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.
