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Keeping .nz fair for everyone.
Kia ora 

I hope your April went well and that you got to enjoy the statutory holidays. My sense is that a lot of us really needed that holiday as 2022 has not been an easy one to navigate so far.

We are acclimatising to the new normal with our Commissioner, Brent Carey, recently having his last day. We wish Brent all the best in his new and important role at Netsafe.

What were your priorities back in 2017? For many of us, the world was quite a different place, and what we value now has changed. 2017 was the cut-off date to register a preference for shorter versions of domain names that two parties had a potential interest in. Following the release of our Online Dispute Resolution service pilot, people are re-examining whether they still want the shorter versions of their domain names that they had previously registered a preference for.

I encourage people to take up the opportunity in the next 6 months - whilst our free dispute resolution pilot is running - to look into using our Online Dispute Resolution service to resolve their conflicted names. It will be interesting to see if we see more domains being released from conflicted status through this process.

Our quarter four numbers appear below. To me, they aren’t just numbers; they represent the many people we have assisted along the way. I get great satisfaction from the team’s Contact Centre work and knowing that people are being helped daily to keep, or get back, the services linked to their domain name and seeing DNCL play its part in preventing potential harm.

I look forward to the next 6 months as Interim Commissioner and to serving the .nz community.

Ngā mihi

 

Isobel Egerton 

Interim Domain Name Commissioner 

Updates from the team

Online Disputes Resolution platform: Conflicted Names

Invitation emails went out on 3 May, opening up our resolution platform to the parties selected in the first batch for conflicted names resolution. This first group was notified that they are in this first tranche by email on 27 April.  

In developing the ODR platform, we were guided by the Aotearoa Best Practice Dispute Resolution Framework (the framework) that the Government Centre for Dispute Resolution (the GCDR) developed. It was great to hear the implementation progress, challenges and insights of different organisations at the recent GCDR forum mid-April that focused on Standard 1 (Te Tiriti).

Quarterly numbers - quarter four
1 January to 31 March 2022 highlights: 
  • 259 email enquiries (previous quarter 317), and 64 phone enquiries (previous quarter 95). 
  • 53 domain names went into our data validation processes (previous quarter 73). 
  • 17 domain names referred to us in this period were cancelled (previous quarter 26).
  • There were 8 urgent domain name suspensions completed in the quarter (previous quarter 8).
The Commission suspends domains where registrants do not validate their registrant information when contacted.

Registry replacement news 

The registry replacement team is looking forward to May 31, 2022 as it is the IRS go-live checkpoint date and migration readiness evaluation. The high-level registry replacement plan is available.

AMINZ scholarship recipient 
This year we sponsored the AMINZ scholarship that is focused on mediation.  Congratulations to Madison Dobie who was been named the 2022 AMINZ Consensual Scholar.

.nz Mahi Aroha Awards 2022

Together with InternetNZ, we’re once again the lead sponsor of Volunteer Wellington’s .nz Mahi Aroha Awards. These awards recognise the contribution and achievements of outstanding volunteers in the region. Nominations are open (closing on 20 May).
Nominations open for .nz Mahi Aroha Awards

Tax back scams
As the end of the financial year has passed, and the tax back season begins, it's important that New Zealanders keep their eyes out for tax back scams.

These scams can come from .nz or other domain names, but will quite often appear to be impersonating a tax back scheme, or an official email from Inland Revenue Department. 

If you believe you have fallen victim to a scam like this, check out CERT’s information on what to do. 
CERTNZ

Interesting news and media 

Feedback 

And, as always, please give us feedback via email info@dnc.org.nz or on Twitter (@nzdnc). What topics do you want to hear more about, what bullet above is your favourite? What do you want more or less of?
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