Robert Taylor - Nominet Policy Advisory Body Election

( The following is an extended version of my formal election statement. There was a 250 word limit thus limiting what could be published, likewise on this page I am responding to questions posed since making my candidateship public. )

Hello,

I am Robert Taylor and I am standing as a candidate for the Nominet Policy Advisory Body (PAB) election. On election I hope to achieve the following :

  • Ensuring Nominet works for the benefit of the internet community, prioritising the needs of UK businesses and consumers.

  • Establishing equality between large and small registrars.

  • Wider public promotion of Nominet and .UK as a brand.

  • To create a Nominet that is proactive not reactive in enforcing their terms, such as publication of WHOIS data by third parties or taking action against registrars that go against the Good Practice Terms.

  • Online services expanded to include registrant changes, however maintaining security via manual oversight.

  • Opening up Nominet to be a more accessible organisation, with easy to find and clear explainations of expenditure , activities and future goals.
  • I believe that Nominet's growing surplus is at obvious odds to its 'not for profit' aim, and ways ought to be explored to lower this by adding to, and expanding, registrar and registrant facing services.

  • I support the ideals behind a 'Nominet Foundation' however the execution needs to ensure it has a representative governance structure that recognises the funding source.

  • Two letter .uk domains eg. AB.co.uk ought to be released.

  • I support longer registration periods, with the caveat of maintaining registrant data integrity eg. having 'check in' periods.

  • I agree that a 'lock-state' for domains is a useful tool and can be an added layer of security.

  • My views on the DRS can be found at 2007 DRS Consultation

  • I hope Nominet stays a membership based organisation rather than 'Nominet PLC'.

  • Will the candidates be pushing for any personal agenda's? I personally would like the current non-realtime domain modification stuff to be overhauled. By this I mean registration transfer, tag changes and online domain control that requires offline inputs. I believe that the manual oversight can be kept in a system which is run entirely online.

  • Does the PAB still have an active role to play? Hopefully, as without it there is no formal independent input to Nominet that they at least agree to listen to ;-)

  • Has the PAB's role changed over the years and how do you see the PAB evolving over your future period on the PAB? The active role has changed due to the issues of the day, so policy on .co.uk registration back in t'day has been replaced with phishing.

    I don’t think the stated role has changed that much, however the perception of the PAB being ineffective or a PR exercise has grown, or I have just been talking to more people who think that! ;-)

    I hope in the future to see the PAB tackle policy issues in a way that changes that view!

    The PAB is now in a different online world which needs to be recognised. Registrants do want to secure their domain name long term, there is no longer any need to reserve two letter domain names, there is bandwidth/ip's/cpu cycles out there that can mine and display the WHOIS records of millions of people.

    I would also welcome the PAB to 'evolve' further by having one or two more elected members, as the membership grows it would make sense to have more representation.

  • With historically only around 10% of the members voting do you feel this is enough of a mandate to move forward? if as expected the same trend continues how would you endeavour to increase this next year?

    10% is a rubbish turnout and I would wholeheartedly encourage steps to increase it.

    This is a two way street, if people think the PAB is a waste of time they will not care to vote so improving the PAB ought to increase the turnout via increased relevancy.

    Practically speaking, increased promotion via phone / mailings etc to draw attention to the vote could help however I prefer the carrot rather than the stick approach.

    I think it speaks volumes that 90% do not bother to vote and questions need to be asked why, and the answers acted on. These are the first proper 'public' questions put to candidates and even then it is to 25% of the membership and I imagine a fair few of those will only catch up on the list every couple of weeks - not good.

    In terms of mandate, I doubt having a 'none of the above' option would vastly increase turnout as the quality of candidates is quite high and, as above, I think the problems lay with the achievements of the PAB which is term is somewhat limited by the leash given to it by Nominet ;-)

  • What do you see as the main issues affecting members/tagholders? same question - registrants? which side do you sit when the two conflict?

    Members/Tagholders:
    - Are the membership relevant to Nominet anymore?
    - Nominet as a direct competitor.

    Registrants:
    - Renewals/Registration eg. Confusion on invoicing, why can I not get the domain I want?
    - Protection eg. lock states and use of whois data.

    Regarding taking sides, I am a registrant and a registrar so perhaps have the privilege of experiencing both areas of frustration. Generally speaking straightforward sensible policy ought help both the registrar and registrant.

  • Are you willing to bring forward/support issues that may be in conflict with your own business projects?

    Yes, I see the PAB role as wider than specific interests or acting on single issues / pressure group style promotion. This needs to happen for reasons above re: relevancy to both Nominet and Membership.

I believe I will bring a practical and common sense holistic approach to dealing with the issues facing Nominet. I see Nominet as the custodian of the .UK brand .

About me:

I am 24 years old, an eCommerce graduate (2:1 hons , Coventry Uni) and have been involved in internet related activities for over 9 years.

I am an entrepreneur with a background in web development designing and building social media applications (one resulting in over 100,000 registered users), small scale ISP services and consultancy to small businesses in the UK.

In 2006 Hey.co.uk Ltd was formed to handle my domain related products and services. The company is currently in the process of conducting domain transactions and development along with offering associated domain services.

I am originally from Wrexham in North Wales, however have spent most of the last two years in Brisbane, Australia. This has raised my awareness in differing domain related policies and opinions in the .AU and .NZ ccTLD's. I will be based in the UK for the next two years and therefore will be able to attend the PAB meetings and related commitments.

In my spare time I am an avid football fan (supporting Wrexham and Queensland Roar) and have been known to brew the odd beer.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to run as a candidate for the PAB, and see this as a chance to help the future of Nominet .

Interests

Under clause 2.4 of the PAB code of conduct I would like to declare the following interests:

Directorships:
- I am currently director of Hey.co.uk Limited .

Nomination

Proposer: Mark Baker, Dark Group Ltd (ysh.co.uk , Fast.co.uk ) .

Seconder: Mohammed Zaffer, eLife Ltd.

If you have any questions please email me on rob (atsign) rob.co.uk or post on Nominet mailing lists so all candidates can debate!