development UK Nominet in Big Trouble?

[premkumar]

I think many namepros members know that Nominet govern (.uk, co.uk & other uk extensions), yesterday i got mail from them saying "resolution to remove five members of the Nominet Board, including the Chair and the entire executive leadership team."

Literally entire nominet management team may be removed or retained. in case if resolution succeed, they will be removed from their job and i don't know who will govern if that happen and will UK govt take over Nominet administration or remaining members / nominet members elect new chair?


I have few questions:
1. who initiated this resolution? to my knowledge such Extraordinary General Meeting to remove half of board member not done previously.
2. The board promises so many things, if they are retained, some of that they could never listen member request in normal time like:

Freezing .UK prices for at least the next two years
Freezing Board Pay
Investing in .UK infrastructure
Scaling our commitment to Public Benefit
Improving membership engagement
Increasing financial transparency
Launching a Registry Advisory Council (RAC)


Can fellow nominet member in NP, throw some light on what's happening in nominet?


Hey wait i forgot, i got call from nominet today regarding the resolution and asked me to vote, though she said she can't say what to vote but when i said don't worry i will vote No, she laughed more or less it clear they want the resolution to defeated.


I don't know i can share the mail from Nominet, if it can be shared, I will post it .

 

[carob]

Support is now at 24.5% against a target of at least 25%:

https://publicbenefit.uk/#support

Great that in the last week Namecheap came on board, possibly the largest supporter so far, well worth contacting undecided registars to encourage them to support this.

11 of the top 20 registrars are undecided according to publicbenefit.uk, namely these:

#1 GoDaddy.com (123-reg, Heart, TSOHost, Daily, Domain Monster) 3,642,290 207,973
#2 1&1 Ionos (Ionos, Fasthosts) 1,696,701 207,973
#3 Namesco (LCN) 612,238 207,973
#4 TUCOWS (OpenSRS, Enom) 381,468 207,973
#5 PDR (Web.com, Arvixe, HostGator, Bluehost, iPage, A Small Orange, JustHost, Site 5, NetworkSolutions) 333,305 207,973
#6 Corporation Service Company (UK) 243,202 207,973
#8 Iomart Hosting (Easyspace, Bytemark, Memset) 145,213 146,544
#9 Key-Systems (CentralNic, InternetBS) 134,040 135,371
#10 UK2 132,495 133,826
#13 One.com 89,021 90,352
#17 Markmonitor 44,723 46,054

 

[premkumar]

Support is now at 24.5% against a target of at least 25%:

https://publicbenefit.uk/#support

Great that in the last week Namecheap came on board, possibly the largest supporter so far, well worth contacting undecided registars to encourage them to support this.

11 of the top 20 registrars are undecided according to publicbenefit.uk, namely these:

yesterday they are 20.5% now today i think Namecheap pledge it support for the vote, i think its their biggest supporter with 3% vote .

 

[carob]

Support now up to 24.7%

https://publicbenefit.uk/#support

I have contacted several registrars as a customer. Haven't contacted Godaddy yet. Key-Systems/Internebs/CentralNIC are surprisingly undecided still.

Note: weird voting system - you do not need 50% to win - 25% is an excellent target.

 

[premkumar]

Support now up to 24.7%

https://publicbenefit.uk/#support

I have contacted several registrars as a customer. Haven't contacted Godaddy yet. Key-Systems/Internebs/CentralNIC are surprisingly undecided still.

Note: weird voting system - you do not need 50% to win - 25% is an excellent target.

They increase target. 10 days before the target was 20%, once 20% achieved target moved to 25%. I think this vote is more or less over.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

I think this vote is more or less over.

Going in which way? That site is just for people that want to put their support out in the public sphere.

 

[carob]

They increase target. 10 days before the target was 20%, once 20% achieved target moved to 25%. I think this vote is more or less over.

It may be like those petition sites that raise the target every time it is met to keep people coming.

The prob I see is Nominet is in this mess because a few powerful interests have taken control and bend the rules to keep control, so the more support for change there is the better, and the less chance there is of a valid vote for change somehow being ignored or challenged.

It annoys me that Google has abstained - don't they expect Nominet to follow its own rules?

 

[premkumar]

Going in which way? That site is just for people that want to put their support out in the public sphere.

you know which way. last time resolution is passed, the entire turnout is just 9%. I sure this time the turnout will be higher given how big change this resolution going to bring to nominet but still i don't expect more than 60 % infact i feel it will be less than 50% vote value will be casted.


To be frank, I am wary of both sides. Will the new team bring changes that's only positive or they bring trouble to us domainers?

I like Nominet its one of few independent and open registry organization that allow individuals across the world participate unlike counterpart like canada and europe where its open only to its citizen and worst part (i read somewhere) after Brexit they said UK citizen can no more hold the .eu domain ownership.

hope who ever taken over this organization/ current team run it in future, i expect they be one who always open to business to everyone registry not closed ones.

It may be like those petition sites that raise the target every time it is met to keep people coming.

The prob I see is Nominet is in this mess because a few powerful interests have taken control and bend the rules to keep control, so the more support for change there is the better, and the less chance there is of a valid vote for change somehow being ignored or challenged.

It annoys me that Google has abstained - don't they expect Nominet to follow its own rules?

yep, their in this mess mainly because they formed little empowered group for their own material benefit both the management and few registrar are part of it. to my knowledge the one registrar with Name and other one daddy registrar benefited from it and apart from the management team cutting cheque for themself and also going for shopping spears of questionable multi million pound purchases.

And all the suggestion and complaints of other members fall on deaf ears.

