Entries tagged with “nominet” from Domains / Internet Technology News - DNS News

Nominet, the registry operator for co.uk, have published the summary and analysis report on their recently held consultation on the release of reserved short domains.

The document, which runs to 25 pages, covers the background of the consultation process as well as providing an overview of the feedback received.

The consultation was open from March 8th 2010 to June 8th 2010 and during that time over 150 responses were received.

You can download the document from the Nominet site here

2010 is the year that .com celebrates 25 years, but it's also the year the .uk marks a quarter of a century.

Over 25 years the .uk namespace has grown and grown to become one of the most widely used addresses on the internet outside of .com

The growth pattern is quite interesting.

During the first 11 years only 26 thousand domains were registered. One million names were in the zone by February 2000, which then grew to 5 million by 2006.

There are currently over 8.5 million .uk domains!

If you're a fan of statistics you can see the latest numbers from the registry here

Nominet Internet Awards were held last night.

The winners were as follows:

Getting people online - in association with Race Online 2012 - The Northern Grid for Learning

Making the Internet Safer - Beatbullying - CyberMentors

Opening the world of knowledge - British Library - Timelines: Sources from History

Empowering young people and citizens - SignTranslate

Nurturing powerful local partnerships - ACE IT - Moose in the Hoose

Special Award for International Engagement - Child International - Youth IGF Project

More details may be found on the Nominet site

It's that time of the year again - Nominet election time!

This year there aren't any elections for the policy board, as they've changed how it's composed.

So the elections this time round are for the board.

In typical fashion, however, some of the candidates have managed to make a relatively banal election a bit more interesting ..

Check Andrew Bennett's blog for more details - this has also spilled over onto the members' forum, Twitter, Acorn Domains and a private mailing list.

Nominet, the registry operator that manages *.uk, is planning on releasing both single and two character domain names.

In common with a lot of other ccTLD registry operators, Nominet had blocked single and two character domain names from being registered. However they are now planning on releasing them to the public in a phased plan.

The exact details of "how" the domains will become available have not been decided, which is why the registry is now conducting a consultation period with the public.

The current proposal is not drastically different to the kind of methodology used by several of the gTLD registry operators to handle similar scenarios, although there are a few extra twists. To start with Nominet is speaking of the entire project in terms of "cost recovery", whereas other registries have used this kind of release as a revenue generator. The other thing which is quite interesting is how they plan to differentiate based on the second level ie. org.uk domains, according to their proposal, should be given to charities and not for profits, while co.uk should go to business users. While this is very logical it's still interesting to note that they've "gone back to basics" in some respects.

You can view full details of what Nominet are planning on their site and share your thoughts.

It will be interesting to see how the Nominet registrars and the public react to this news.

Nominet, the registry operator that manages *.uk, is planning on releasing both single and two character domain names.

In common with a lot of other ccTLD registry operators, Nominet had blocked single and two character domain names from being registered. However they are now planning on releasing them to the public in a phased plan.

The exact details of "how" the domains will become available have not been decided, which is why the registry is now conducting a consultation period with the public.

The current proposal is not drastically different to the kind of methodology used by several of the gTLD registry operators to handle similar scenarios, although there are a few extra twists. To start with Nominet is speaking of the entire project in terms of "cost recovery", whereas other registries have used this kind of release as a revenue generator. The other thing which is quite interesting is how they plan to differentiate based on the second level ie. org.uk domains, according to their proposal, should be given to charities and not for profits, while co.uk should go to business users. While this is very logical it's still interesting to note that they've "gone back to basics" in some respects.

You can view full details of what Nominet are planning on their site and share your thoughts.

It will be interesting to see how the Nominet registrars and the public react to this news.

Nominet held an EGM yesterday.

The EGM was called to make changes to Nominet's constitution.

Members voted overwhelmingly in favour of the changes, so it will be now a matter of seeing what Nominet plans to do with these new powers.

One of the areas that would be of particular to both registrars and registrants involves pricing. While the cost per annum of a co.uk domain is not at issue, the previous version of the registry's constitution meant that it could not easily introduce multi-year registrations for terms from 1 year to 10.

From a registrar perspective it would make a lot of sense to be able to offer domain name registrations for the same period across multiple TLDs ie. if a registrant wanted the .com and the co.uk then they could choose to register both domains for the same registration period.

More information on the EGM is available on the Nominet site

Related articles by Zemanta

• Nominet consultation on .UK (crookedtimber.org)
• Nominet to debate the future of .uk (v3.co.uk)
• Co.uk Registry Breaks The 8 Million Mark (isquattedyour.eu)
• Digital Britain Uses Stone Age References (isquattedyour.eu)
• Nominet Goes Social (isquattedyour.eu)

Nominet has joined the ranks of those registry operators who have embraced the much vaunted and possibly hyped, "social media".

In the last few weeks the UK registry operator has started using two Twitter accounts and its Facebook page to interact with its members (and other interested parties).

Based on member feedback they have also started sending out technical notifications via email to supplement their existing RSS feeds.

On Twitter they are using:

@Nominet - seems to be general Nominet news and interaction
@NominetTech - technical service announcements

You can find their facebook presence here.

