Nominet UK - Meeting Report




		Policy Advisory Board

		MEETING 19 - 3 APRIL 2002 POLICY ADVISORY BOARD REPORT PORTMAN SQUARE, LONDON, W1 3 APRIL 2002 Those present: Richard Almeida Elected Member Jeremy Beale Appointed Member Adam Beaumont Elected Member Denesh Bhabuta Elected Member Roy Bisson Appointed Member James Cronin Elected Member Gordon Dick Elected Member Michael Duggan Appointed Member Steve Dyer Appointed Member - Council of Management Peter Gradwell Elected Member Ben Laurie Elected Member Eric Ramage Appointed Member Sue White Appointed Member From Nominet by invitation of the PAB: Felicity Hoad, Communications Manager Fay Howard, INCOP Project Manager Juliette Stone, Schools Project Manager Emily Taylor, Company Solicitor Welcome and apologies Richard Almeida welcomed the new members of the PAB. Apologies were received from Alex Bligh and Clive Feather. Legal advice on Tag Changes Richard explained that because of possible conflict of interest Michael Duggan from the DTI had absented himself from this item. Emily Taylor gave the PAB legal advice on Nominet's position with regard to Tag Changes. The PAB unanimously accepted the legal advice and urged the Council of Management to make the necessary operational changes to reflect this. The PAB recommended that Nominet should be able to charge for Tag Changes on a cost-recovery basis in the future. ACTION: Council of Management Role of PAB Chair and Secretariat The role of the PAB chair was discussed and it was agreed that the chair needed to have closer links with Nominet management and the CoM. It was suggested that the Chair's Term should last for one year, and that he or she should not be re-elected more than once. This was to be clarified by the "PAB Purpose" sub-committee (see item 4). Richard Almeida retired as Chair and nominated Peter Gradwell as his successor who was duly elected. The PAB recorded a vote of thanks to Richard for his efforts over the last two years. The PAB identified the need for an official secretariat. It was agreed that Nominet should provide a secretary to organise the administration and a lawyer to advise on due process. Felicity Hoad and Emily Taylor were pleased to be invited to take on these roles respectively. The Secretariat would be responsible for conveying the live issues on NOM-STEER to the PAB, in addition to those PAB members who subscribe and regularly contribute to the list. Attendance at PAB Meetings by Nominet executive staff was discussed. It was agreed that the PAB Chair should invite relevant Nominet staff to attend PAB Meetings where the topic was relevant to their area of expertise. It was agreed that the Chair should approve the minutes and that the Secretary should distribute them within a week of the meeting to PAB Members for approval. The PAB would be given a further week to approve their content. It was recommended that an induction session be arranged at Nominet for the appointed and newly-elected members. ACTION: Felicity Hoad "The PAB, Our Purpose and Future" Gordon Dick tabled a paper outlining the role of the PAB with recommendations for change. It was agreed that there needed to be more clarity about the scope of the PAB's role as well as a better definition of the working procedures. It was also recommended that an accessible database of PAB policy recommendations would be beneficial. ACTION: Nominet It was agreed that Gordon Dick would chair a sub committee to take the paper forward. Eric Ramage, James Cronin, Michael Duggan, Denesh Bhabuta, Richard Almeida, Sue White, Ben Laurie, and Jeremy Beale were interested in participating. Peter Gradwell submitted a paper to the sub committee discussing the ideas for tracking PAB and CoM projects and recommendations. ACTION: Gordon Dick Code of Practice Fay Howard reported on the work of the INCOP Project team. She outlined that work was taking place on educating members about the Tag Holder agreement, and that she was preparing an end of project report to be posted on the web site. She had been invited to talk at the ISPA AGM on 19 April. Fay also reported that the project was due to end on 30 April 2002. Fay explained that over the past month she had been exploring alternative methods of setting up and funding a Code Of Practice, but that she was still awaiting a response from a number of different organisations she had contacted. It was therefore unlikely that she would have a response by the end of her contract. The PAB unanimously agreed that the INCOP project is vital to the Industry and that it should not lose critical mass. It recommended to the CoM that the INCOP project be extended beyond 30 April so that Fay can continue her work for a period of at least three months. ACTION: Council of Management Schools Project Juliette Stone tabled a paper that outlined a request from the DfES to add lea.area.sch.uk as a fixed string for England and Wales. Northern Ireland would be dealt with accordingly when they responded to the proposal. The PAB recorded no objection to the paper, and requested Nominet to implement the proposal. ACTION: Nominet Common Tag Holder Email addresses A paper had been submitted from Sebastien Lahtinen calling for Nominet to establish a common system for Tag Holder email addresses. A paper had also been submitted from Peter Gradwell discussing improvements regarding Nominet's electronic interaction with its stakeholders. The PAB discussed the broader issue of member-to-member communications. The PAB expressed their extreme disappointment at the way the Nominet mailing lists had not been updated, and stated that such a situation must never happen again. Richard Almeida agreed to chair a sub committee looking at communications and electronic stakeholder communication. This group would consider the paper from Sebastien. All PAB Members who were interested in participating were asked to email him. ACTION: Richard Almeida Registrations in me.uk The PAB discussed the member concerns about Rule 7 of the me.uk Rules, which had been raised on NOM-STEER. The PAB made a recommendation that any formal proposals submitted to it would be considered, but nothing had been received that justified suspending registrations in the SLD. The PAB wished to remind members that proposals for PAB policy motions should be submitted to pab-suggest@nominet.org.uk Member Resources Page Because Nominet wishes to remain neutral and therefore cannot recommend one product over another, a proposal from Thomas Pinder to establish a member resources page was deemed inappropriate. WHOIS Output and Data Protection Nominet confirmed its intention to expand the WHOIS and make names and addresses of Registrants available publicly. Nominet's solicitor confirmed that Nominet's data protection registration permitted the intended expansion of the WHOIS. Date of Next Meeting The next meeting is due to be held on June 5 2002. (NOTE: As this meeting follows a public holiday, can any members who are unable to attend notify Fliss as soon as possible).