 

[Mike Goodman]

@premkumar The whole idea is to open the organisation to its membership once again. The current management have been announcing decisions made behind closed doors. The interim leadership, as I stated in an earlier post, will remain for just 2 years. During that time the constitution will be amended such that the membership must be involved in decision making.

The interim leadership will resign after two years. All management positions, which may still be a board of directors, will have been openly elected by the membership to take over from the interim two board members. It should by that time be extremely difficult for any vested interest group to take control.

The spate of promises from the incumbents today are a complete change of heart. What they are now proposing is exactly what they have been asked to do by the membership for years, with a cuople of minor tweaks to water that down. How can you trust them?

 

[Mike Goodman]

It annoys me that Google has abstained - don't they expect Nominet to follow its own rules?

It neither surprises nor annoys me. G is a huge conglomorate exhibiting monopolistic behaviour. Their reason for abstention is probably nothing more than PR. They don't want to open their hand to show that's what they believe in. I hope GD do the same thing. When did either follow rules when they could smell an advantage from not doing so?

 

[carob]

Today support is at 25%. https://publicbenefit.uk/

And yes unsurprisingly, target shown there has now been revised up from 25% to 30%, the more support the better.

 

[jmcc]

Tucows just voted yes. That's 2 million votes in favour of the motion. (It is a strange vote counting system.)

Regards...jmcc

 

[carob]

Tucows just voted yes. That's 2 million votes in favour of the motion. (It is a strange vote counting system.)

Regards...jmcc

Support today at 28.6%, Godaddy still sitting on the fence as well as Key Systems who own Moniker and Internetbs.

More coverage this week in The Register too:

https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/16/nominet_government_intervention/

...the PublicBenefit.uk campaign continues to pick up support. As of Monday, it has the public support of 432 members, representing 75 per cent of the organisation’s largest 50 members and 25.1 per cent of all voting rights.

To win, the yes vote needs more than 50 per cent of the total votes cast – something that now looks like a virtual certainty given the fact that only on very rare occasions is member turnout on such votes higher than 10 per cent.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Well whatever happens I hope that the people that are installed don't start tweeting their virtue like every other org now.

Tucows just voted yes. That's 2 million votes in favour of the motion. (It is a strange vote counting system.)

Regards...jmcc

I think it's proportionate to the number of domains that the registrar is responsible for. So in that sense it makes sense I suppose?

 

[jmcc]

Well whatever happens I hope that the people that are installed don't start tweeting their virtue like every other org now.

I think it's proportionate to the number of domains that the registrar is responsible for. So in that sense it makes sense I suppose?

Yep. It would make a good headline though and this is probably the most engaged the .UK Nominet membership has been for years and the board of Nominet seems very worried about its future.

Regards...jmcc

 

[premkumar]

I have casted my vote yesterday. Had a talk with Simon too and shared my views.

 

[carob]

Support keeps going up - now at 29.2%

Another supporter declares as of yesterday: https://www.linx.net/contact/linx-news/statement-concerning-the-forthcoming-nominet-egm/

And Nominet are so desperate they are using Google Ads. Wonder what the cost per click is.

 

[jmcc]

Some of the largest operators in the .UK market are not UK owned companies. Some of these, such as Godaddy, 1&1 and Team Blue, have not voted or may vote at the EGM on Monday. Eitherway, those 2M votes and 29.2% of the membership is impressive. The Register ( https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/18/nominet_voting_fears/ ) and Domainincite ( http://domainincite.com/ ) are covering the story well.

Regards...jmcc

 

[carob]

The Register ( https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/18/nominet_voting_fears/ ) and Domainincite ( http://domainincite.com/ ) are covering the story well.

Wow it just gets worse:

The upshot of that approach, however, was that Blackler was told he would not be able to appear live during the EGM itself. When Blackler made it clear that he wanted to deliver his arguments and potentially answer member questions live, we understand Kelly told him Nominet may not be able to do so because of technical limitations.
Not only that, Nominet also intends to limit the amount of time available to members to ask questions...
[

Why doesn't Blackler just address the whole world on Youtube Live on the day?

 

[jmcc]

Wow it just gets worse:


Why doesn't Blackler just address the whole world on Youtube Live on the day?

He has to cast the proxy votes for all those members who have nominated him as their proxy. Whatever happens, it is going to be an interesting day.

Regards...jmcc

 

[premkumar]

Anybody know the link to see the EGM meeting online? they will live telecast it right ?

 

[jmcc]

Anybody know the link to see the EGM meeting online? they will live telecast it right ?

If you are a member, you should have got a voting e-mail with the link to the EGM at the end of it. It was easy to miss. (Registration link sent via PM)

Regards...jmcc

 

[jmcc]

Seems that Russell Haworth is stepping down as CEO and board member.

https://www.nominet.uk/announcement-from-the-board

Regards...jmcc

 

[premkumar]

A short time ago, we announced that Chief Executive, Russell Haworth, is stepping down. Russell has been an outstanding leader for Nominet. The entire Board is grateful for all that he has done for the company and that he has recognised that a new direction of travel will require new leadership.

All the best to Russell Haworth.

 

[Mike Goodman]

They lost! This declaration is a very clear signal of that as fact. But does this give them a way out? Do they simply scrap the vote because the motion is no longer completely accurate, with Haworth as the fall guy? I suspect they've ditched him to save their own skins.

This sounds to me like a total and utter scam by the board. If my suspicion is correct the next step has to be a confidence motion, straight and direct at the chairman. He has allowed the situation to endure for 6 years without doing anything about it.

 

[carob]

The list of Nominet members is here: https://registrars.nominet.uk/uk-namespace/registrar-agreement/list-of-members/

Interesting to see that includes some universities and even UK local governments.