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37-754: In 2016, Tunapanda Institute was named as one of 2016 NT100, Nominet Trust 's annual celebration of 100 inspiring tech-for-good ventures from around the world. Tunapanda was founded in 2013 by the brothers Jay Larson and Mick Larson, with the aim of providing learning opportunities to unconnected communities through the use of an "education on a hard drive". They downloaded openly-licensed software and educational content for computer programming, design, and business/entrepreneurship, as well as general-knowledge content from Misplaced Pages and Khan Academy , which they then distributed on CDs , external hard drives, and USB drives at various schools and community organizations. Tunapanda then opened its own training facility and developed

74-466: A better knowledge of the situation, and the resolution is in effect their ideal solution, but it may not be in the interests of individual shareholders. Usually, the chairman of the EGM reads out and recommends the resolution to those present for approval, takes questions about the resolution from those present, supervises the vote and declares the result. The rules for conducting an EGM and the options for altering

111-407: A company, or employees of an official body that occurs at an irregular time. The term is usually used where the group would ordinarily hold an annual general meeting (AGM) but where an issue arises that requires the input of the entire membership and is too serious or urgent to wait until the next AGM. Members and/or shareholders must be informed of the purpose of the EGM so that they may attend in

148-419: A disagreement over the creation of police.uk From Nominet's inception on 1 July 1996 until 2002 domains registered pre-Nominet were provided free of charge. In 2002, as had been hinted at its inception in 1996, Nominet began a process over two years of migrating those domains onto Nominet standard terms and conditions and implementing charging. Those domains can be identified within the whois results as having

185-589: A free mediation service. In 2008 Nominet launched a charitable foundation, the Nominet Trust, and contributed some of its profits to it. In May 2018 Nominet relinquished control over the organisation, which was renamed Social Tech Trust and announced a "strategic partnership with Social Tech Business". By 2020 the income of Social Tech Trust had fallen to £99,000 from £5.6 million in 2018. In February 2021 over 140 members requested an extraordinary general meeting to vote on removing five board directors, including

222-410: A position where they can discuss and exercise intelligent judgment, or else any resolutions passed are invalid. Before the EGM the board of the organisation will have agreed upon one or more resolutions that will be put to the shareholders or members for approval at the EGM. The wording of the resolution is sent to the shareholders with a note about its importance. The theory is that the board has

259-653: A registration date of before August 1996. In 2011 The Independent published an article containing quotes about people trying to demutualize Nominet for their own benefit. Under the tenure of Russell Haworth, a former mergers and acquisition specialist, Nominet invested heavily into autonomous vehicles, the Internet of things , and white-space spectrum management which did not pan out. Despite these outcomes, board salaries continued to rise. Nominet's success brought with it several structural concerns. Over time, it built considerable cash reserves. In 1999, candidates stood for

296-563: A resolution at an EGM or for taking proxy votes will vary from one organisation to another. In some settings, this is known as a special general meeting or an emergency general meeting. In the United Kingdom, the directors of a public company must convene an EGM if the net assets fall to half or less of the amount of its called-up share capital (section 656 of the Companies Act 2006 ). Shareholders who meet certain criteria can requisition

333-426: A ruleset that forced all name registrations to 'exactly' match the name of the registering company and also limited all companies to a single domain name. The growth of the commercial internet soon brought these restrictions into close focus. As demand for domain name registrations grew, it became clear that a voluntary group could no longer cope with the volume of registrations being requested. It also became clear that

370-453: A three-month intensive training courses in technology, design and business which has to date been taught to more than 200 students.. In 2022, as smartphone phone adoption continued to grow rapidly in Kenya, Tunapanda Institute adapted its training curriculum to prioritize a "mobile-first" approach. This shift gave rise to "Mobile LEAP," a 6-week intensive workforce training program designed to prepare

407-537: A voluntary group called the "Naming Committee" managed the registration of .uk domain names. This consisted of members of LINX as full members (the main ISPs in the UK), and their resellers as guest members. By the mid-1990s, Internet Service Providers ( ISPs ) who registered domains for their customers were joined by a new breed of domain name specialists who had an entrepreneurial attitude to domain names. The Naming Committee operated

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444-409: The .wales and .cymru domains. As of February 2021, the .uk register held 10,922,477 .uk domain names. This represents a year-on-year downward trend, when compared to February 2020, this is mainly due to the lapsing of the recently launched .uk domain names. Nominet was founded by Dr. Willie Black and five others on 14 May 1996 when its predecessor, the "Naming Committee" was unable to deal with

