Welcome to our third edition of Nominet News for 2007.

The months since our previous edition have been extremely busy, exciting and challenging in equal measure.

At the beginning of June we released our Online Services for registrars and registrants. This major project enables customers to manage their accounts online and lays the foundations for significant developments in the future such as the launch of EPP. In this issue we hear from Jay Daley, Director of IT and Eleanor Bradley, Director of Operations about the challenges and successes associated with the data restructure and project implementation.

June also saw the launch of our Nominet Best Practice Challenge at the Houses of Parliament. This Challenge will recognise organisations, groups or individuals that have worked to deliver a safer, more accessible, diverse Internet experience and is part of an initiative to create a UK Internet Governance Forum. We have received many impressive entries including some from Nominet members.

We also have encouraging news from our first registrar survey of 2007. Not only did our overall satisfaction index increase to 86.1%, but our newer members and registrars gave us our highest ever overall satisfaction score of 92.5%. This is particularly pleasing as we believe that the score is a direct result of changes we made acting on feedback from our previous survey.

I attended the ICANN meeting in Puerto Rico at the end of June and contributed to a number of interesting sessions, including several WHOIS debates and the formation of a participation working group within the ccNSO which I have been asked to Chair.

Finally, on a personal note I was delighted to be awarded First Woman of Technology in the CBI First Women Awards. This award is a reflection of the hard work and effort put in by all of the team at Nominet, which go towards making us a leading provider of registry services.

We spoke to Jay Daley, our Director of IT and Eleanor Bradley, our Director of Operations to find out more about this project…

Online Services is the culmination of a major project to restructure the data Nominet stores. How long did this project take to deliver?

Jay: We have been working on the data restructuring issue for a number of years. We firstly had to identify the problems with the current structure and draw up a set of proposals. We ran a consultation on these proposals so that our registrars could be aware of the implications of the changes to their own systems. The actual development time for the new system has been 18 months.

Eleanor: We wanted to offer increased services to our registrants and registrars, but in order to launch new systems the new data restructure had to be in place first. We could never just tackle one aspect of the project in isolation.

What have been the biggest challenges you have faced in implementing this huge change?

Jay: We had a number of systems that were written to provide services for registrants to meet a particular need, rather than forming part of an overall strategy for registry systems. As a result all these systems needed to be rewritten for the new data structure and to fit into the single framework of the new Online System.

Eleanor: From an Operations viewpoint, the challenge was to document every single process within our services to customers (including many that were previously a combination of manual and technical systems) and work with the developers to ensure that these would translate successfully into fully online processes.

What aspects of this project have pleased you the most?

Jay: It was great to be able to move so much data from one structure to another. I’m very pleased with the quality and usability of our online interfaces and I’ve been encouraged by the emails I’ve received from registrars congratulating us on the new system.

Eleanor: I’ve been really pleased by the way we have worked together as a company, combining the customer service aspects and technical solutions to produce a service that will really benefit our customers.

There has been some criticism since the launch from some registrars about problems they have encountered with downtime/documentation etc. What’s your response to this?

Jay: A few registrars were adversely affected but the majority of our registrars were well prepared and were able to bear with us for the few initial teething problems. We are confident that the long-term benefits will far outweigh the short-term problems that the implementation raised. We are always keen to receive feedback and will respond to and learn from any issues brought to our attention.

Eleanor: We recognise that it was a bit of a bumpy ride in the first few weeks but we hope that registrars can see that we tried to resolve issues as quickly as possible and were responsive to their feedback. We really want the system to deliver quality service to all our customers and we are very committed to achieving that.

This launch has laid the foundations for future developments. What can we expect to see in the next phase?

Jay:

• We will be moving our remaining paper-based services, such as the registrant transfer process, online.
• There will be an entirely new system to process DRS cases that will be linked into Online Services.
• Applying for a service from us will be much easier using integrated online application forms.
• Our data is now in a position to be able to add EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol), and we will be launching this in the near future.
• It will be much easier for us to make changes to our systems more quickly in future.

Country Code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO)

Lesley Cowley, our CEO, is a member of this organisation that is responsible for developing and recommending global policies relating to country-code top-level domains to ICANN’s Board. Lesley led a session on participation: only 60 of the 240 ccTLDs are members of the ccNSO, so they are looking for ways to engage the others and to make the community more representative of the global community. Following the debate, Lesley was appointed to chair a working group looking at participation.

