In this issue of Nominet News, we discuss the outcomes of our Extraordinary General Meeting on 24 February, and the impacts that a successful result and the recent passing of the Digital Economy Bill are likely to have on Nominet and the domain name industry. On a personal note I would like to thank members for voting; the number taking part was double our usual turnout. I am delighted that so many of you chose to have your voice heard.

At our Extraordinary General Meeting in February, our members voted overwhelmingly in support of a set of changes to our constitution. The amended constitution encapsulates Nominet's public purpose, ensuring that the business takes all stakeholders' views into account when developing policy and making business decisions.

To help reduce registrant confusion we have launched a service for registrars who have a reseller channel that will allow information about domain name resellers to be included in the WHOIS and in our communication with registrants.

Last month I participated in the latest ICANN meeting in Nairobi, which went ahead despite security scares beforehand that affected attendance and meant that much of the American contingent stayed away. The meeting itself was notable for a number of things.

Protection of UK Internet users sits at the heart of Nominet's activities. Our constitution, processes and commitment to end users ensure that we conduct our business for the public benefit. We are committed to ensuring that .uk remains a safe and trusted space and we take an active role in protecting consumers.

We are planning to release two letter, one character and other reserved .uk domains later this year, and we are currently running a consultation on our proposed release mechanism and the domains to be made available for registration.

Welcome to the first edition of our new-style Nominet News newsletter which we hope will be an interesting and useful source of information for all Nominet members, registrars and other stakeholders.

We are holding an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) at the Hilton London Olympia on 24 February 2010 to enable members to vote on a number of measures that we believe will strengthen .uk and the domain name industry.

Nominet welcomes the end of the Joint Project Agreement between the US Department of Commerce and ICANN. The private-sector led, bottom up model, gives a strong mandate to ICANN to operate as an organisation for public purpose and ensures that ICANN's accountability to the wider community remains prominent and constant.

We want to ensure that our systems continuously improve to meet the needs of our customers and stakeholders. To help us achieve this goal we run a monthly release cycle so that we are regularly improving what we offer.

A key feature of developments over the past year has been in the area of safety and security. We have looked at what we can do to improve the experience of people and businesses using .uk.

The latest UK IGF meeting was recently held at the BIS conference centre on 3 February 2010 where MPs and other key stakeholders shared the messages they took from the recent IGF meeting in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, and the Nominet Internet Awards 2010 were launched.