Obviously both the Facebook and Twitter presences are accessible to both Nominet members and members of the public, while other fora, such as the private member forum, are not.

Hopefully these new efforts towards public engagement will have a positive impact on the registry.

The Digital Britain report and the legislation which is now before the UK parliament (Digital Economy Bill) makes for very scary reading.

The implications of the legislation are far reaching - and not just within the UK

What about the sections of the legislation that refer to domain registries? Note the plural

There is an entire section of the legislation dedicated to "internet domain registries", which is "nicely" divided into sub-sections:

• Powers in relation to internet domain registries
  
• Appointment of manager of internet domain registry
• Application to court to alter constitution of internet domain registry
  
  

What is worrying is how they "plan" to enact their powers in the case of "registry failure":

"3)  There is a relevant failure in relation to an internet domain registry if --

(a)  the registry, or any of its registrars or end-users, engages in prescribed practices that are unfair or involve the misuse of internet domain names,
or
(b) the arrangements made by the registry for dealing with complaints in connection with internet domain names do not comply with prescribed requirements."

Note the choice of language. Not only is failure deemed to have happened if the registry messes up, but it also gets triggered if a registrar OR a registrant does something that they don't like.

Now if you examine some of the supporting documents that they used while preparing the legislation you are going to be in for a shock.

In common with other pieces of legislation, this one was not drafted overnight. It comes after a long period of supposed planning and research. I say "supposed", as the document covering the "impact assessment" is horrendously misinformed.

Taking just one or two choice paragraphs from that document as examples:

Cyber-squatting - members apply to register domain names which are of economic value to other people and then charge then high prices to buy them.
Drop-catching - members wait until the expiry date for an existing registered domain name has just passed and the exploit the few seconds between the expiry of the registration and the effecting of the original owner's automatic registration in order to snatch the name and then charge for them to buy it back
Phishing - a member uses the domain name that is confusingly similar to another one (usually of a well known brand) in order to dupe members of the public to enter the site.

Why are they referring to "members"? Only Nominet and its members would ever refer to themselves using such terminology.
Does this mean that the British government views all Nominet members as being phishers?
I'd certainly hope not, but their choice of that term is interesting to say the least. I won't even bother addressing their definitions. Suffice to say, the definitions are flawed to the extreme.

If they are basing the concept of failure around those sorts of concepts then it may be time for Nominet registrars to look more closely at .eu!

So let's return to the "registries" once more.

As things stand at present there is more than one "registry" in the UK.
While the biggest and best known of them is obviously Nominet, there is also both Telnic and Centralnic.
While Centralnic's may be best known for domain extensions such as gb.com, it also handles the registry services for .la - Laos or Los Angeles (depending on who you ask!)
Telnic has already expressed its concern at the permutations of such legislation

And what of those organisations that were planning on getting new TLDs? What of the likes of .scot or .cym? Or any other company that was interested in applying for a new TLD with ICANN.
Has the UK government overlooked the fact that ICANN already exists?
Did they consult with ICANN prior to this?

Other parts of the bill, which deal with copyright protection (they're hailing it as progress - any normal person would view it as a denial of their right to fair process.. ) and plenty of other things that will render the UK the most internet unfriendly country in Europe.

Is this the swan song for the failing Labour government in Britain?

Do they want to be remembered for introducing draconian legislation that will effectively force internet companies in the UK to move?

I for one am scared

Nominet has announced the results of the 2009 board election for non-executive directors.

The three directors elected were:

• Clive Grace
• Nora Nanayakkara
• Jonathan Robinson

According to the announcement only 16.41% of Nominet members voted (455 members)

Nominet's AGM is taking place today in London.

If you are a Nominet member but are unable to attend in person there is a webcast available from 10am this morning.

The Nominet Board elections are currently taking place.

The list of candidates may be found here

Who should you vote for?

I'm on the record as supporting Nora's candidacy.

Nominet's AGM has been announced.

It will take place on Wednesday July 8th in the Hilton London Kensington

Two non-executive director seats are up for grabs...

More information on the AGM is available on the Nominet site

Nominet maybe attracting some undue attention due to behind the scenes squabbles, governance reviews and proposed policy changes, but the registry is also developing new features and services.

Today they announced a number of things that are worthy of attention.

The biggest one in many respects is the introduction of a new domain locking mechanism - "phishing lock".
This new mechanism allows registrars to effectively lockdown a domain or an entire account should they feel that the domain(s) are being used for phishing fraud or other types of abuse:

*  Remove the domain name from the zone file. This means that the domain name will not resolve to a web page and email directed to it will not be delivered.
* Lock all information relating to the domain name. This prevents registrant transfers, registrar changes, nameserver modifications and domain name cancellation.
* Set the domain name's status on the WHOIS to "suspended".
* If applied to an account, lock all domain names on the account. If applied to a single domain name only, that domain name will be locked. Other domain names in the same account will be unaffected.
* Not make any changes in respect of invoicing. If the domain name is not yet invoiced it will be invoiced as normal.

