.uk .UK Announced

[willbonwillbon is verified member.]

IF the .uk is introduced...... at £20 each (Nominet suggested price)

The big cost here is the admin of verifying the address... so if you have more than one domain, the cost of address verification should be zero for the next domain...... so theoretically the cost of further domains should be less?

Any weight in this argument?

 

[anthony]

IF the .uk is introduced...... at £20 each (Nominet suggested price)

The big cost here is the admin of verifying the address... so if you have more than one domain, the cost of address verification should be zero for the next domain...... so theoretically the cost of further domains should be less?

Any weight in this argument?

A great point willbon. With a bit of clever administration, that should be something Nominet could easily cater for.

 

[websaway]

Nominet’s director of operations Eleanor Bradley said that while the registry wants to provide greater choice, businesses that already own addresses such as .co.uk would be able to maintain them. “There is no requirement to change,” she said.

She added: “A new domain space provides an opportunity for all the new businesses that are coming online to have a suitable domain name that accurately reflects their business.”



It's really kind of nominet to allow businesses to continue using their co.uk domains, at least we are not being evicted from our current name space.

I wonder if Nominet are guaranteeing new businesses a suitable name ( whatever she means by suitable ), if they are, don't they know that under their current proposals by the time trademark holders, co.uk holders and org.uk holders all get the available names, the situation will be no different for new businesses than it is now.

Or does she mean new businesses that require a suitable name like johnscakeshop will get their name and if she does doesn't she know that these types of business names are very rarely taken.

So what are these suitable names for new businesses she is talking about ?

 

[EdwinEdwin is verified member.]

Eleanor Bradley knows exactly what she's talking about. She is too senior and too experienced within Nominet - it is inconceivable that she doesn't already know that the chances of an ordinary run-of-the-mill business picking up a DECENT .uk at the far end of TM sunrise > unregistered rights sunrise > landrush are approaching 0%.

At the same time, it seems like she knows how to say the kind of things to the media that they will accept without thinking about it more deeply.

 

[RobMRobM is verified member.]

This whole thing is a farce. Nominet is insulting people's intelligence. Amazing how quick people have gone from opposing .uk existence to simply opposing elements of the .uk system once it is (inevitably) introduced. This is what they want - smoke and mirrors.

 

[PaullasPaullas is verified member.]

This whole thing is a farce. Nominet is insulting people's intelligence. Amazing how quick people have gone from opposing .uk existence to simply opposing elements of the .uk system once it is (inevitably) introduced. This is what they want - smoke and mirrors.

Have to agree, All i am seeing is Nominet saying it is wanted but cannot show physical evidence of who is wanting it. Also Nominet supposed to have an 'OFFICIAL' forum for memebrs but yet never answer questions when asked.

The question is now is Nominet a non for profit organisation who puts its members first? or is it a Nominet Board Members Profit Organisation who puts there own financial situation first?

 

[EdwinEdwin is verified member.]

Nominet can't show evidence because they don't have evidence. There was no formal "market research" effort conducted - that much came out at the face-to-face sessions. It's all based on "anecdotal" demand.

 

[anthony]

Have to agree, All i am seeing is Nominet saying it is wanted but cannot show physical evidence of who is wanting it. Also Nominet supposed to have an 'OFFICIAL' forum for memebrs but yet never answer questions when asked.

The question is now is Nominet a non for profit organisation who puts its members first? or is it a Nominet Board Members Profit Organisation who puts there own financial situation first?

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..."

 

[Stephen]

Nominet Real costs and Revenues

IF the .uk is introduced...... at £20 each (Nominet suggested price)

The big cost here is the admin of verifying the address... so if you have more than one domain, the cost of address verification should be zero for the next domain...... so theoretically the cost of further domains should be less?

Any weight in this argument?

Thank you so very much for pointing that out, so for those uk portfolio owners that have say 10,000 domains and 1 address. Nominet have budgeted say as much as £15 of the £20 per domain for address verification. That means an anuual charge of £150,000 and actual cost to Nominet for that registrant is £15, if it was only that easy to make money in the real world!

Also as the 10,000 domains are likely to point to 1 site, for instance Sedo.co.uk then at Malware scanning charge of £2 per site that's a revenue of £20,000 and a cost of £2 spread over all domains that point to that site.

It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

[PaullasPaullas is verified member.]

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..."

Makes you think then where or what will nominet will be in in 5 years?

 

[websaway]

I think Aaron sums up the reason why nominet are playing the don't haves card on his webpage below, which incidently has a page one ranking for -nominet uk proposals- on the big G

http://www.aaronclifford.co.uk/nominet-uk-proposala-new-bubble/

 

[Stephen]

Written Evidence?

Nominet can't show evidence because they don't have evidence. There was no formal "market research" effort conducted - that much came out at the face-to-face sessions. It's all based on "anecdotal" demand.

I agree that in the various Nominet meetings, Nominet staff on several occasions were very vague on what exactly they did as market research but have they provided evidence or details of what they actually did do?

I'm still waiting for any responses to 31 different emails I have sent to Nominet requesting specific information about their .uk proposal, asking for details or outline of the Market research done before the proposal, being one of those follow up requests.

 

[EdwinEdwin is verified member.]

