Is Nominet is getting much further away from it's original remit? Below is an interesting extract from a study conducted a few years after Nominet's formation:
"...A formal proposal for the development of a new registry organization was presented to the UK Internet service provider community at a public meeting in April 1996. The proposal consisted of three components:
• the establishment of a not-for-profit management company providing legal protection, limited liability, and a professional full-time organization to carry out the necessary tasks;
• the creation of a Steering Committee open to all organizations that were prepared to pay membership fees; and
• the establishment of a charging regime for sub-domains registered under the neutral domains.
This became the proposal for the establishment of Nominet UK.
Although being the ‘responsible person’ appears to have given Black considerable de jure power, his de facto power depended upon the support of the interested parties in the UK Internet industry. Consequently, views about this initiative were sought from a broad array of participants in the UK Internet industry. However, uncertainty about this proposal led to further disputes between actors, mainly regarding the extent to which a new organization would ameliorate the structural and administrative weaknesses of the Naming Committee.
According to the business plan, the new organization would operate on the basis of a Shared Registry System where all members would manage the registry. The proposed organization would have two executive directors, two non-executive directors, and a steering committee composed of all the organizations that were willing to pay nominal annual subscription fees. The function of members would be to decide on a naming policy for the .uk domain and on the appointment of non-executive directors...
...A voting structure where the number of votes was proportional to respective registration volumes was seen as a means of ensuring that the steering committee would be representative of the relative commercial strengths of its members, thus minimizing the risk of unrepresentative groups exerting undue influence on the registry...
...The business plan for Nominet indicated that it would introduce a charge for each name registered in neutral sub-domains of .uk...
Another key area of controversy focused on Dr Black and how best to limit the power he could exert personally over the registry process. He had offered to leave UKERNA to become the managing director of Nominet UK, and some feared that he might seek to take advantage of his position for personal gain. The majority of actors regarded the new registry as being responsible for coordinating and administering a ‘public good’, and there was a consensus that this entity should not be run as a for-profit endeavour. This concern was circumvented by recommending the creation of a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee..."