481-493: The Nominet board. Public Benefit candidates received the highest votes, having Simon Blackler elected immediately with over 50 percent of first-preference votes, followed by Ashley La Bolle of Tucows taking 35% of the vote. Blackler and La Bolle replaced out-going directors James Bladel of GoDaddy (who had not stood for re-election), and David Thornton, who "defended the previous management's actions", had received six percent of

518-525: The UK public sector's internet traffic. A £4 million investment into registry services was announced in February 2020 alongside the acquisition of US-based cyber security company CyGlass. Nominet manages the registry of the following top-level domains : Extraordinary general meeting An extraordinary general meeting , commonly abbreviated as EGM , is a meeting of members of an organisation, shareholders of

555-401: The board had occurred on 22 March 2021, corresponding to the date of the EGM. On 7 April 2021, Bradley, as interim CEO, stated that Nominet would begin to regularly publish the voting rights of members. On 12 April 2021 Sir Michael Lyons and Alex Pawlik sent a joint letter to the acting Chair Rob Binns. The remnant board of Nominet subsequently announced: "After much careful consideration,

592-503: The board has decided not to invite Sir Michael to be acting chair". By 13 April 2021 Nominet had selected Russell Reynolds Associates to seek a replacement chair of Nominet on an initial three-year term. By 15 April 2021 survey responses from 200 Nominet members that had supported the earlier EGM, showed 97% support for calling a second EGM, with confidence in the board decreasing to 1.3 out of 10. On 22 July 2021, Nominet stated that Andy J. Green CBE had been appointed new chair of

629-523: The board on a platform similar to 'carpetbagging' attempts with mutual building societies ; whilst this was defeated, following a financial report from Alex Bligh, one of the founders, covering the potential conflict between turning a profit to maintaining sufficient financial reserves and its goal of maintaining long-term profit and loss neutrality. Nominet has consistently increased the salaries of its employees, especially directors. Average salaries have increased from £28,542 in 2002 to £60,276 in 2014. In

666-486: The board, along with Eva Lindqvist as a new independent director, from 21 July 2021. Priorities would be reduction of costs and executive pay, re-building of trust with the membership, and restoration of Nominet's public benefit purpose and charitable proceeds. Nominet's Annual General Meeting (AGM) was scheduled for 18 November 2021. Prior to the AGM, elections were held to appoint two new member-elected non-executive directors to

703-473: The chair, and to appoint Michael Lyons , former chairman of the BBC, and Axel Pawlik, former Managing Director of RIPE NCC . The EGM was held on 22 March 2021 and the five directors were removed. Rob Binns, a former Group Treasurer at HP Inc. and then CFO at The Access Group, was appointed as acting chair. Most countries have their own top-level domain (TLD). The .uk TLD was first used in 1985. and at that time

740-528: The domain via a domain registrar – a business entity authorized by Nominet to register and manage .uk domains on behalf of customers. Registrars for .uk domains were formerly known as "tagholders". Nominet also deals with disputes about registrations of .uk domain names, via its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) which is similar to the UDRP system used for generic Top Level Domain Names, but with certain innovations such as

777-411: The domains being released by Nominet rather than going through the proper public process. Nominet introduction of .uk to compete with .co.uk and .org.uk has resulted in increased cost to UK brand owners and caused much confusion amongst registrants. In July 2020 Nominet announced a new policy consultation for expiring .uk domain names, but it has been mired with controversy as it seems not to be in

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814-464: The end of 2019. At the end of 2018, Tunapanda launched the Kibera Aeronautics and Space Academy (KASA) with the goal of training young people interested in science and technology . The aim of the program is to equip disadvantaged people from Kibera and other surrounding regions with practical skills for life beyond the program. In the long term, a training system will be installed, with which

851-586: The existing ruleset was not sustainable and the Naming Committee was going to break down under the pressure of registrations. When it became clear that a new organization with a new approach was needed to manage the .uk TLD, the Naming Committee mailing list had mutated into a discussion group for domain name issues and many discussions about what type of corporation the Registry should be were held. Meanwhile, at UKERNA , Dr. Willie Black and John Carey were watching

888-626: The first days Fletcher joined the board and held a meeting with members. On 10 March 2022, Nominet announced it would be "not accepting registrations from registrars in Russia – we are suspending the relevant tags" and in doing so became the first previously neutral ccTLD in history to reposition itself as non-neutral. Nominet also delivers the National Cyber Security Centre's Protective Domain Name Service (PDNS) since 2016, protecting

925-464: The members were subsequently released after the EGM. In the lead up to the vote at the EGM a number of Nominet members publicly announced their position on the resolution to be tabled at the EGM: Publicly for: Publicly against: Publicly abstained: The Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) was held on 22 March 2021. The motion to remove the five directors from the board was carried with 53.5% of

