Public Purpose and Trust?

[Stephen]

After being more involved in Nominet matters in the last year due to .uk, I believe that Nominet have lost their way.

As eventually all decisions about the UK namespace by Nominet effect domainers here and the broader namespace in which we operate.

This question is about whether Nominet are still acting with the role of "public purpose" and do they have the "trust" of those here?

I wonder what the rest of the members of Acorn think?

 

[Stephen]

The Nominet front line staff are great.

Thanks for that reminder, I agree with that, when they are not hampered by Nominet politics.

 

[Edwin]

You're missing the possible answer "No Nominet do not act with Public Purpose, but I Trust them"

I'm not saying anyone would choose that, but as it stands there's a clear asymmetry in the poll answers.

 

[Stephen]

Extra choice

You're missing the possible answer "No Nominet do not act with Public Purpose, but I Trust them"

I'm not saying anyone would choose that, but as it stands there's a clear asymmetry in the poll answers.

Sorry you are correct, I did have it in and then I changed it to "Don't care, I just get on with it "

Have tried to edit but cannot seem to get access to edit poll, maybe as such an edit could be abused.

If Admin or Moderator is listening, could they please add Edwin's suggestion as a choice, thanks.

 

[monaghan]

I'd echo this, those doing the day to day working are great, it's the ones in the big offices and getting the big bonuses that are the ones I worry about. Policy should be separated from the business of running the registry, by all means (if justified) run bonus schemes on the company operation, but don't confuse the policy decisions with commercial decisions.

 

[tifosi]

Somehow a lot of the trust issue it seems is from having board members who are ceo's of companies who are directly set to gain at a personal and corporate level from any major strategic move.

Whether they directly influence the boards strategic decision making is immaterial - and declaring interests in meetings and leaving the room is both naive and innefective in assuaging that distrust if they are there for the other 99% of the time as board members. It's the fact they are there which is most disturbing. If the board wants governance to move to a more recognised uk standard then that mismatch of interests vs strategic influence has to be dealt with.

There are plenty of other 'professionals' with expertise who would provide a more suitable influence.

 

[Stephen]

message to Nominet

There are plenty of other 'professionals' with expertise who would provide a more suitable influence.

Yet due to the setup of voting, the large UK registrars with weighted voting as we found this year, will dictate who actually gets elected to the Nominet Board.

Also I would sprinkle a word of caution about the type of influence, after seeing an ex-Banker at the registrar meeting on the board, stressing the need for growth at Nominet via .uk.

I think with a monopoly of domains ending in .uk and an established 10,000,000 domains, Nominet need to rethink what they should be doing from the very top.

Hopefully the results of this poll is a message to Nominet on "the need for change" and how to act going forward, with only 3.13% of the votes* saying they trust Nominet.

* Based on 32 votes cast at 9.30 am 05 09 2013.

 

[Brassneck]

Yet due to the setup of voting, the large UK registrars with weighted voting as we found this year, will dictate who actually gets elected to the Nominet Board.

Also I would sprinkle a word of caution about the type of influence, after seeing an ex-Banker at the registrar meeting on the board, stressing the need for growth at Nominet via .uk.

I think with a monopoly of domains ending in .uk and an established 10,000,000 domains, Nominet need to rethink what they should be doing from the very top.

Hopefully the results of this poll is a message to Nominet on "the need for change" and how to act going forward, with only 3.13% of the votes* saying they trust Nominet.

* Based on 32 votes cast at 9.30 am 05 09 2013.

Stephen - a vote based on a self selected sample of 32 'domainers' is hardly meaningful. Such nonsense undermines the credibilty of any of the decent arguments you have put forward elsewhere.

 

[tifosi]

Also I would sprinkle a word of caution about the type of influence, after seeing an ex-Banker at the registrar meeting on the board, stressing the need for growth at Nominet via .uk.

IT / Science s a big field. Having the ceo of a registrar on the board is like having a miner of the board of a coal company. Their agenda would always be self-protective and a desire to dig more mines!

 

[Stephen]

hardly meaningful?

Stephen - a vote based on a self selected sample of 32 'domainers' is hardly meaningful. Such nonsense undermines the credibilty of any of the decent arguments you have put forward elsewhere.

I disagree.

I have in my post the number of respondents to be transparent
and so have acknowledged the low number who have voted so far.
The question is hopefully unambiguous and there is an opportunity to add comments, such as yours.
Unlike at Nominet.

I refer you to the Nominet 2012 accounts page 3

91.6% Registrar Customer Satisfaction
87.7% Registrant Customer Satisfaction​

I do not know how those questions were worded and how many people took part?

Is it reasonable to say the views of 10,000,000 UK domains is represented by 700 respondents to v1 .uk?

In the above posts, people have volunteered reasons why they don't trust Nominet,
it is not a battle against any one or even several people at Nominet.
It is the structure of Nominet and the decisions that are coming from it that are the issue.

For the record the number is now 36 votes and 2.78% Trust Nominet.

 

[Stephen]

2.38% of poll Trust Nominet

Just as a point of record for 2 days after the poll started.

The votes looked like this;

Do Nominet act in the Public purpose and do you Trust them?

