.UK Announced

[anthony]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-net...og/2012/dec/13/nominet-plans-direct-uk-domain

That about the best 'national' pickup I've seen on this issue.

 

[websaway]

GUARD.co.uk : Great name and so appropriate on many levels.

Suggest for funding;

• funds for external 3rd party costs such as PR, lobbying and/or adverts not for internal costs
• costs not spent until all agreed to contribute have agreed to what to spend it on and signed off major content in principal
• costs split equally over those that join the fighting fund
• each person contributes their own limit on funds they are willing to add (it maybe not all those monies will be spent - it will depend on volume who contribute)
• do not send monies yet

Please pm or post if you want to join fighting fund for PR / lobbying /adverts to create a wider debate of the issues of the Nominet .uk proposal?

By signing up and contributing would have idea of budget and get on with drawing up plans.

The plans would only be provided to those that join the fighting fund and they will all have the oppertunity to contribute to develop distribution and content.

Anybody have design skills they could contribute to website and adverts to keep costs down and to provide a professional appearance?

My suggestion is for a fighting fund to click in at five minutes to midnight should nominet try to drive it through without due diligence. Not for open ended expenditure to promote an anti lobby.
Just clarifying my thoughts.

 

[Brassneck]

I suspect once you ask people to contribute money, most of the people moaning on here will run a mile.

 

[websaway]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-net...og/2012/dec/13/nominet-plans-direct-uk-domain

That about the best 'national' pickup I've seen on this issue.

good spot.

Just the fact alone that the CEO of 123 reg sits on the Nominet board of decision makers throws up huge conflict of interest questions.

 

[Edwin]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-net...og/2012/dec/13/nominet-plans-direct-uk-domain

That about the best 'national' pickup I've seen on this issue.

Fantastic article. Nothing new per se, but it does a brilliant job of boiling down the essence of the issue, and it's in a major national media outlet.

Time for another round of Twitter, everyone! Please also seize this opportunity to reach out again via your various networks - this article is a much more "credible source" than domainer news outlets and specialist trade publications can ever hope to be.

 

[foz]

Please pm or post if you want to join fighting fund for PR / lobbying /adverts to create a wider debate of the issues of the Nominet .uk proposal?

I don't see this as money well spent, three something weeks to the deadline and everyone in Christmas/New years mode. A deadline intentionally planned this way by Nominet.

The proposal and consultation document themselves are laid railroad tracks by Nominet and is totally biased to deliver a direct.uk launch outcome.

If Nominet don't come to their senses and dismiss opening up the second level, then the only option for parties still wishing to battle is legal action seeking an injuction.

 

[Edwin]

The time to attack (with paid PR/lobbying specialists) is AFTER the revised consutation is published. That way, you're not fighting smoke - and they will know what arguments to formulate to counter a clearly defined "real and present danger" and present them accordingly to the media and to government.

The time to attack with all social media, personal and other connections you can lay your hands on is NOW!

For instance, if anyone knows any journo types (or knows anyone who in turn knows any journo types) the Guardian article is a great lever you can use to really get their juices flowing about the issue.

 

[websaway]

I suspect once you ask people to contribute money, most of the people moaning on here will run a mile.

Not if ultimately it was say £1 per domain owned, wouldn't be difficult I would say to raise half a million, providing the initial advice was positive .
Anyway that's some way off, Nominet have got huge issues to overcome if they want to launch the .uk and the anti lobby will gather pace.

I honestly can't see how board members can remain or not somehow opt out if they are seen to have an obvious conflict of interest.

 

[Stephen]

What to do next?

The time to attack (with paid PR/lobbying specialists) is AFTER the revised consutation is published. That way, you're not fighting smoke - and they will know what arguments to formulate to counter a clearly defined "real and present danger" and present them accordingly to the media and to government.

The time to attack with all social media, personal and other connections you can lay your hands on is NOW!

For instance, if anyone knows any journo types (or knows anyone who in turn knows any journo types) the Guardian article is a great lever you can use to really get their juices flowing about the issue.

Thanks for the feedback from all.

Until the Board minutes were published today, I was going to wait until their was a real conclusion
by Nominet that was easier to fight, if they had not listened to all concerns.
But as I read the new minutes and I felt they were going to launch it with tweaks and state they had listened to the full,
wide and varied feedback received, I thought I should up the commitment level to get some last minute quality exposure.

I will continue to spread the word on the cheap until the proposal comes out.

Plus I will be working on a shorter concise version of ".uk the consequences" for the reader who doesn't understand/care about domains.

To Lesley's credit she did include in the minutes the date the board would meet on the .uk proposal, as it gives us all a date for the diaries.

Not sure anything but legal action will stop the train after the February conclusion, as they have stated
in the proposal, implementation is one month after the decision.