WHOIS

There were no less than four GNSO meetings in one day on the issue of WHOIS. A joint GNSO and GAC also considered a different issue - new generic top-level domains. The new WHOIS Working Group had an all-day, intensive session reviewing a WHOIS world where a look-up would show a designated ‘operational point of contact’ instead of the registrant’s contact details. Huge progress was made, but knotty issues remain, including how law enforcement agencies from around the world could get quick access if personal data was shielded.

Internationalised Domain Names

Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) were again one of the big topics of discussion. Countries in the Far East were pushing for a fast track option to get IDNs implemented, but this was met with resistance and a full policy development process is likely to begin at the next ICANN meeting, which could possibly take a full two years.

Signing the root

There was continued debate about the management of signing the root, so that DNSSEC can be fully implemented in due course. Some countries remain unhappy that this might be an ICANN role, but there is no agreement on alternative ways that this could be achieved.. Again this debate has been running for some time and will continue to do so.

IPv6

The ongoing issue of a transition to Internet Protocol version six in order to provide for the Internet’s future expansion was covered, with remote participation through ICANN’s public participation web site. ICANN’s chief engineer described the issues he’d faced deploying IPv6, and the director of a local Puerto Rican ISP described how IPv6 allows customers to connect with an ever growing number of people and services. The panel agreed that while there are costs in implementing IPv6, it may be possible for them to be recouped through additional services. Jay Daley, our Director of IT recently commented in the press that the way that IP addresses are being allocated is holding back European businesses from migrating to IPv6.

Satisfaction Index

We are very pleased that our overall satisfaction index continues to rise. Our score of 86.1% shows an increase of 0.9% over that of September 2006.

This means that we have further improved our position amongst the top quartile of suppliers in the Satisfaction Index™ League Table, which is a benchmark of our relative performance when compared with other organisations.

Scores show that the level of service we provide to our members and registrars is consistently high:

Technical Support increased to 88.1% from 85.0%
Credit Support increased to 87.4% from 85.7%
Payment Administration increased to 86.0% from 85.9%
General Support decreased to 85.1% from 85.2%

There is a very slight decrease of 0.1% for our general support team when compared with the survey conducted in September 2006. Although this is a little disappointing, the score of 85.1% for this team is still a considerable improvement over the 81.0% scored in the survey of January 2006.

Improvements in response to your feedback

It is interesting to note that our newer members and registrars give us our highest ever overall satisfaction score of 92.5%. We believe that we gained this excellent score as a result of our acting upon feedback from previous surveys. The need to promote a greater understanding of our procedures and processes amongst new customers had been highlighted, which caused us to enhance our initial communications and level of support in the first three months.

Your comments indicate that many of you are interested in EPP. In June we launched our new Online Service system. This launch was the culmination of a number of technical developments and system upgrades including the restructuring of all of our database systems. Data is ‘joined up’ into an account structure rather than as individual domain records. You can now manage your own portfolio of domain names directly through the registrant service on your account. You can also set preferences in the system that determine how you work and communicate with us. This new data structure will enable us to further improve and increase the functionality of our Online Services. The first addition will be our EPP service later this year.

In the September 2006 survey you told us that you wanted us to consider other ways for you to pay your accounts. We have now implemented payment by Direct Debit and this is proving quite popular. We are working towards payment by automated credit and debit card transactions. This payment method will replace the manual process that we offer. Some respondents have also expressed an interest in being able to make payments on account, and we are hoping to offer this facility through our Online Service.

Not resting on our laurels

We are not content to rest on our laurels and we will be carrying out our next survey in the near future, to check that we are continuing to improve the quality of service we provide to our registrars.

Satisfaction Index™ is a registered trade mark of The Leadership Factor

UK companies and organisations are encouraged to enter. Winning entries will be exhibited in the UK and at the Internet Governance Forum meeting in Rio de Janeiro in November 2007. Markus Kummer, the UN’s Executive Co-ordinator, Internet Governance Forum, also spoke at the launch event held in the House of Commons.
“The UK has much experience to share and promote in terms of best practice in Internet Governance issues. The DTI is proud to support the Nominet Best Practice Challenge as a step towards a stakeholder-led UK Internet Governance Forum”, commented Margaret Hodge, MBE MP, Minister for Industry and the Regions.

