Category Archives: Opinion

Nominet UK Registry Advisory Council Result

The election results for the newly formed UK Registry Advisory Council have been released and we are delighted that Rex Wickham of 2020Media has been elected as one of the “large” registrar category representatives for a 2 year term.

Andy Green, new Chair of Nominet, wrote

“It is an important body that will bring industry perspective, insight and knowledge to Nominet’s decision-making. There are substantive policy issues to tackle as the council gets underway, including how we release expired domains. I also look forward to the council’s input as we develop plans to re-establish the forum. “

As Rex wrote in his election statement, he is committed to seeing Nominet enact real change and hopes the UK RAC can make a meaninful contribution to doing that. Rex added:

“I am delighted to have been elected to the Council and will honour my commitment to hearing from Nominet members of all sizes and business models. There is a long road ahead but with a broad base of support for change, I am optimistic and look forward to working with my fellow Council members.”

Nominet members are welcome to contact Rex about UKRAC matters using ukrac@2020media.com. If you’d like a call instead please drop a line first and he’ll make contact.

 

Nominet Registry Advisory Council Voting

Rex Wickham from @2020MediaCom is standing in the #Nominet elections for the newly formed UK Registry Advisory Council.

If you’re a Nominet member, we’d love your support for him.

Rex is standing in the ‘Large Registrar’ category and supports reform of Nominet along the http://PublicBenefit.uk campaign aims. You can read more on why Rex and 2020Media want Nominet to change in our blog post 2020Media Supports Reform of Nominet UK
2020Media is perhaps the only one of the “Large Registrar” category who are not a corporate behemoth and as a candidate Rex is very much grounded in day to day operations of a UK based hosting company.

Here is the election statement from Rex:

I’m standing for the UKRAC because I care about shaping the future registration policy of Nominet.  Sadly members are not getting a fair say over all Nominet policy but the RAC is a start. I believe I can represent the views of the retail registrar. My company, 2020Media, has been registering domains for over 20 years, with a customer base ranging from individuals to corporates and
councils.
Membership of RIPE and ICANN for many years has also influenced my decision to stand -there’s a lot to learn from these organisations (both good and bad) and I hope my experiences will make the UKRAC a more effective voice for members.
Outside of the internet world, I’ve a wider interest in good governance and currently hold the post of school governor co-chair of a primary school federation, secretary of my co-op resident’s association and I’ve just completed a stint on the PCC of my local church.
I did support the Public Benefit EGM to restore Nominet’s purpose and I remain committed to seeing Nominet enact real change. I want to see Nominet lower executive pay, fairly set domain pricing, increase spending on meaningful public benefit causes and refocus on core registry operations and finally become more open and transparent with members.

Voting is already open and runs until 22nd July.

Other candidates who have declared support for reform of Nominet along these lines are shown in the table below. If you share these views, please vote for any of these candidates.

If elected, Rex welcomes input from Nominet members – please email ukrac@2020media.com in the first instance but telephone and chat are also available.

 

ICANN Barcelona Wrap Up

ICANN is 20 years old, but what is ICANN?

Simply put ICANN is the policy making body for gTLD domains and IP numbers. They hold week long conferences three times a year to engage with all internet stakeholders, from representatives of government to non-commercial internet organisations to private individuals.

2020Media’s Management team attended the recent ICANN meeting in Barcelona, Spain. We present a short review of our experiences.

Hot Topics

The most talked about issue that ICANN is dealing with at the moment is the WHOIS system. This used to be a public database where all the contact details for domain name owners was published. As you may expect it was used by spammers and malware pushers as a rich source of data. Thanks to the EU bringing in GDPR, all this personal data is now hidden from public view, and only available to law enforcement and other similar officials. A replacement system is also being discussed but has been bogged down for years.

Of course not everyone is happy with how these changes have been implemented and what will be available in the future – “Civil society groups blast ICANN Org’s push for a “Unified Access Model”

 ICANN 63 Barcelona By the Numbers

ICANN 63 by the numbers