Yes Nominet act in Public Purpose and I Trust them 1 2.38%

No Nominet do not act with Public Purpose
and I do not Trust them 31 73.81%

Yes Nominet act in Public Purpose
but I do not Trust them 1 2.38%

Don't care, I just get on with it 7 16.67%

Don't know 2 4.76%

Total votes cast 42.

 

[Stephen]

It can be done again

Interesting ...

After reading how corrupt Nominet are, how they never listen and how they've already decided what they're going to do, I've decided not to submit any consultation feedback, it would just be a waste of my time.

Your were involved in .uk version 1, when this forum was convinced Nominet had made its mind up about .uk, in the way they proposed to bring it in, they changed.

It can be done again.

Your decision about your time but I would urge anybody with a view on .uk to submit their views and feedback on the .uk proposal via the Nominet consultation form.

All feedback will be in the public domain (if you elect to allow yours to be seen).

 

[Stephen]

yes Nominet listen

So they do listen?

My opinion is yes Nominet listen but it depends on who it is saying it to them or what is publicly being said to them.

My view will always be jaded as I have had so many set backs in getting answers or replies from Nominet.

 

[Stephen]

my experience

So they do listen?

To answer your point a bit more fully, I will share my experience on listening, that also covers the day I really lost my Trust in Nominet.

My trust was lost in Nominet when I started to understand V1 .uk but when I knew they were not listening came
when somebody send me a "freedom of information email" in March 2013, relating to December 2012 emails
from Nominet to the government authority that is ultimately responsible for Nominet.

Before the email, with the Nominet version 1 .uk proposal, I sent to Report (which was an accumulation of points raised at Acorn
and some of my own) that highlighted many issues with the .uk proposal.
In fact there were no material arguments in the consultation feedback report that were not covered in the report.
Plus they had received Edwin's pivotal report and papers and had several round table meetings and a full day meet Nominet,
where 20+ domain relating individuals made the effort and gave great feedback on the issues.

After all that feedback Nominet reported back :

“Initial reactions to the consultation suggest that there is support from the proposals from some businesses and civil society sectors.
However, existing owners of .co.uk domains, and in particular firms which speculatively acquire large portfolios of such domains (“domainers”) are much less happy with the proposal at this stage.”

History has shown that the Nominet assessment was wrong and that when you study the report I sent and Edwin’s, the round table feedback
they were not taking the view of a domainer but the wider UK stakeholder community.

It was only when the domainers at Acorn and notably Edwin got a lot of publicity on .uk and made people understand the issues,
did feedback come in from other organizations and then Nominet listened,
the arguments were the same just different people made Nominet take notice of them.

 

[Stephen]

hope you reconsider

So as a domainer, they won't listen to me?

Thanks for taking the time to respond but I think I'll stick to my original plan. I'm past caring what happens, the whole situation is a farce.

Thank you, I do hope you reconsider before the 23rd September .uk deadline but understand your decision.

 

[Stephen]

When did it all go wrong?

Until Nominet came up with .uk, I was a lazy Nominet registrar/member whose participation in Nominet
was limited to the occasional online vote and maybe completing the odd questionnaire or survey.

Why because as I was happy with Nominet as they kept the renewal prices of .co.uk the same (at the current low level),
developed a good web manager system for registrars,
changed from offline to online transfers (although I think they should abolish the transfer charge now),
operated a first come first served policy on domains and expired domains,
developed agreatplacetobe.co.uk to promote the UK namespace
and general where a good organization to be associated with especially in the light of all the charity work
via Nominet trust to make the UK internet a better place.
Finally they recruited and trained the staff well, as the staff were very helpful
and had a real thirst and desire to please registrants and registrars and were obviously proud to work at Nominet.

Then .uk, were they turned on the ALL existing registrants and even after all the feedback about security and who should get the .uk (if it is proved to be needed),
instead of apologising that they got it so very wrong and .uk would not be a new space,
Nominet spun the story to a warped view that they were listening and somehow the first consultation was just to get some ideas.
What should have happened is they should have apologized that they got it so wrong.
Then they launched a second go at .uk and hoped they had bought off enough domainers (who really stopped v1 .uk)
by making .uk not so awful and giving a few glimpses that some might even make some money out of it!

Anyway back to the train of thought.

Why did Nominet come up with .uk in the way they did, what changed?

Looking back over the Nominet history, it appears to me to be the Garratt report may have scared the Nominet Board (and maybe senior executives)
into believing that if they did not adapt to the changing internet landscape, then Government would take control of the UK namespace
and possibly move it all away and all that Nominet had done and was would be lost.

It is also supported that if you read a Freedom of Information requests, it shows that Nominet on .uk were close to and maybe receiving more input than they should
from the a variety of government organizations that may have shaped .uk to their own purposes and Nominet was maybe too weak and fearful of the consequences
of not taking those views about .uk even though they were wrong.

Nominet should stand up for the UK namespace & stakeholders and until they do, I will not be able to Trust them.

I know for some against Nominet, it went wrong before .uk and I'm not trying to say everything was fine before .uk,
only from my isolated perspective it seemed to be so.


For the record it stands at 45 votes and only 1 Trusting Nominet 2.22%