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I was looking back through some of the notes I made surrounding the initial direct.uk proposal and call for submissions, and found that I had prepared a file of questions that I then never ultimately was able to make full use of (though I managed to raise some of them at the face-to-face sessions in November)
Anyway, I thought I'd post them on here and elsewhere as a prompt to further discussion and (perhaps?) eventually to additional clarifications from Nominet. Please bear in mind that some answers have been forthcoming in the interim, though not very many...
===========================
(First, a question that I would address to every Nominet employee: When did YOU first become aware of the idea of .uk?)
Formulation of the Consultation
- Where did the initial drive/motivation to produce the document come from? (and who first raised the idea)
- A document was presented to the Board on September 6th. Was that the first review inside Nominet apart from within the team that drafted it?
- What instructions or guidelines were given at the onset of the project
- Was this Board-instigated i.e. was the 6th September presentation a response to a specific board request?
- Did Nominet get external input during the drafting process? Was any of this from government entities or regulatory bodies?
- Were any discussions held with other cctld registries?
- Did Nominet explicitly review the transition process in previous cctld transitions?
- What projections does Nominet have for initial revenue generated? Are there any projections from the auctions?
- Generally Nominet signals in broad strokes its initiatives well in advance (next year, we will be working on xyz). However this doesn't seem to have cropped up anywhere not even at the Annual Policy Forum in March. Why?
http://www.nominet.org.uk/how-parti...nnual-policy-forum-presentations-and-speeches
- Why was the process so assumptive? Why not "Is it even fair to consider releasing .uk?" first, then IF and ONLY IF "yes" go to the proposal stage.
- Was this initially formulated at the same time as .cymru/.wales? Did the ideas for .uk come from the consultations/learning process surrounding application for .cymru/.wales?
Pre Consultation Consultation
- Were discussions held with any registrars in advance of October 1 announcement?
- Were discussions held with registrars between October 1 and the round table meeting for registrars?
1-letter and 2-letter Names
- Would an exception be warranted since the process entities had to go through to get these subjected them to the same rigorous tests as the current proposal. In other words, TM holders already went first, etc.? Otherwise, isn't it "double jeopardy?"
Alerting Interested Parties
- How is Nominet planning to bring relevant parties to the table at each stage of the release?
- For example, how will they notify EU/US/UK TM holders who may have rights at stage 1
- Will they at that point notify registrants if they are eligible to participate?
Domain release process
- What date has been set as the qualifying date? Is there one set already?
- Why is standard of "proof" much lower than DRS vs existing domain registrants?
- Will trademark owners need to apply for the domain in the first round, or will the domain automatically be assigned to them if they have a trademark?
- Has it been ascertained what qualifies as a website that is in use? i.e. For example if I only had a single photo, a single link, or even a (resolving) blank page, do those count? What about a parking page?
- Why set all domain owners on an equal footing? Surely "oldest registration comes first" is fair given Nominet's "first come first served" stance?
- If a website is password protected but runs an admin panel, does that count as "use"
- If a domain is used only for email, does that count as use?
- If a domain has nameservers specified, does that count as use?
- If a domain redirects to another domain, does that count as use?
- Why have any concept of "use" anyway? It penalises those prudent entities that think/plan ahead by securing domain names before they're ready to use them.
- If a domain name/(domain name + website) changed ownership recently, does that affect the planned release process?
- Can you please reaffirm that there are no plans to shortcircuit the process for any entity (ex the 1-/2-letter domain owners perhaps)?
- Why do .org.uk/.me.uk have any rights when it is meant as an extension for businesses?
- What happens to domains registered post October 1? Are you preventing their owners from participating based on prior knowledge of the consultation? Doesn't that in turn mean that the longer you take to reach a decision, the more new domain owners there will be who won't be able to take part? On the other hand, if you allow them to do so post consultation, then that opens the floor to "gaming" with .org.uk/.me.uk registrations to get a foot in the door
Consensus Building
- Are you planning to involve Government at any stage prior to "live" launch of .uk?
- Are you planning to involve external organisations at any stage prior to "live" launch of .uk?
- Are you planning to involve regulators at any stage prior to "live" launch of .uk?
Security Issues
- How if at all can you counter the massive risk of misdirected emails? For example mails to Company A go to Company B because one has widgets.co.uk and the other widgets.uk?
- Makes phishing MUCH easier - discuss
Pre-Consultation Surveys
- WHEN were these done?
- What questions were asked?
- What guidance was given alongside the questions?
- How were the responders chosen?
- Is it possible to see results of above?
Existing Businesses
I’m a business that's already heavily invested in .co.uk name space promoting the UK and my businesses. If I’m unable to secure “mybusinessname.uk” then this investment will all be for nought. If this change goes ahead and I’m successful in securing the .uk names then I’ll incur significant additional time and money registering, renewing, managing and protecting these extra names for no obvious benefit (other than the security of knowing that I have the domain and not a competitor, pornographer, scammer etc.) What do you think about that?
Miscellaneous
- Are old Nom-STEER archives held anywhere?
- Do more detailed PAB notes exist anywhere, even internally at Nominet?
- How much of the necessary systems, processes, partnerships etc. have already been put in place? Have any, or is this purely a paper exercise at the moment?
- Why are the senior Nominet execs explicitly not around for the consultations?
Alternatives
- Why not improve .ltd.uk and .plc.uk instead to make uptake of them stronger? The contact issue would be resolved for a start because Ltd companies have to have real contact details.
- Why not launch .com.uk instead?
