Former Reg vulture takes on Nominet – by running for board seat

Though it's been 18 months since the CEO and chairman was ejected from Nominet, the entity that runs the .uk top-level domain still requires dramatic reform, says one of the candidates standing for election to the board of directors. That vocal candidate is none other than Kieren McCarthy, a veteran technology journalist whose …

[trevorde]

Campaign Platform

* trust

* transparency

* user engagement

* price cuts

* charitable donations

* huge salaries for directors

[Paul Crawford]

Re: Campaign Platform

Funny how that last point is always the one that gets the most votes...

[Pascal Monett]

I wish him the best of luck

This is practically the worst hornet's nest one could get into. It takes a lot of guts to go in and publicly declare that you're not there to be part of the boy's club.

I agree with all his points, I'm just glad that I'm not the one that needs to step up and get it done.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: I wish him the best of luck

Well, hopefully there will be other like-minded board members, or some he can get on-side, otherwise he'll be a lone voice with a single vote at the table. An impossible task to do alone without allies on the board.

[kierenmccarthy]

Re: I wish him the best of luck

Very true.

[Barry Rueger]

Re: I wish him the best of luck

"McCarthy is an executive director of the International Foundation for Online Responsibility, which is ultimately funded by domain giant GoDaddy."

GoDaddy, now there's the name that I'll trust! No old boys club there!

[Steve Graham]

Re: I wish him the best of luck

There was one major hosting company that vocally supported the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the USA. Who was that again?

[nematoad]

Good luck with that!

Greimann was on the board during Nominet's more challenging years. He was not available to comment.

So out with the old and in with the old.

Not a good look if you want to re-engage the membership.

[YetAnotherJoeBlow]

Will he get the votes to force the board to act?

I hope so!

[Phones Sheridan]

That's what I was looking at, only 4 seats out of 9 available. So the 5 looking to maintain the status quo, will always trump the 4 looking for reform?

Has Kieran given up his day job?

[kierenmccarthy]

That's going to be the challenging part.

[teknopaul]

What ever happens the vultures earned a fair few pints from everyone for their work on this.

If they can actually uncorrupt a corrupt Corp it will be a first. And a lesson to a lot of others who think they are out of reach of public scrutiny.

[heyrick]

Yes, Kieren might have some sort of connection to GoDaddy... but he's the one who put in the work to blow this thing wide open, and now he's basically just stated that he intends to run for a board position in order to fuck up the gravy train and drag the whole thing back to what it was supposed to be before it managed to amass £110,000,000 (!).

In other words, anybody who cares about the future of Nominet who doesn't vote for him might well have their snout in the trough...

[Anonymous Coward]

Godaddy

> Yes, Kieren might have some sort of connection to GoDaddy.

Any chance he can bring the Godaddy vote with him?

IIRC they had one of the largest block votes and weren't backing the publicbenefit campaign.

Fingers cross

[Brewster's Angle Grinder]

Good luck Kieran!

[Lon24]

Yep, he has my vote(s) and if Kieran does get elected - he may even be allowed to attend and report on the next AGM ;-)

[kierenmccarthy]

Tks

[Doctor Syntax]

No comment

A candidate not available for comment? That's a comment in itself.

[cipnt]

Re: No comment

Why risk upsetting your loyal backers in any way?

He has their votes, he just needs to keep quiet and do what he's told

[DJV]

I had been wondering why we hadn't heard much from Nominet recently. I hope Kieren manages to get on the board and survives the kicking the corrupt bastards are likely to hand(foot?) out and drag the whole shoddy thing back into the less-corrupt shape it used to be.

[Franco]

Let's hope he succeeds, tales of Nominet's intransigence were very entertaining on these pages.

[Danny 2]

Kudos Kieren

When I was a teenager my ambition was to go to Europe to work on electronics standards committees. My less boring mates aspired to be musicians, footballers, tennis players but like them I was not good enough to achieve my goal. I mean, I did work in Europe eventually but never got let near a standard.

[GNU SedGawk]

Good Luck Kieren

I wish you every success in achieving the fine aims articulated in article, good luck.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Good Luck Kieren

Does Kieran own a white cat[suit]?

Another journo turned campaigner putting themselves up for election*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Bell

*there are other types of "journalist" who put themselves up for election -

e.g. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson - look what happened to him. Though in his case, the only cause he that matters to him is just himself

[Phones Sheridan]

Re: Good Luck Kieren

I always thought that "Have I Got News For You" was partly responsible for the rise of Boris. They kept having him on as Guest presenter, and he clearly was very entertaining in the position. Only problem was it normalised him in front of an electorate that is clearly 3 sheets to the wind. Character and entertainment was more important than truth and ability. Who cares about all the snouts in the trough, as long as the entertainment doesn't end.

[Tom 7]

Re: Good Luck Kieren

If Bell was described as a journalist then Johnson never rose to the lofty depths of being a bellend let alone journalism,

[kierenmccarthy]

Re: Good Luck Kieren

Tks