For those of you that have never heard of Nominet’s Policy Advisory Body (PAB), and for those that have heard of the PAB, but didn’t know it could involve you, this post is for you!
For the past few months, the PAB (of which I am an elected member) has been conducting a self-evaluation and this week, we published our conclusions. We have all agreed that we need to optimize a few things about the way we work and, more than that, we need to increase the participation of a broader range of people with an interest in .uk matters. I’d love to hear your thoughts on all this, so have a read of our plans and let me know what you think.
Why the PAB needs to change…
The Internet is constantly throwing out issues and new problems as it evolves, and Nominet – as one of the largest registries in the world – needs to constantly develop a range of policies to deal with such issues. In order to assist this policy development, in 1999 the Policy Advisory Body – made up of a range of member representatives and other stakeholders – was created to discuss topical issues and give recommendations to Nominet’s board.
What worked well in the early days of the UK’s internet, has however been struggling to cope with the impact of the massive growth of .uk and the associated issues this raises. The issues that are thrown up these days affect more people, need faster solutions, and would benefit from greater expertise than was originally envisaged. Our small group of PAB members has been trying to adequately discuss these often specialist topics by pulling in views and expertise from outside to complement the competencies around the table. However, a lack of visibility, a cumbersome stakeholder input mechanism and a fixed format made it difficult to find the best and most informed solutions. At the end of last year, we finalized some exciting new ways to work to enable more voices and constituencies to be heard.
Extending our reach
Instead of the closed group of up to 18 meeting in person every few months, we have decided to dramatically extend the process and put you – the Internet user – at the heart of Nominet’s policy process.
The policy process will become issue-led and stakeholder focussed open to all to participate in through open forum meetings and issues based discussion groups. To facilitate such an open process and ensure it works we need new structures to support it. One of these new structures is a Standing Committee that helps draw together those most interested in a particular issue. The Standing Committee will, crucially, support, rather than run, a series of channels for gathering information, holding discussions on that information in different formats, and developing ideas and solutions.
The stakeholder process will follow six clear steps, the first of which is identifying and approaching relevant people that are likely to have an interest in, or relevant to, the topic under discussion.
The issue itself will then be clearly identified, groups (as relevant) set up, public discussions and consultations held, and then the results analyzed before being passed onto the Board for its consideration and review.
What does this mean for you?
It means that if you have an interest in Nominet issues, domain issues, or related Internet issues, you will be able to become a part of the group itself that decides the best way forward.
The new Standing Committee, will act as a guide, assisting in communication, providing consistency and ensuring that the process isn’t abused. And a support team from Nominet will help different groups with logistics and materials so their work can progress effectively.
This approach will, we hope, enable Nominet to come up with better, more broadly considered, effective solutions and to call on a breadth of experience that any committee of 18 could never have. Most importantly, we want to remove barriers to participation and give you a central stake in policy development of the .uk name space addressing issues that affect us all. The PAB’s original function, I believe, was to add value to Nominet’s policy process – i.e. to reach beyond consultations, mailing lists and Nominet outreach events and to consider broad policy issues from the viewpoint of all member sectors – especially those not traditionally reached by the core outreach initiatives. The proposed changes will allow us to return to the original intent of the PAB by making it easier for you to be involved, in issues that interest you, in a format that works for you, in a framework that supports and enables you, the .uk stakeholder, to help shape the future of .uk
If you are interested in the formal report from the PAB on this issue, please view the report at: http://www.nominet.org.uk/digitalAssets/39402_DraftPABmeetingreport_november2009.pdf
Get involved
If you have questions, or want to know more, just add a comment to this post or contact me directly – as ever, would be delighted to hear from you!