“The Internet has delivered a host of new capabilities, an abundance of choices and some real challenges related to best practice governance and self regulation. The aim of the Nominet Best Practice Challenge is to recognise and reward those organisations, groups or individuals who have not only embraced these challenges but worked to overcome them to deliver a better, more accessible, diverse or safer Internet,” commented Lesley Cowley, Nominet’s CEO.

Who can enter the Best Practice Challenge?

Those organisations, groups or individuals who supply a product or service that has improved Access to the Internet for the disabled or disadvantaged, provided more Security online, contributed to Openness, or encouraged online Diversity.

Judges will be looking for evidence of collaboration and cooperation between different groups such as business, government and law enforcement. Examples include:

Access:

• Projects that bring less advantaged communities and rural or socially disadvantaged areas online
• Making the Internet more accessible to people with disabilities.

Security:

• Educating customers or end-users about staying safe online, or avoiding online fraud
• Developing methods for online authentication and identification.

Diversity:

• Providing tools that assist in the translation of web content into other languages
• Pioneering methods to include those challenged by lack of literacy in English or by disability, for example audiovisual communication.

Openness:

• Innovative methods of enabling Internet users to benefit from increased access to online materials, knowledge or information
• Enabling greater access to archives of materials created through public or private finance.

How to enter

We have received some impressive entries so far, and are keen to see a strong presence from Nominet’s membership and the wider UK community.

The entries will be judged by an eminent and independent panel of judges, chaired by Rt Hon Alun Michael MP.

The winning entries will be announced at a parliamentary event in October and promoted as demonstrations of best practice to industry, government, academia and in the media.

More information

For more information, download a pdf copy of our Best Practice Challenge leaflet.

Bob Gilbert, our Chairman, comments on Lesley’s achievement: “We are delighted that Lesley has been recognised with this Award. As the leader of one of the world’s largest Internet registries, the judges have acknowledged Lesley’s commitment, vision and determination for Nominet to continue to play a key role and build trust within the UK Internet industry.”

CBI deputy director-general John Cridland, who gave the keynote speech and presented one of the awards, said: “This year’s First Women Awards winners cover the whole spectrum of business life: from global companies to entrepreneurs running niche ventures. These women are not only outstanding businesspeople; with their energy, acumen, and groundbreaking ‘firsts’, each and every one has in some way changed the shape of the business landscape for women. They are remarkable role models with stories that will inspire more and more young women to enter the business world.”

Lesley originally joined Nominet as Operations Director in April 1999. She was appointed Managing Director in March 2002 and her title was changed to Chief Executive in January 2005. She is responsible for the running of the company and overseeing our management team.

You can find more information about the First Women Awards at: http://www.firstwomenawards.co.uk.

Taking advantage of Oxford Brookes’ highly respected research and academic experience in knowledge discovery and data mining, we will use advanced data mining and visualisation techniques to develop algorithms and software tools that can help detect fraudulent use of our register database.

One researcher will work under Oxford Brookes professor David Duce, who is a world expert on computer visualisation. Creating an image or animation sometimes reveals hidden patterns that could highlight abuse. The other researcher, under senior lecturer Faye Mitchell, will use artificial intelligence techniques to help detect fraud.

“As the organisation responsible for the management of the national .uk registry, Nominet plays a key role at the heart of the UK e-economy. It is essential that we remain ahead of those who wish to exploit the registry,” argues Jay Daley, our Director of IT.

“We’ve developed sophisticated systems to protect the .uk registry; but as we know, we need to make efforts to stay ahead of the abusers by developing increasingly complex systems. The KTP with Oxford Brookes will allow Nominet to learn from respected academics at the University and develop tools to guard against those who seek to disrupt operations, take commercial advantage of the system or steal information.”

Commenting on the partnership, John Corlett, KTP Manager for Oxford Brookes University says, “Oxford Brookes is currently making excellent progress in researching and studying the techniques associated with fighting fraudulent Internet activity. The partnership with Nominet will allow us to build on our existing academic work and develop systems that will help protect the Nominet registry and create a safer UK Internet.”

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Nominet and Oxford Brookes team up to fight domain name fraud
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