 a year per domain, with premium domains being raised to £500 a year.

We need namespace/domains to be as cheap as possible, because that empowers the most people. The other thing that's important is to improve the access ordinary members of the public can get to domains they want to use. Domains should primarily be for use.

 

@Anne Taylor Congratulations on your appointment

 

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You're talking about Anne? She's not that bad, I don't think.

 

Might be helpful to clarify which individual you're referring to, a colourful description doesn't always narrow the field much

Yet unlike the majority of the NEDs we have now (and have had over the years), Anne is one who does attend the Nominet functions/events and talks to the members (as do both Nick and Leanne from Nominet, who always make themselves available) - the rest of the board are mostly "absent" from things where they'd be required to interact

 

I've reached out to Anne a couple of times on LinkedIn and she's always been friendly and receptive.

 

I assume he means former forum member "invincible"

 

Ah, I heard a lot about that guy.

 

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