Civica - Claimed Standards

I think there is no doubt that the voting process operated by Civica was not impartial. This appears to me to contradict their own claims about their services.

According to them, they are "helping organisations deliver secure, trusted elections - bringing integrity to results", undertaking to "deliver results that everyone can trust." They say that "appointing Civica Election Services as your Independent Scrutineer or Returning Officer helps you bring consistency, integrity and transparency to all aspects of your election or ballot."

Why choose their services, they ask: "To bring independence, impartiality and integrity."

"Civica Election Services - Making Democracy Happen." On this point, I seriously question whether it is acceptable, in a democratic process, for a voting form to be partial and biased in favour of one voting option on the voting page, with a supporting video for one of the voting options, while erasing equivalent detail of the second voting option.

Is that impartial? Is that proper democratic process?

 

PS: I'm not advocating the voting process be stopped, because it looks like Public Benefit is winning, but it does seem to me to reflect the contemptuous approach of the Nominet leadership and lack of respect for members, by operating a supposedly democratic voting process which totally lacks impartiality. That much just further demonstrates the very reasons why this leadership needs to be removed.

 

Indeed. I have a feeling that, win or lose, the current EGM will be the first of many. I’d like to see a kind of external members consortium for discussion of other issues that may warrant an EGM, to properly direct Nominet to act on specific points as required by their members.

Such a forum would be open to all members, including Nominet executives, but not controlled or managed by Nominet and completely outside the formal and legally required process - purely a discussion and strawpoll space where support for a measure can be gauged for things that may lead to an EGM, in very much the way that publicbenefit.uk has worked for the current issue.

The average member has, for far too long, had no real say in the day to day running of Nominet. Meanwhile, Nominet execs make decisions that affect how our money is spent behind closed doors. An independent space for discussion of their decisions and gathering opinion in the way that publicbenefit.uk has done would be invaluable for giving the members actual power to push back on decisions we disagree with.

 

I absolutely agree. The executive want a nice controlled mechanism *inside* their company as the platform for any 'controlled' engagement. They then want to ensure that the majority of members only have a fractional influence in their controlled process. I think it would be far better if there was a Members' organisation *outside* Nominet's internal control, influence, pay, and agenda.

I think the campaign Simon Blackler has led demonstrates that members can indeed organise around issues they choose to. Such an external Members' organisation would over time become a go-to for press and media, when issues arise. In addition, it would be really good, on the 'being taken seriously' level, if a section of this external organisation's website was dedicated to thoughtful professional articles on a range of hosting, domain, and other topics.

It just seems obvious that a strong members' organisation should be based *outside* Nominet's control, with its own voice, and arguably one-member one-vote system of representation. Of course, given Nominet may be under new management shortly, there may be a new culture at the top as well.

 

It's quite despicable the one-sided and misleading propaganda Civica Election Services are allowing on their voting platform. See for yourself the landing page for the voting system:
https://secure.cesvotes.com/V3-1-0/nominetEGM21/en/login

 

I did start something like this at https://hostmasters.uk - It's a forum open to all Nominet members to discuss .UK policy, issues and more recently the EGM - all Nominet members are welcome to apply to Join.

All Nominet members are welcome, and it does include former and current NEDs signed up.

I've also been considering how this may be formalised into an organisation, very much inline with what you describe here - perhaps along the lines of a CIC or similar where members can self-organise, collect dues to cover running costs, operate the forum and work to provide collective feedback - in a similar vein to RRsG in ICANN circles.

I've currently been holding off on this idea to see the outcome of the EGM, but I'm certainly open to discussions with anyone who would be interested to flesh out how this might work.

 

I've held off from Hostmasters for the moment, because it seems like I'm required to share my email address with all other members and I'd rather not. Thanks for all you have been hosting, and the chance for people to exchange info and ideas. I think that's great. When the EGM is sorted, I think there's a big conversation to be had about structure of organisation for Nominet members, and I prefer to see a web-based forum with optional messaging system, in preference to a mailing list. But at least you are taking the trouble to set something up and I hope it's been helpful especially these past few weeks. If I've misunderstood anything about your system, I apologise.

What Nominet members do *not* need is a "member's organisation" or representation designed by the present Nominet leadership, which in my own view is obviously designed and intended to 'contain and control' alternative policy direction to their own. What I think they want is a 'rubber stamp' for their own chosen policies, so they can put a 'tick' in the 'tick box' of user engagement, and then just carry on doing what they, the leadership, intended to do all along. To me, that is a trap. Clearly the Nominet leadership have are at present trying to impose their concept (the RAC) but members themselves weren't openly consulted in advance, nor have they voted on it. That sort of exemplfies how Nominet wants to control the agenda on how members should organise, and how they channel their input.

So I really affirm the work you're doing, and the points made by Stitchbob, and I suggest in the wake of the EGM that Simon and many others may want to consider the format (and independence) of a new member's organisation. In my opinion, it should also provide a platform for thoughtful, professional articles which would make it classy. Last point: the very largest registrars (which I think currently have disproportionate influence and relationship with Nominet) should have reduced influence in a Nominet Members' organisation, although of course they would be entitled to input like any other members.

 

To clarify slightly, hostmasters.uk started as a mailing list and has now moved to Discourse (admittedly I haven't fully updated some of the text/terms to fully reflect this but if it's prohibiting discussion I'm all for improvement and feedback!), so while I would see your email address I don't believe this is available to other members via the discourse profile.

I'm more than happy to discuss this further if this is the only thing stopping you joining - just drop me a PM/email -> dan [at] hostmasters.uk

 

This information is private on https://hostmasters.uk

 

Thanks guys. So, bottom line, is my email address hidden from all other members (apart from the site owner)?

Also (less of a deal breaker for me) is Discourse a platform where I can simply follow conversations via webpage, without receiving them by email (because I *really* don't like getting loads of emails, which has tended to happen when I join a mailing list)?

Just to stress, I'm not criticising what you're doing. It's just a matter of my own personal preference.

 

They aren't published separately, and discourse keeps this private (I didn't want to say so without checking from my non-admin account which just did).

By default it is configured to send a lot of emails and mimic a mailing list, but you can easily unsubscribe from the email notifications and use it via the web only.