Nora Nanayakkara

I’ve been in touch with many Nominet Members since we launched our recent consultation on the future of .uk.  Lots of you have had questions, or asked my opinions on the topics involved, so I thought I’d update the blog! I would urge any Nominet Members reading this to participate in Nominet’s consultation – HERE.  Please give feedback on the statement of commitments and share your views in the comments section.  Your feedback here will shape the EGM resolutions, so your input really counts in determining the direction Nominet will take!

For those who haven’t read the consultation; it centres on a statement of commitments in four key areas that need our attention – governance, pricing, membership and public purpose.  I’ve included my opinion on each below

1. Public Purpose

Public purpose has always been at the heart of Nominet but we now need to embrace it fully and enshrine it in our constitution, to demonstrate our commitment to representing the interests of the wider stakeholder community, alongside our Members.  We know the vast majority of our Members already embrace this idea but part of satisfying government’s requirements in terms of best practice is to give this element explicit recognition in our constitution.  In essence, it means that while Nominet will continue to support our thriving domain name industry by being a first class supplier to registrars and a guardian of .uk for all .uk registrants, we must do MORE to engage formally with all stakeholders; in particular with institutions like government, police, etc.

Public purpose does include an ongoing relationship with the Nominet Trust as part of our commitment to reinvesting surplus funds back into the online space through helping organizations use the Internet in an innovative way to make a difference to people, primarily in the areas of education, online safety and inclusion.  However, public purpose is MUCH MORE than this.

Times have changed since Nominet’s inception, and a rise in Internet penetration, online usage and digital marketing means that domain names are now at the core of almost everything we do online.  This offers great opportunity for our Members in terms of business, entrepreneurship, digital advertising and competition, but it also opens up new opportunities for crime and scope for an exacerbation of the digital divide, which alongside the mainstay of our business, need to be addressed by Nominet in a way that allows stakeholders access and avenues for involvement.  Nominet endeavours to do this already with the PAB and its range of processes and policies, but enshrining our commitment to wider stakeholder involvement must be part of Nominet’s ongoing work to ensure our Members remain  free to champion diverse business models and our ability to continue to take a balanced approach to our support of existing and emerging technologies.

2. Governance

Global internet governance is a key issue in today’s digital landscape; a lot of attention is being paid to regulation models, looking at how other countries manage their TLDs and how agencies work internationally to meet common goals.  Nominet is already involved in several international initiatives in this area, including the IGF, but we now have a part to play in this at home as well.  Just as the international community is starting to look at governance issues, so are national attentions now being paid to how .uk, and Nominet itself, are run.  You might think this has nothing to do with you, but Nominet’s governance shortcomings were exposed last year in press and Boardroom disagreements and the Government has legitimate concerns until the EGM, when the Membership’s approval of the resolutions would address its concerns.

We have not modernized our governance structure since Nominet’s inception, despite massive changes in the constitution of our space and our Membership, the emergence of many more business models than could ever have been imagined at Nominet’s outset and the Internet having grown to be a part of our critical national infrastructure.  More attention than ever is being paid to the space in which we operate; and in turn, to how Nominet itself operates.  It’s time for us to come up to speed with corporate governance practice in the UK; the Board structure needs to adapt to ensure balance moving forward, elements of best corporate practice need to be adopted to make our structures and systems of governance more transparent and accountable to the Members.  Supporting Nominet in its efforts to optimize its governance will reap benefits for Members – the Board can enlarge to fill out skill gaps, appointed directors can be brought in for specialized expertise, Member appointed directors would remain, roles would be split to provide more transparency and accountability, more of the management team would be able to join the Board and a balanced and committed Nominet Board could be ensured for the future to continue supplying, sustaining and supporting the .uk space as our Membership, our organization and our space continues to evolve.

3. Pricing

As Jonathan Robinson said in the consultation video, for every person that would like the price of .uk to be increased, you can find one who is vehemently opposed.  The Board has no current plans to change the pricing.  However, we need the ability to be able to do so.  The Garratt review emphasized how important this is – Nominet as the custodian of .uk needs to have the ability to alter the price of .uk, should the commercial need arise.  As already mentioned, so much has changed since Nominet was created – we are one of the largest registries in the world!  Who knows what lies around the corner?  We can prepare ourselves and our registry for the future by enabling the Board to adjust pricing.  If Nominet Members support this in principle, Nominet’s Board undertakes that it will not do so without Membership engagement and will ensure that no group is favoured over others.  This is a critical element in determining Nominet’s ability to meet future challenges – only with the ability to be flexible and to adapt to potentially rapidly changing market conditions, can we, as .uk stakeholders, be assured of our ability to continue managing .uk for all UK Internet users.

4. Membership

Nominet’s Membership has grown considerably since it was created, and we now have close to 3000 Members.  However, engagement by these Members in Nominet consultations, elections, outreach etc. has always been low.  Most Members regard Nominet as a supplier and as long as they experience no supply problems, feel no need to “get involved”.  It is a testament to their success as domain name businesses that they often may not have the time to engage with Nominet on strategic issues but Nominet needs those Members’ support and input on any number of issues.  This consultation and the upcoming EGM, in particular, are critical to Nominet’s and .uk’s continued success.   Nominet needs to find a way to effectively enfranchise our Membership.  Voting thresholds are so high, that every vote counts in this EGM!

As a Nominet Member, please engage -just this once.  Check out the consultation here and give your feedback; it won’t take long!

We need your input to be able to get the EGM resolutions right and then in turn, we need your support to pass the resolutions in order to satisfy Government, reduce the risk of intervention and regulation, build an organization fit for the future and adapt our organization so it is ready and able to meet the challenges of a digital future together with our Membership

If you would like more information on any of these statements of commitment, or would like to discuss any element of the consultation in more detail, please get in touch with me.  You can reach me on Twitter, LinkedIn, at Sedo, at Nominet or by email.  As always, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Best wishes,

Nora Nanayakkara