.UK Announced

[WealdDomains]

On the basis that many of us here are small businesses (sole traders, partnerships or small limited companies), I hope that in due course it will be possible to understand the high-level industry/sector split of the "small businesses" that responded to the consultation exercise.

If, say, 500 small businesses responded but 490 of those were in the domaining / SEO / web design / reseller / advertising / marketing space and only 10 were butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, it would be disingenuous for Nominet to claim they had canvassed broadly and effectively since they had received responses from several hundred "small businesses".

 

[Stephen]

and their representatives

On the basis that many of us here are small businesses (sole traders, partnerships or small limited companies), I hope that in due course it will be possible to understand the high-level industry/sector split of the "small businesses" that responded to the consultation exercise.

If, say, 500 small businesses responded but 490 of those were in the domaining / SEO / web design / reseller / advertising / marketing space and only 10 were butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, it would be disingenuous for Nominet to claim they had canvassed broadly and effectively since they had received responses from several hundred "small businesses".

Nominet reponse is that they have consulted broadly

including small businesses and their representatives

quote from Edward Vaizey response in house of commons

As Nominet have contacted several UK business organizations that state they look after thousands or maybe even 100,000's of small business interests,
so in the Nominet .uk Summary look for that sort of slant on how inclusive they have been, as they have misused the cybercrime cost number
it will be no problem to misrepresent another figure!

 

[Nigel]

As Nominet have contacted several UK business organizations that state they look after thousands or maybe even 100,000's of small business interests,

Hi Stephen - Do you know which business organisations Nominet have contacted? - Thanks Nigel

 

[WealdDomains]

If you fancy a little bit of light relief during this rather fraught period, I suggest that you pause for a moment and then re-read Ed Vaizey's Hansard response objectively and follow your instincts. So far it has amused me on at least four levels

 

[Stephen]

Who?

Hi Stephen - Do you know which business organisations Nominet have contacted? - Thanks Nigel

Sorry no, I do not.

I know they had a meeting at

http://www.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/48922

as when I asked to attend they said no!

There were some name tags I remember seeing for the afternoon session on a London roundtable meeting, something like "Federation of small businesses" but I dont know if they ever attended or just registered. (as again I was not allowed in that meeting either)

Per the reply to your letter to Eleanor Bradley:

We will be providing the details of those who registered as part of the summary that will be published after the close of the consultation.

We will all have to wait for the report.

 

[Stephen]

If you fancy a little bit of light relief during this rather fraught period, I suggest that you pause for a moment and then re-read Ed Vaizey's Hansard response objectively and follow your instincts. So far it has amused me on at least four levels

Please elaborate and share your insights

 

[WealdDomains]

Please elaborate and share your insights

I'll give it until tomorrow, Stephen, to give time for other responses, but please don't build up your expectations by using words like "insights" as I feel that would dignify several of my observations far more than they actually deserve in practice.

Edit :

It was mainly based around culture.co.uk being owned by The Times / News International, given that his example was (doubtless innocently and understandably) culture.uk. Partly I was musing over how many sensitive emails may have accidentally gone to the .co.uk rather than the .gov.uk, especially over topics such as L.v.s.n and the B.k.B b.d, but it also included the possibility of people such as a Danish whip and parasol maker getting into a battle with the might of the Mur.... empire dependent on direct.uk debate about allocation rules.

 

[Nigel]

Question to tagholders

This is a message to any tag holders.

As you all know nominet are publicly saying that the numbers responding to the consultation has been good (around 850 at last count), that they are from a broad range of stakeholders including small businesses, and that the roadshows were well attended. When in truth 850 responses from 10m domain registrations is a pitiful return. In addition we know that Cardiff and Belfast produced just 4 attendees but still they say that attendance was good.

I've been to the registrars page at Nominet. Here is the link:
http://www.nominet.org.uk/uk-domain-names/registering-uk-domain/choosing-registrar/list-registrars
They say there are thousands of registrars and they produce a list of all (which is a list of all tag holders). I've quickly scanned through them and there appear to be over 4000. Now one would expect nearly every one of these tag holders to respond to the consultation and a large percentage to attend the roadshows. It looks like there is strong evidence to show that most of the feedback responses are probably from registrars/tagholders and I assume that most of the attendees at the roadshows were also registrars/tagholders.

Now our company is not a tagholder so I don't have this info. My question to tagholders is:

Did nominet specifically send an email to you alerting you to the direct.uk consultation when it was launched on 1st Oct 2012?

