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Nominet names electoral candidates

Seven standing for four posts

Nominet has just released full details of the people standing for the four vacant positions on its Public Advisory Board.

There are seven of them (down from 13 last time), six of which we told you about on Friday. They are: Adam Beaumont, Clive Feather, Peter Gradwell, Angus Hanton, Sebastien Lahtinen, Hazel Pegg and Frank Rejwan.

Their full statements are now available on Nominet's website but we give a quick rundown below:

  • Adam Beaumont: Adam is one of the four PAB members standing down after two years and one of three of them standing for re-election. He says his time on the board has given him an understanding of the bigger picture, but he stresses his roots lies with small companies. It is them, he says, that are hit hardest by Nominet red tape - something he promises to reduce.
  • Clive Feather: Clive is an Internet old hand and returning PAB member. Clive says Nominet needs to listen to its members and "stakeholders" (the name Nominet uses for Internet users) more and improve its communication skills. "I think that the biggest challenge facing the PAB right now is to find better ways to ascertain the opinions of as many people as possible," he says. He has certainly had the opportunity to do that recently having been asked twice to reconsider his report on the future of domain .net.uk in the light of public comments.
  • Peter Gradwell: Peter is the current chair of the PAB and the third and last member up for re-election. He says over his time, the PAB has introduced official communication and consultation processes and so become more relevant. He argues that PAB discussions tend to be a year ahead of implementation and with that logic we should see a new renewals system, new tag change procedures, speeding up of detagged domain problems and improved electronic interaction with tag holders in 2003. Peter also promises to sort out the mess surrounding .net.uk. He also points to next year's hot topics of PRSS (downloading of the registry database) and WLS (reservation of expiring domains) and argues that Nominet needs to look at how it interacts with government and ordinary people.
  • Angus Hanton: Angus is a long-time Internet businessman whose told us his plans were to turn up to meetings, promote .uk domains more and push for lower costs. He reiterates this in his election statement. "Nominet should promote the .uk name space much more actively," he says. Not only that but aim to have "lower charges for members who create lower costs" i.e. reward efficiency. He pushes for more openness and the introduction of an digital signature system for exchanging information and approving domain transfer and the like. He also suggests that Nominet could be run more efficiently itself "with fewer people and lower costs".
  • Sebastien Lahtinen: Sebastien is a consumer champion, arguing that he will support members' and individuals' interests. He quotes his small ISP and the campaigning ADSLguide.org.uk site as evidence of his approach. He is also for digital certificates plus an online interface for domain registrars to streamline the current system. And better communication with the outside world.
  • Hazel Pegg: Hazel admitted to us that she is probably the long-shot in the race for PAB membership and openly confesses in her statement that she is not a techie. She is however an active and vocal participant in Nominet matters. She says she has a lot of experience of sitting on committees and dealing with government and so is the ideal person to cut through the red tape that so often clogs up the system.
  • Frank Rejwan: Frank is the only person we didn't cover on Friday. He was a management consultant for a big accounting firm and now heads up a top web hosting and domain business. This he claims gives him an understanding from the business and consumer worlds that would aid the future development of Nominet. [Our note] His hosting company has often been the first to introduce new ideas into the market.

And that's it. If you are a Nominet member, voting is open from now until 10 March. The results will be announced on 12 March and the first PAB meeting with the new members takes place on 2 April.

Will we see fresh faces on the PAB board or will the work put in by the three members standing again be appreciated and rewarded? Only time will tell.

Further Information
Election statements

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