insight 

The Monday 17 December deadline for sending feedback about our proposals for a Nominet Foundation is fast approaching. If you have any views on the concept of a foundation, or suggestions of possible beneficiaries we’d be very interested to hear from you. Either complete our short online survey or email comments to foundation@nominet.org.uk.

We have received some encouraging comments so far, but the level of feedback has been disappointing with only 20 responses received.

Some background:
Our proposal recommends that we create a Nominet Foundation for the purpose of public benefit to UK Internet stakeholders through education, research and the funding of suitable projects. We would set it up as a charity and company limited by guarantee, with a first year donation of £5m.

This proposal has been made to resolve the issue of the level of our reserves, which have been increasing significantly beyond the level we have identified as necessary for the ongoing running of the business.

We have thought long and hard about possible ways of resolving this issue and some of the more obvious options are not open to us. For instance we are unable to change the price of domain names unless 75% of our membership vote in favour of a change. And, although some members favour a price reduction, others are equally convinced that the price should be increased, as they feel price reductions devalue the product. Also, our constitution prevents us from distributing funds to our members.

As these options are not available to us, the plan for a Foundation to benefit the Internet industry in the UK has emerged as the most popular solution and we’re taking feedback on this proposal now, so do let us know your thoughts.

On Wednesday last week, we launched our domain name industry report at our first .uk registrar conference. This seems to have been well received by all in attendance and has got a couple of mentions in the media.

Some, though by no means all, of the content was already in the public domain. The challenge for us was to bring together a large amount of disparate information and present an overview picture of the .uk domain name industry within a global context, including some previously unpublished statistics (.uk renewals, registrant and registrar trends).

Since presenting this information, we’ve had some requests for other data to be presented in the future and are already investigating various strands of research. We’d like to know what you think of the report and what other data you’d be interested in seeing us produce. So if there’s data you think we’re in a position to obtain and publish, then please ask and we’ll see if it’s possible to get at it.

The conference itself was also a first for us. We wanted to present a day that would be of interest to our registrars, increase the understanding of the various issues that we are all faced with in the market at the moment and impart some of the latest information about how we’re trying to support our registrar community. Judging by the feedback on the day, we seem to have hit the mark for most people.

If you were there and feel we could have done better then, let us know how and we’ll bear it in mind for future events.

If you weren’t there and want to know what happened then take a look at the presentation slides here.

I see that there have been a few stories in the press regarding ICANN investigating the practice of registering a domain name based on the search someone has done on that domain name. As far as we are aware this practice is not widespread in the UK. Read more

This is just a quick reminder that Nominet’s second consultation on corporate governance closes next Wednesday, 31 October. We currently have had only 16 responses. If you have any comments you would like to make about the proposals please do let us know by completing the questionnaire or emailing us governanceconsultation@nominet.org.uk.

The US Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently announced the renewal of a contract with Neustar to manage the .us domain name space. Read more

Occasionally domain name stories appear in the media solely because the name itself is of big enough interest, as was the case this week with a small spate of tales about the web site acdc.com, which has recently come into the hands of the band ACDC. It’s a bit of an amusing story but it nevertheless raises one of those important points regarding Trademarks, domain names and cybersquatting. Read more

On Thursday we held an interactive workshop about the key issues on Internet governance from a UK perspective. It was a surprisingly well-attended and really productive session. Several key messages emerged from the discussions which we will now be sharing alongside several examples of best practice in Internet governance from the UK at the next IGF in Rio in November. Read more

We’re watching the launch of .asia with interest. Yesterday saw the opening of the sunrise period during which organisations with Trademarks can register domain names. If there are multiple registrations for the same domain, then instead of the usual first come first served process as observed with the launch of .eu there’ll be an auction this time. Read more

I noticed with interest that NASK, the .pl Polish registry has made an announcement regarding a domain name tasting service. Read more

Earlier this month isnic, the .is Icelandic registry, relaxed its rules for overseas registrants.

“Foreign registrants of .IS domains have until now been required to confirm their ownership of the corresponding trademark at the Icelandic Patent Agency (Einkaleyfastofa) before the domain can be registered. This requirement has now been lifted. Read more