 

[anthony]

Not if ultimately it was say £1 per domain owned, wouldn't be difficult I would say to raise half a million, providing the initial advice was positive .
Anyway that's some way off, Nominet have got huge issues to overcome if they want to launch the .uk and the anti lobby will gather pace.

I honestly can't see how board members can remain or not somehow opt out if they are seen to have an obvious conflict of interest.

If there were £0.5M knocking about at the beginning of the year, one wonders whether it would have been worth clubbing together for a gTLD when the window was open, I'm sure we could have thought of one to apply to use in the UK in competition with Nominet. Convenient for them that that window too has passed by!

 

[Stephen]

More news stories

Just trying to find some postive news stories about Nominet proposal

None found yet - but some others may be of interest, if not already seen it:

http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/taking-the-co-out-of-co-uk-nominets-high-risk-plan-to-rebrand-uk-domains-0336047

http://www.investing.co.uk/direct-uk-domains-to-cost-hundreds-of-millions-of-pounds-to-businesses-and-brands-in-the-uk/ - same author Adam G as Guardain article

 

[bulkcorn]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-net...og/2012/dec/13/nominet-plans-direct-uk-domain

That about the best 'national' pickup I've seen on this issue.

Thank you for the link!

Why is NOMINET simply refusing to learn from other countries that have successfully rolled out their .tld?

 

[GreyWing]

Stephen, nothing to stop us doing our own consultation that replicates Nominets.

People can simply supply a duplicate of what they sent Nominet in the full understanding they will be published.

Most people still have copies of them, just because nom won't publish doesn't mean we can't.

 

[Stephen]

copy of feedback

Stephen, nothing to stop us doing our own consultation that replicates Nominets.

People can simply supply a duplicate of what they sent Nominet in the full understanding they will be published.

Most people still have copies of them, just because nom won't publish doesn't mean we can't.

Good idea.

However when you fill online Nominet form it does not supply you with a copy, so I doubt most people will have a copy?

 

[bulkcorn]

e-Petition to the House of Commons possible on this matter?

e-petitions are an easy, personal way for you to influence government and Parliament in the UK. You can create an e-petition about anything that the government is responsible for and if it gets at least 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons. You can find more information about how the House of Commons deals with e-petitions on the Backbench Business Committee website This link opens in a new window.

I stumbled on the http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/ this evening? Is this an avenue that we can use to try STOP the crazy (parts of Lesley and co's) proposals?

 

[Stephen]

Turn it around

I stumbled on the http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/ this evening? Is this an avenue that we can use to try the crazy (parts of Lesley and co's) proposals?

I see start a e-petition to introduce the .uk as a new tld extension and
lets see how many votes that generates?

Rather than fight it with an e-petition.

It should come under "Department for Culture, Media and Sport".

 

[bulkcorn]

I see start a e-petition to introduce the .uk as a new tld extension and
lets see how many votes that generates?

Rather than fight it with an e-petition.

It should come under "Department for Culture, Media and Sport".

Sorry, Stephen. Missed out the word 'STOP'. The e-petition should be to stop the proposal as a whole (they are hell-bent on rolling it out) or stop the proposed domain allocation/registration phases.

 

[Edwin]

No. A petition with a few hundred or thousand signatures is worse than no petition at all as it's ammunition in Nominet's hands.

In the entire history of the epetitions program, there are only 10 out of 11,600 petitiins that have crossed the incredibly high 100,000 signature hurdle, so we should not be deluded about our chances of doing the same (infinitely low)

 

[Stephen]

Sorry, Stephen. Missed out the word 'STOP'. The e-petition should be to stop the proposal as a whole (they are hell-bent on rolling it out) or stop the proposed domain allocation/registration phases.

Turn it on its head.

I think it is more effective as a FOR ePetition as it will not even get a few hundred votes!

It also fits with Edwins point that at the moment due to no knowledge and no widespread distribution and general apathy a STOP ePetition at the moment would not get many votes either especially as its only a proposal at the moment.

 

[Edwin]

There is no point at all in starting a petition in favour of something that is already being actively promoted as something desirable. The fact that it gained few votes can instantly be dismissed by Nominet as "why would anyone bother to vote when they know it's already happening".

No, petitions are definitely not the answer in this case. One article in The Guardian, eConsultancy, etc. is worth 100 petitions.

I would have thought in a "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" way SOMEONE reading this thread MUST know some journalists! So how about it, folks?

Send them the following links to bring them up to speed:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-net...og/2012/dec/13/nominet-plans-direct-uk-domain
http://econsultancy.com/jp/blog/11161-is-nominet-s-uk-proposal-a-tax-on-the-digital-economy
http://www.business2community.com/o...-high-risk-plan-to-rebrand-uk-domains-0336047
http://www.david-carter.com/uk-and-the-small-business-dilemma
http://www.mydomainnames.co.uk/
http://www.ukproposal.org.uk/
http://www.notagreatplacetobe.org.uk/