- Why not launch .safe.uk instead? (since the primary impetus seems to be security)
- Why not make it more like new GTLD process i.e. companies have to pay $185,000+ and jump through hoops to get their 2LD.
Anyway, I thought I'd post them on here and elsewhere as a prompt to further discussion and (perhaps?) eventually to additional clarifications from Nominet. Please bear in mind that some answers have been forthcoming in the interim, though not very many...
===========================
(First, a question that I would address to every Nominet employee: When did YOU first become aware of the idea of .uk?)
Formulation of the Consultation
- Where did the initial drive/motivation to produce the document come from? (and who first raised the idea)
- A document was presented to the Board on September 6th. Was that the first review inside Nominet apart from within the team that drafted it?
- What instructions or guidelines were given at the onset of the project
- Was this Board-instigated i.e. was the 6th September presentation a response to a specific board request?
- Did Nominet get external input during the drafting process? Was any of this from government entities or regulatory bodies?
- Were any discussions held with other cctld registries?
- Did Nominet explicitly review the transition process in previous cctld transitions?
- What projections does Nominet have for initial revenue generated? Are there any projections from the auctions?
- Generally Nominet signals in broad strokes its initiatives well in advance (next year, we will be working on xyz). However this doesn't seem to have cropped up anywhere not even at the Annual Policy Forum in March. Why?
http://www.nominet.org.uk/how-parti...nnual-policy-forum-presentations-and-speeches
- Why was the process so assumptive? Why not "Is it even fair to consider releasing .uk?" first, then IF and ONLY IF "yes" go to the proposal stage.
- Was this initially formulated at the same time as .cymru/.wales? Did the ideas for .uk come from the consultations/learning process surrounding application for .cymru/.wales?
Pre Consultation Consultation
- Were discussions held with any registrars in advance of October 1 announcement?
- Were discussions held with registrars between October 1 and the round table meeting for registrars?
1-letter and 2-letter Names
- Would an exception be warranted since the process entities had to go through to get these subjected them to the same rigorous tests as the current proposal. In other words, TM holders already went first, etc.? Otherwise, isn't it "double jeopardy?"
Alerting Interested Parties
- How is Nominet planning to bring relevant parties to the table at each stage of the release?
- For example, how will they notify EU/US/UK TM holders who may have rights at stage 1
- Will they at that point notify registrants if they are eligible to participate?
Domain release process
- What date has been set as the qualifying date? Is there one set already?
- Why is standard of "proof" much lower than DRS vs existing domain registrants?
- Will trademark owners need to apply for the domain in the first round, or will the domain automatically be assigned to them if they have a trademark?
- Has it been ascertained what qualifies as a website that is in use? i.e. For example if I only had a single photo, a single link, or even a (resolving) blank page, do those count? What about a parking page?
- Why set all domain owners on an equal footing? Surely "oldest registration comes first" is fair given Nominet's "first come first served" stance?
- If a website is password protected but runs an admin panel, does that count as "use"
- If a domain is used only for email, does that count as use?
- If a domain has nameservers specified, does that count as use?
- If a domain redirects to another domain, does that count as use?
- Why have any concept of "use" anyway? It penalises those prudent entities that think/plan ahead by securing domain names before they're ready to use them.
- If a domain name/(domain name + website) changed ownership recently, does that affect the planned release process?
- Can you please reaffirm that there are no plans to shortcircuit the process for any entity (ex the 1-/2-letter domain owners perhaps)?
- Why do .org.uk/.me.uk have any rights when it is meant as an extension for businesses?
- What happens to domains registered post October 1? Are you preventing their owners from participating based on prior knowledge of the consultation? Doesn't that in turn mean that the longer you take to reach a decision, the more new domain owners there will be who won't be able to take part? On the other hand, if you allow them to do so post consultation, then that opens the floor to "gaming" with .org.uk/.me.uk registrations to get a foot in the door
Consensus Building
- Are you planning to involve Government at any stage prior to "live" launch of .uk?
- Are you planning to involve external organisations at any stage prior to "live" launch of .uk?
- Are you planning to involve regulators at any stage prior to "live" launch of .uk?
Security Issues
- How if at all can you counter the massive risk of misdirected emails? For example mails to Company A go to Company B because one has widgets.co.uk and the other widgets.uk?
- Makes phishing MUCH easier - discuss
Pre-Consultation Surveys
- WHEN were these done?
- What questions were asked?
- What guidance was given alongside the questions?
- How were the responders chosen?
- Is it possible to see results of above?
Existing Businesses
I’m a business that's already heavily invested in .co.uk name space promoting the UK and my businesses. If I’m unable to secure “mybusinessname.uk” then this investment will all be for nought. If this change goes ahead and I’m successful in securing the .uk names then I’ll incur significant additional time and money registering, renewing, managing and protecting these extra names for no obvious benefit (other than the security of knowing that I have the domain and not a competitor, pornographer, scammer etc.) What do you think about that?
Miscellaneous
- Are old Nom-STEER archives held anywhere?
- Do more detailed PAB notes exist anywhere, even internally at Nominet?
- How much of the necessary systems, processes, partnerships etc. have already been put in place? Have any, or is this purely a paper exercise at the moment?
- Why are the senior Nominet execs explicitly not around for the consultations?
Alternatives
- Why not improve .ltd.uk and .plc.uk instead to make uptake of them stronger? The contact issue would be resolved for a start because Ltd companies have to have real contact details.
- Why not launch .com.uk instead?
- Why not launch .safe.uk instead? (since the primary impetus seems to be security)
- Why not make it more like new GTLD process i.e. companies have to pay $185,000+ and jump through hoops to get their 2LD.
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