I've updated my Media Coverage page... now 72 different news sources, and counting.
http://www.mydomainnames.co.uk/articles.html

 

[Stephen]

Are Nominet now defending their position?

I've updated my Media Coverage page... now 72 different news sources, and counting.
http://www.mydomainnames.co.uk/articles.html

Edwin, thank you.

In you last article link: 14 November 2012
•Nominet responds to .uk criticism, World Intellectual Property Review

http://www.worldipreview.com/newsstory.asp?ID=49

It states Nominet staff Nick Wenban-Smith and Eleanor Bradley where actively defending the Nominet position as expressed in the proposal, which is massively different from the Nominet roundtable meetings when they would not defend the Nominet position at all, going back to default mode this is only a consultation and we would like to hear your views.

Maybe I should apologise to the Acorn posts that stated Nominet have made up there mind already?

 

[Stephen]

Malware close down of AcornDomains.uk

There was been a thread on Acorn about redirects when entering the Acorn site this was posted 1-11-2012 by deliajen (thankyou)

http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/forum-news-feedback/109711-redirection-acorn.html

The solution seems to have been provided by Markb on 12 -11-2012 (thankyou);

Message to Admin :

The redirect is caused by malware in one or more of the google ads. The best way to stop this is to either disable image/rich media ads via adsense or to edit your adsense settings to block all 3rd party ad networks.

Theres plenty of info online about google adsense and malware ads, and theres lots of sites currently reporting the same problem.

See the links below for more info :

http://productforums.google.com/foru...F9tw[1-25]

http://www.resourcesforlife.com/docs/item5318

If this was .uk site,under the Nominet proposals this site and I pressume many other websites would have been closed (suspended) due to the Google.co.uk feeds.

Do you think the website owners would have againist Google.co.uk for having there website taken off line by Nominet?

Also as it was down, nobody would have able to comment on finding the problem and how long would have site been down for?

As it has taken 12 days to find a solution, if this website was down for all that time or your site down for 12 days how much would it have cost
and would you have ironically lost your Google rankings I wonder?

It all seems a bit harsh to suspend your site when it appears to be down to the worlds largest IT company?

 

[websaway]

I have tried to look at these proposals from a different perspective i.e to find the top five real benefits to current co.uk owners ( without focusing on self interest ) that could accrue as a result of them being introduced.

I could find only one benefit

1 shorter extension for typing a domain. .uk instead of .co.uk
2
3
4
5

Can anyone help me to add to my list ?

 

[anthony]

I have tried to look at these proposals from a different perspective i.e to find the top five real benefits to current co.uk owners ( without focusing on self interest ) that could accrue as a result of them being introduced.

I could find only one benefit

1 shorter extension for typing a domain. .uk instead of .co.uk
2
3
4
5

Can anyone help me to add to my list ?

That depends on which camp you are in, if you were Nominet, the list could read:

1 Shorter extension for typing a domain. .uk instead of .co.uk
2 An end to dropcatching due to verification process.
3 Increased revenue to the business.
4
5

Any more to add from others?

 

[websaway]

That depends on which camp you are in, if you were Nominet, the list could read:

1 Shorter extension for typing a domain. .uk instead of .co.uk
2 An end to dropcatching due to verification process.
3 Increased revenue to the business.
4
5

Any more to add from others?

No I've been focusing on the reasons that I don't want the .uk introduced, mostly, but not entirely, out of self interest.

I am now trying to look at it from a different perspective i.e what are the benefits to me as a co.uk registrant ( not nominet ) if the new proposals are introduced.
One which I wrestled with was the possibility of bagging some good .uk domains by turning the clock back, but I rejected that possibility because between 1996 and 2000 the landscape was different, there was no competition, if someone was so inclined to register hundreds or thousands of words on the basis that it would be a good future investment then anyone who even new what a domain name was wasn't going to stand in their way.

 

[Stephen]

Guess on Nominet's view

That depends on which camp you are in, if you were Nominet, the list could read:

1 Shorter extension for typing a domain. .uk instead of .co.uk
2 An end to dropcatching due to verification process.
3 Increased revenue to the business.
4
5

Any more to add from others?

From Nominet's view why is 1 an advantage?
As regards no.2 they currently are engaged in a Expring consulation which might create other conclusions, to obtain the results they would like to see.

That would just leave no 3

Sorry cannot think of anymore on behalf of Nominet, expect as they state they are trying to provide more domain for the hoards of business people who cannot get a suitable uk domain now.

Plus what Nominet said in 2004 but not now, in that they would like to see thousands of uk domains return to their rightful owners.

 

[Stephen]

More benefits of .uk from .co.uk perspective

I have tried to look at these proposals from a different perspective i.e to find the top five real benefits to current co.uk owners ( without focusing on self interest ) that could accrue as a result of them being introduced.

I could find only one benefit

1 shorter extension for typing a domain. .uk instead of .co.uk
2
3
4
5

Can anyone help me to add to my list ?

I believe it is a trend to go smaller and shorter, so would look more modern but then that would make my trusted .co.uk look old and tired.

Most of the feedback, from those I have told about this, would register their equivalent .uk domain out of protection. But if it wasnt launched, they would not need to protect againist something that didn't exisit!