Did nominet send you any further emails about the direct.uk consultation

Did nominet send you emails inviting you to the roadshows?

Any help appreciated. Any other info concerning communications to registrars/tagholders appreciated. Many thanks

 

[getmein]

850 responses from 10m domain registrations is a pitiful return

I think it's quite a good response given the tiny number of people they actually took the time to contact. I think they are well aware that if they did a honest, bonafide consultation with registrants rather than registrars - they'd have a huge response. They'd have to get their question setting specialist out for some more loaded, rhetorical questions.

In a cynically calculated move I think they've decided what outcome they want and worked backwards to try and get it.

 

[wb]

Did nominet specifically send an email to you alerting you to the direct.uk consultation when it was launched on 1st Oct 2012?

Did nominet send you any further emails about the direct.uk consultation

Did nominet send you emails inviting you to the roadshows?

Any help appreciated. Any other info concerning communications to registrars/tagholders appreciated. Many thanks

Yes to all three of those questions. The messages were received via the 'nom announce' mailing list (you should be able to see a list of all messages here).

 

[Nigel]

Yes to all three of those questions. The messages were received via the 'nom announce' mailing list (you should be able to see a list of all messages here).

Thanks - thats very helpful - I can see the relevant emails at that link.

 

[Stephen]

Not on list

Yes to all three of those questions. The messages were received via the 'nom announce' mailing list (you should be able to see a list of all messages here).

NO to all 3 questions as a UK registrar NOT on the nom-announce list

That list is an "opt-in" mailing list so unless you are on the list you did not get notified as a registrar/TAG holder.

Nominet will not release the number of registrars on the nom-announce list?

If anybody knows it would be interesting to post the number?

Nominet also decided .uk was not an important enough topic to send to all UK registrars.

 

[Nigel]

Hi Stephen - that's very interesting.

It's hard to believe that not all nominet tagholders were informed of direct.uk

I assume that most resellers of .uk domains would be opted-in as they'd need to be kept informed on any changes. Just the sort of mailing list that nominet would want for positive feedback.

Can any tagholder opt-in to the mailing list?

Can any registrant opt-in to the mailing list (i.e. our company) or is it just for tagholders?

 

[domainseller200]

https://twitter.com/Fasthosts/status/289737933802569728

Fasthosts still promoting .co.uk as 'the place to be' 12 minutes ago via Twitter

 

[Sam]

Nigel

Yes but if you havent clicked that option to opt-in you wont get those lovely emails from nominet.

Its just for tagholders

Hi Stephen - that's very interesting.

It's hard to believe that not all nominet tagholders were informed of direct.uk

I assume that most resellers of .uk domains would be opted-in as they'd need to be kept informed on any changes. Just the sort of mailing list that nominet would want for positive feedback.

Can any tagholder opt-in to the mailing list?

Can any registrant opt-in to the mailing list (i.e. our company) or is it just for tagholders?

 

[Stephen]

Nom-announce - how to?

Nigel

Yes but if you havent clicked that option to opt-in you wont get those lovely emails from nominet.

Its just for tagholders

On your TAG account at Nominet website

Tab= Account settings
Section = Your account
Item = Mailing List Subscriptions - edit

go to edit and then select Nom-announce and provide an email and then you are signed up for future Nominet emails.

 

[Stephen]

....Nominet will not release the number of registrars on the nom-announce list?

If anybody knows it would be interesting to post the number?...

Can anybody find out even roughly what the number is from Nominet of the % of registrars that have opted for the nom-announce emails?

 

[Nigel]

Is this related to the e-mail we all received yesterday where they were looking for a small group of registrars to take part in a promotion?

Sean- That's what I thought when I first saw it.

Wizard and Stephen - thanks for that info - really helps.

 

[Systreg]

On your TAG account at Nominet website

Tab= Account settings
Section = Your account
Item = Mailing List Subscriptions - edit

go to edit and then select Nom-announce and provide an email and then you are signed up for future Nominet emails.

Just checked my TAG account and it was set to not receive any emails from that mailing list subscription, so obviously hadn't received anything about this consultation way back when.

 

[aZooZa]

More government waffle:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wms/?id=2012-12-03a.41WS.6&s=Internet+domain+names#g41WS.7

Not a single mention about Nominet and its 'secure' .uk initiative, yet this was penned in December 2012. It's really getting quite difficult now to know who to take seriously, and to fathom who knows what in those giddy echelons of public office.