Nominet's information page on the new mechanism makes it clear that the lock's usage will be monitored and that registrars should not abuse it or use it for any purpose other than that for which it was intended:

*  The registrant has not paid monies owed to you
* The registrant is suspected or accused of civil wrongs, e.g. a breach of contract or IP infringement (although you may wish to take other action if you are hosting the relevant content)
* The registrant has been accused of criminal activity by one person who does not supply supporting information or evidence of the criminality
* The alleged criminal activity has nothing to do with the registrant's domain name

However it is unclear how they will act should a registrant contact them directly when their domain is locked.

Full details on their site

The other changes were not as "exciting" in some respects, but are still worth mentioning.

If you follow domain disputes or want to investigate them the new DRS (Nominet's dispute resolution service) search function is a welcome addition. You can now search past DRS decisions using a range of options including keywords, domain name, expert etc.,

The other big change today was the introduction of "standard EPP". EPP is a system used by many of the domain registries to handle registrations and modifications to domain names. Unfortunately many registrars were not overly impressed with Nominet's implementation of EPP, so this new "standard" version may prove to be more popular, as it uses data structures that are similar to those used elsewhere.

It will be interesting to see if the registrar community adopt the new EPP, though its impact on registrants in either case should be minimal.
 
 

Nominet are holding a number of registrar information days across the UK in the coming months

At present there are dates listed for:

• Leeds - 29 April 2009
• London - 30 June 2009
• Birmingham - 16 September 2009

Full information and booking details on their site

Nominet has published the results of the Independent Governance Review.

The salient points are that the report recognises Nominet's position and how it is held in high regard, however there is room for improvement in terms of engaging with members and other stakeholders:

".... .... whilst the world has moved on,neither Nominet’s membership structure, nor its constitution, has kept up with these external changes. Therefore, both its membership composition, voting processes and governance system are now in need of major reconsideration and rebalancing to cope with its changed external environment. I feel it important to stress that only the membership can resolve these issues, not the Board of Directors who ultimately are agents of the member/owners"

The report also makes clear reference to some of the "squabbles" surrounding the registry in recent months:

.... it is essential for the membership as a whole to focus its energies away from their recent publicly-aired micro-politics and to face up to their relationship with the major changes in its environment which are already shaping Nominet’s future...

The report makes several recommendations that it is felt would improve matters for the registry operator, however if the members of Nominet themselves are not interested in policy development and change I suspect that getting any real changes made is going to be awkward.

The PAB, for example, is mentioned specifically:

To reconsider the role and processes of the Policy Advisory Body so that it becomes more an ‘outward facing’ part of the membership’s connection and sensitivity to the external stakeholders and the public good.

However the level of apathy among the Nominet membership is hard to ignore. This year's PAB election did not take place, as there was no actual contest!

Needless to say Nominet has already issued a public response to the review, but whether or not they'll be able to affect any real and substantive change in their membership's level of involvement in the organisation's policies and future role is another matter.

Nominet have announced that ENUM is now live.

Full details on the Nominet site

Nominet was expected to announce the nominations for the PAB election this afternoon. What we got instead took me by surprise.

Since there were only three nominations put forward by the deadline all three get appointed without any election, leaving one free seat on the PAB.

In other words, there won't be a PAB election this year.

Considering how vocal some Nominet members were in the weeks prior to the PAB elections this turn of events took me quite by surprise. Several Nominet members had indicated that they were planning to run, but obviously decided against it.

Here is the official announcement that was sent out this afternoon:

On January 29, we issued a call for nominations for the election of four candidates to our Policy Advisory Body (PAB).

By the closing date for nominations on 17 February, we received three nominations. The following three candidates will therefore automatically be appointed / re-appointed to the PAB on May 1 without the need for an election:

- James Conaghan
- Mark Healey
- Michael Toth

We thank them for standing and for taking the time to supply the necessary documentation to go with their nominations, which we are posting here for information.  http://www.nominet.org.uk/policy/pab/election/

There is currently one vacant place on the PAB, and we will be consulting with the PAB for suggestions as to how they wish to deal with this situation. If you wish to provide PAB members with any comments then please email them at pab-feedback@nominet.org.uk

Congratulations to all three!

In totally unrelated news, someone is auctioning off one of Jim Davies' Nominet business cards for charity on ebay!




(Disclosure - as you will see from the official document I seconded two of the nominations)

Nominet's Policy Advisory Board (PAB) elections are coming up soon, with the call for nominations being issued earlier today.

There are four seats available for a period of two years.

Full details on the election process and timelines are available on their site.

You don't need to be a member of Nominet to stand for election, though you would need to be both proposed and seconded by one.

After all the debacles surrounding Nominet and its board over the last few months it will be interesting to see who puts themselves forward this time round.

Nominet are currently seeking feedback from members and the public on governance matters:

The governance review, which we announced last year, led by Professor Bob Garratt, is making good progress. As part of that process, we have engaged an independent company, Mutuo, to conduct research into stakeholders' views on governance.  The results of this research will be considered by Prof Garratt in his review, which should be published around the end of March.  Mutuo have asked us to host a questionnaire for all stakeholders in Nominet to feedback their opinions about the governance of Nominet.

You can complete the short questionnaire on their site