UK without Scotland

[Stephen]

BBC news story

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27867406

It is not a new story and was raised at Acorn during the .uk debate.

But after 2 years of uncertainty about .uk & .co.uk created by Nominet,
do we now have consumers / domain buyers being provided with another reason not to invest in UK domains?

 

[websaway]

BBC news story

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27867406

It is not a new story and was raised at Acorn during the .uk debate.

But after 2 years of uncertainty about .uk & .co.uk created by Nominet,
do we now have consumers / domain buyers being provided with another reason not to invest in UK domains?

In the unlikely event Scotland vote for independence I think we will for the foreseeable future remain the UK

 

[Edwin]

do we now have consumers / domain buyers being provided with another reason not to invest in UK domains?

When you say "being provided" that sounds as if "blame" for doing so can be pinned on a particular party.

This is just REALITY. There really is a vote happening to see what the future of Scotland will be. It's nobody's fault, it's just happening.

As such, it will be interesting to see - after the vote takes place - what happens to the UK as a concept, but there's
A) Nothing we can do about it except wait and see
B) Nobody to point the finger at, regardless of what happens

Personally, I don't see the UK changing to anything else - the examples in the article linked to above seemed mainly to be extreme-for-a-reason i.e. put forward by people seeking attention for their point of view. Regardless of whether Scotland stays in or out, the entity doing the naming of the UK will be the rest of the UK, not Scotland - if Scotland becomes independent, do you think the remainder of the UK will give two hoots about what the Scots call the lands below their southern border?

 

[Stephen]

No Blame

Edwin

"No blame", just reporting the reality of what the consumers and decision makers are seeming as the top story on BBC business, at this moment.

News and marketing change/alter peoples decision making.

I believe that knowing what is happening in the outside world, should change, even if only in a minor way what marketing and information flow comes from those organizations wanting people to use, buy and register UK domains.

Maybe Nominet could make a statement they are 100% behind .uk (and family) and not going to introduce another tld such as .gb?

Stephen

 

[diablo]

Maybe Nominet could make a statement they are 100% behind .uk (and family) and not going to introduce another tld such as .gb?

If Scotland becomes independent, it is Great Britain that will cease to exist. An albeit smaller United Kingdom would still exist. So why would Nominet then introduce .gb in place of .uk?

 

[Edwin]

Maybe Nominet could make a statement they are 100% behind .uk (and family) and not going to introduce another tld such as .gb?

They would be daft to make such a statement. Nominet are no more able to predict the post-vote future of the UK than the rest of us can. So why would they commit to something that would impair their ability to adjust to real-world changes in circumstances that originate from events far beyond their control? No company would.

 

[Stephen]

They would be daft to make such a statement. Nominet are no more able to predict the post-vote future of the UK than the rest of us can. So why would they commit to something that would impair their ability to adjust to real-world changes in circumstances that originate from events far beyond their control? No company would.

That's the point of the thread, risk and the unknown and what are people going to do!

People acquiring .uk & .co.uk have another story that introduces risk into creating a UK based domain.

Many organizations seem to have stated what they will do if Scotland leave the UK, why cannot Nominet do the same?

 

[Edwin]

Many organizations seem to have stated what they will do if Scotland leave the UK, why cannot Nominet do the same?

You're referencing companies whose business depends on Scotland currently being part of the UK and therefore subject to the same business environment as the rest of the UK. For example, it affects their working conditions, financial regulation etc. Nothing to do with the "naming" of a particular geographic entity!

Nominet hasn't, won't and indeed can't make a statement because what happens afterwards in terms of the naming of geographic entities - which NOBODY can predict now - has the potential to affect their future business.

If the UK stays the UK, then absolutely no action is required.

If the UK becomes known as something else, then no doubt Nominet will be looking very closely at the situation and we may see a new domain extension brought out in the future. When, how, in what form - nobody knows, not even Nominet. They're not hiding anything - it's impossible for them to have that discussion now because NOBODY knows. So why would they handcuff themselves by making an unsupportable statement?

 

[AssetDomains]

Its an interesting point for discussion sure but even if the UK did rebrand would the owners of the 10 million registered domains want something different.
All the same worries about moving the your .co.uk to the .uk would still apply to .gb .eng etc.
My guess even if Scotland leaves NI, wales and England will still be known as the UK and even if not I don't see business who operate online having any appetite to risk changing over to a new domain just because the scots don't want to play anymore

 

[websaway]

That's the point of the thread, risk and the unknown and what are people going to do!

