January 2009 Archives

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

Considering all the "doom and gloom" floating around at the moment, it's nice to see that Nominet have a vacancy.

They're currently seeking applicants for the role of "Director of IT".

Full details on their site.

The guys over on Domain Name News had quite an amusing story earlier today.

It transpires that the Hollywood Renaissance let their domain lapse!

With the Renaissance playing host to DomainFest this week the timing couldn't have been worse!

Nominet have, not surprisingly, issued a statement this afternoon regarding recent activity on their board:

Statement from the Chairman of Nominet regarding the resignation of Jim
Davies as a Non-Executive Director of Nominet

We acknowledge the resignation of Jim Davies as a Non-Executive Director
of Nominet, published on 20th January 2009.  His resignation follows a
long-running dispute with the Board about his conduct as a Director
following his election in May 2008.

Mr Davies has made a number of false allegations in his resignation
letter, together with details of sensitive and confidential board and HR
matters.  Once again, this is a clear breach of his duties. Due to the
seriousness of the allegations made, we will respond and provide as much
clarity as we can to our members.

We will consider the appointment of a replacement non-executive director
in due course.

We understand that accusations and confidential disclosures have a real
impact on our staff, colleagues and members. We wish to express our
sincere thanks to those that have dealt with this highly distracting issue
with both professionalism and extreme forbearance.  We hold fast to our
view that what is fundamentally a disagreement about Nominet's future will
not overshadow or undermine the excellent work that is taking place in
support of our members, customers and the wider Internet community.

We continue to believe that whilst such disagreements happen, they should
be dealt with in a professional manner, with the benefit of independent
guidance and input. We remain committed to ensuring that Nominet is
governed according to best practice principles. The governance review,
which we announced last year, led by Professor Bob Garratt, is making good
progress and we will keep our members and stakeholders posted regarding
the outcomes (expected in March this year).

Our priority remains: to ensure the continued smooth running of .uk and
deliver a secure and robust service to our members, registrars and
customers.

Bob Gilbert
Chairman

Related articles by Zemanta

• Nominet director quits over boardroom rift
• Nominet top brass reject resignation call
• Rebel Nominet director calls for the heads of Chairman and CEO
• Nominet chairman embroiled in governance row
• UK net body Nominet faces split
• Nominet fingers governance scrutineer

DNS.be, who run the Belgian (.be) registry have announced their figures and report for 2008.

Unlike some registries that focus purely on number, the Belgian registry has done some analysis on the type of registrant.

Some of the results are not surprising.

Most .be domains are registered to Belgians (over 70%).

69% are registered by Flemings, so does that mean that the Walloons are registering .com or .fr instead?

The number of .be domains registered by private individuals continues to grow, with them now accounting for 28% of the total

16 registrars are responsible for more than 50% of registrations (this would appear to be a common trend in ccTLDs)

The registry also reported that there was a growth of 16.7% in the namespace overall.

You can read the full release on their site

Who needs new gTLDs when you can grab your own ccTLD!

Last year I noticed a trend in the ccTLD world, with a lot of governments and interest groups taking an interest in governance of their namespaces.

AFNIC, which runs .fr and several other cctlds, came under review from the French government.

Less than a year later the French government has put the registry management out to tender.

Interested parties have 52 days from the announcement, which was made on January 15th, to submit their proposals.

The winning bidder will get the contract for an initial period of 7 years.

So who is likely to place a bid?

Presumably AFNIC, who currently manage the namespace, will be in there, but there are bound to be others. Antony Van Couvering hints at COCCA making a play for it, while Afilias and several others may also be interested in getting a pitch in.

Jim Davies, who was at the centre of a recent debacle involving Nominet, has tendered his resignation from the board.

In a letter to Bob Gilbert, which Mr Davies also posted to a members' mailing list this afternoon, Davies cited his continued disagreement with the Board's conduct and that of the organisation's executives as reasons for his resignation. Oddly enough no mention appears to have been made of the contract that he had refused to sign.

I touched on some of this debacle back in November

The Register's article covers some of the background

Doom and gloom stories are never pleasant, but especially so when you know people involved.

Oversee.net, which runs DomainFest among other things, laid off a further 39% of their staff earlier this week. Whether this round of layoffs will have an impact on the upcoming DomainFest event in downtown Hollywood is hard to tell, though email updates regarding the event have been very upbeat.

(via DomainNameNews)

Although it's several months later than announced, Comreg (Irish Communications Regulator), has finally published its report on the consultation of IEDR and the IE ccTLD.

The regulator published a press release (below) as well as all submissions received and the consultation conclusions based on the submissions.

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has today published its
Response to Consultation on a new framework for the regulation and management of .ie,
Ireland's Top Level Domain (TLD), which is part of the Internet's global Domain Name
System.
Under the Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act 2007, ComReg is responsible
for making regulations to ensure the effective management and administration of .ie in the
best interests of Irish consumers who use this national resource. The .ie domain is
currently managed by IE Domain Registry Ltd. (IEDR).
In June 2008, ComReg consulted on a wide range of issues and simultaneously conducted
a comprehensive independent review and due diligence analysis of IEDR's activities. The
Response to Consultation now describes the outcome of that process and outlines
ComReg's conclusions and decisions on a suitable regulatory framework for the .ie
domain. The main points are:
- ComReg will, by way of regulation, appoint IEDR as the authority authorised to
register .ie domain names in accordance with Section 32(4)(a) of the Act of 2007,
- IEDR will set up and maintain a Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) representative of
all stakeholders with a focus on more transparent policy development,
- IEDR will continue to adopt the "managed approach" to .ie registrations to ensure
continued protection for .ie domain name holders and consumers,
- ComReg will implement a monitoring framework and will participate in the PAC to
keep abreast of activities in the marketplace,
- Further regulatory measures may be considered in the future, as warranted.
The Response to Consultation (ComReg Document 09/01) and the full Consultation Paper
(ComReg Document 08/48) are now available on www.comreg.ie.

What still has not been disclosed is the external consultants' report which was presented over a year ago.

I will followup with more in depth analysis of the final document, but due to its nature I need to read it carefully.

WIPO, which manages domain disputes on behalf of the gTLDs and a lot of the ccTLDs, has put forward a proposal to ICANN for a paperless UDRP process.

In a very interesting and insightful article on CircleID George Kirikos looks at the implications of such a process. If you have an interest in domains then you really should read both what he has to say and the details of the proposal itself.

Nominet made changes to their dispute policy a few months ago and that met with quite a bit of criticism, though I don't think they had even mooted going purely electronic.