962-467: The move was generally popular, there was strong resistance from some parts of the industry. Although formed with a board composed of Dr. Black (who became the first CEO of the new company), John Carey, and the four co-founders drawn from the internet industry, elections were held by the new membership which resulted in the first elected board members to oversee the growth of the UK domain name industry. John Carey resigned before taking up his role following

999-670: The next generation of digital workers through an innovative mobile-based learning approach. . The majority of Tunapanda’s programs are based in Kibera , a slum in Nairobi , but Tunapanda has set up computer labs and training facilities in urban and rural settings within Kenya , Tanzania , and Uganda . While focused mainly on education and training, Tunapanda also provides graduates with the opportunity to earn an income from working on technology-related projects for clients and partners. In 2015, TunapandaNET

1036-438: The original requester. In response, the recipient Krystal Hosting arranged for 575 trees to be planted "to offset Nominet's nonsense". On 2 February 2021, over 140 members wrote to the board of directors via Rory Kelly the company secretary calling for a general meeting to propose two ordinary resolutions: Rory Kelly, Company Secretary stated that the number of votes each member was entitled to cast would not be released until

1073-456: The participants can be prepared for technological professions on the model of German dual education system and subsequently be transferred to employers. Nominet UK Nominet UK is currently delegated by IANA to be the manager of the .uk domain name . Nominet directly manages registrations directly under .uk, and some of the second level domains .co.uk, .org.uk, .sch.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk. Nominet also manages

1110-416: The public's benefit. On 29 January 2021, an email request was made to Rory Kelly, the Nominet company secretary to provide a list of members of Nominet. On 3 February 2021, Rory Kelly, company secretary responded to the request by printing out the Nominet members list on 575 sheets of A4 paper, omitting the contact email addresses of members, and posting the bundle to the registered company address of

1147-436: The results had been published. Following the EGM the motion to remove the directors was passed, confirming the removal of the five board directors. Nominet stated that "Eleanor Bradley and Ben Hill remain in their executive posts." Nominet announced that they would not release the number of votes each member is entitled to cast, including to the members themselves, until after the vote had taken place. The voting rights of

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1184-789: The same period, the highest-paid director went from £125,000 to £308,000. Speaking at Nominet's 2020 annual general meeting (AGM), the organization's CEO Russell Haworth shocked members by announcing he was shutting down its internal web forum – the only means of independent communication between members – effective immediately. Nominet admitted it wrongly calculated election results for its board of directors in 2018 and 2019. In 2019, customers of 123-Reg and Namesco were invoiced for domain names that were reserved for free by Nominet. .uk registry watchers noticed unexpected changes in ownership of various .uk names, including sunset.uk, waterfall.uk, pad.uk and trending.uk, all of which were sold by Fasthosts to one or more industry insiders in advance of

1221-433: The situation and in 1996 John Carey wrote a proposed plan for a new organization to be called Nominet. This was distributed widely, and a meeting to discuss ways forward was held at a hotel at Heathrow Airport on 11 April 1996. The options to set up as a profit-making company or a charity were rejected, and Nominet was established on 14 May 1996 as a private, not-for-profit membership company, limited by guarantee. Whilst

1258-440: The volume of registrations then being sought under the .uk domain. Nominet is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee . It has members who act as shareholders , but without the right to participate in the profits of the company. Anyone can become a member, but most members are internet service providers who are also registrars. Customers wishing to register a domain can approach Nominet directly but will generally register

1295-474: The votes for the motion, and 47.26% against. Five of the original Nominet founders (Richard Almeida, Willie Black, Alex Bligh, Keith Mitchell, and Nigel Titley) pledged their "commitment to support Sir Michael Lyons and Axel Pawlik if they are appointed to the board of Nominet UK, in whatever way we reasonably can with matters relating to the future of Nominet". By 31 March 2021, Nominet had made four internal appointments: Appointment of Kelly and Leach to

1332-522: The votes. It was announced that BCS CEO Paul Fletcher would takeover as Nominet CEO from February 2022. Votes held at the 2021 AGM formally appointed Andy Green and Eva Lindqvist, both for three years, with over 94% of votes. Stephen Page (who "was opposed by the Public Benefit campaign") received 51.4% of weighted votes for an extension of one year as a director. Paul Fletcher was appointed as replacement CEO of Nominet starting in February 2022. In

1369-590: Was conceived  as a way to provide access to digital learning materials and platforms to young people within Kibera who may not be able to afford regular internet use. The network connects schools and community centers to Tunapanda’s learning facility through wireless communication. Since content is hosted locally, the network operates as an intranet and costs considerably less for users to access content than traditional service providers. The network has grown to incorporate ten nodes within Kibera and plans to expand to more by

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