People acquiring .uk & .co.uk have another story that introduces risk into creating a UK based domain.

Many organizations seem to have stated what they will do if Scotland leave the UK, why cannot Nominet do the same?

Not demeaning your concern but can you really see the UK changing it's brand if the Scots left .
Nobody needs to confirm something where the doubt is just not credible.

 

[Stephen]

uncertainty

Not demeaning your concern but can you really see the UK changing it's brand if the Scots left .
Nobody needs to confirm something where the doubt is just not credible.

My concern is not over UK not being kept, it is the news that drives peoples decisions and sometimes it is trying to create a sense of direction for the UK namespace.

If Nominet is hedging its bets and has plans to introduce a new tld if Scotland leave, then why would anybody register and spend time developing a .uk?
If Nominet has no plans then coming out and say so, it can only strengthen the new .uk.

I believe if Scotland left UK, it will still be know as UK and the internet space anomaly (as technically I believe, it should have been .gb, so we have always lived with an anomaly)
of the UK excluding Scotland would continue to use .uk.

If there is news that says that something else may replace UK, it creates uncertainty.

I would hope that Nominet would come out and state the UK brand will stay as is, even if Scotland leaves. So removing that tld uncertainty.

 

[diablo]

I believe if Scotland left UK, it will still be know as UK and the internet space anomaly (as technically I believe, it should have been .gb, so we have always lived with an anomaly)
of the UK excluding Scotland would continue to use .uk.

I'm not sure there is an anomaly.

.uk represents the United Kingdom.

.gb represents Great Britain only, leaving Northern Ireland unrepresented.

 

[Stephen]

Small anomoly

I'm not sure there is an anomaly.

.uk represents the United Kingdom.

.gb represents Great Britain only, leaving Northern Ireland unrepresented.

Sorry this matter arose during .uk and it dates back to the start of tld's.

So there is a difference between allocated .gb tld and used .uk tld,
as the Olympics regards Northern Ireland to be part of team GBR.

.gb is a reserved Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom.

The domain was introduced with RFC 920[1] in October 1984 that set out the creation of ccTLD generally using country codes derived from the corresponding two-letter code in the ISO 3166-1 list. However, the .uk domain had been created separately a few months before the compilation of this list.[2] Consequently, .gb was never widely used. It is no longer possible to register under this domain.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.gb

 

[diablo]

Sorry this matter arose during .uk and it dates back to the start of tld's.

So there is a difference between allocated .gb tld and used .uk tld,
as the Olympics regards Northern Ireland to be part of team GBR.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.gb

Not the case, Stephen.

Athletes from Northern Ireland can choose to represent either GB or Ireland at the Olympics.

There have also been calls from Northern Ireland for Team GB to be renamed Team UK.

My understanding is that .uk was allocated to the UK before country codes were issued. .gb was included in the country codes and reserved for the UK to prevent confusion.

 

[Stephen]

Thanks

Not the case, Stephen.

Athletes from Northern Ireland can choose to represent either GB or Ireland at the Olympics.

There have also been calls from Northern Ireland for Team GB to be renamed Team UK.

My understanding is that .uk was allocated to the UK before country codes were issued. .gb was included in the country codes and reserved for the UK to prevent confusion.

Thank you for clarifying the matter.

 

[AssetDomains]

I see the .scot domain received big coverage on the BBC today shame .uk didn't get more coverage there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-28300195

 

[Edwin]

I see the .scot domain received big coverage on the BBC today shame .uk didn't get more coverage there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-28300195

It is arguably much more topical, since the Scotland Y/N vote is the biggest news on Scotland for hundreds of years (and potentially giga news for the rest of the UK, if they vote for independence) so the media have their feelers out for anything/everything that's remotely related to Scotland right now...

But I agree that it's a pity .uk didn't get more coverage.

 

[AssetDomains]

It is arguably much more topical, since the Scotland Y/N vote is the biggest news on Scotland for hundreds of years (and potentially giga news for the rest of the UK, if they vote for independence) so the media have their feelers out for anything/everything that's remotely related to Scotland right now...

But I agree that it's a pity .uk didn't get more coverage.

Yes maybe the BBC are going to be all over anything pro Scottish independence now after this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28079812

 

[aZooZa]

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Remove Scotland from the Great Britain part of the equation and the meaning of UK doesn't change.

 

[anthony]

I get tired of the 'our oil' line spouted out, there wouldn't have been an oil sector up there if it wasn't for huge and prolonged financial incentives provided by the UK Government, paid for in no small degree by mainly English tax payers!