UK radio station Absolute Radio announce their intention to be a full Member of the organisation

The excellent Radio and Internet Newsletter (RAIN) has covered the news by highlighting the US Supporters of the project

The UK-based Radio Today covered some of the new functionality that the RadioDNS framework can achieve.

Radio World International covered the founding of the organisation

Broadcast covered the story with commentary about potential boosts to online advertising

The RadioDNS Project welcomes this coverage, as we currently look for Members of the organisation to help shape the next chapter of the project.

At our Second General Assembly, the attendees voted unanimously to adopt the Statutes, Membership Process, Trust Model, IPR Policy, and other recommendations proposed by the Statutes Drafting Team. You can read all these in our documentation section.

Which means that RadioDNS is now able to legally form itself as a not-for-profit organisation, and start providing the RadioDNS basis on a full operational basis – as well as promote the technology to device manufacturers and broadcasters.

It’s an exhilarating moment, and I’d like to extend the thanks of the members to the Statutes Drafting Team for their extensive work in getting all the necessary documentation together, and making sure a comprehensive set of proposal.

So what happens next?

Until now, we’ve all been Supporters of RadioDNS.

From now on, you can choose to be a Member of RadioDNS, which allows you to influence the direction of RadioDNS, vote at meetings, and nominate candidates for the roles of Chairperson, Secretary and Steering Board Member.

You can also be a User which means that you have your station details in RadioDNS, but no more than that.

Becoming A Member

The General Assembly recommended that we have a period during which people can become members in order to nominate candidates for the roles of Chairperson, Secretary and Steering Board Member (9 positions). That period starts now and ends on the 17th March 2010. They have recommended that the maximum membership fee will be CHF2.000,- (which approximates to USD1,800, GBP1,200, AUD2,000). The actual fee will likely be lower, once the costs are clearer.

You can continue to join as a member, and get a vote, until 31st March. From 1st April, the normal RadioDNS Membership Process will apply.

If you want to join, fill in the membership application form and we will be in contact.

Nominating Candidates

If you commit to becoming a member, you can nominate individuals for the roles of Chairperson, Secretary and Steering Board member. Nominations close at 17:00 GMT on 16th March 2010, and we will be circulate the candidates on the 17th March. You will be sent the electronic nomination form when you have confirmed your membership.

Elections

The election will happen on the 1st April, and we  will circulate an electronic ballot paper to all members prior to then.

We hope to see many of you move from being supporters to members (as it makes membership cheaper for everyone), but we’ll like you just the same as supporters too.

We will keep you updated on this blog and on the mailing lists.

The Second General Assembly is approaching (16th February 2010 in Geneva), and the primary agenda items for that meeting will be the discussion of the proposed Statutes and Trust Model for RadioDNS, followed by a vote from the meeting on whether to adopt those and officially form RadioDNS.

We had hoped to publish the draft Statutes and Trust Model this week for you to review ahead of the meeting. Some areas have generated a lot of discussion within the Statutes Drafting Team, and the deadline slipped.

I expect to publish the draft Statutes and Trust Model on Monday 8th February, giving you a week to go through them.

These documents are absolutely core to the way RadioDNS will be run, and please find an hour or so during next week to read them, even if it’s so you understand what is being proposed.

You can get more details, register, and find accommodation information on the Second General Assembly page.

Please register as soon as you can, as it makes it easier to plan the arrangements.

Supporters of RadioDNS are invited to join this day long event, which will look at how the adoption of Digital Radio, in all its forms, can be accelerated across Europe. It looks like an interesting day of presentations and discussions on what could and should be happening with the digitalisation and convergence of radio in Europe.

If you’d like to know more, or to register for this free event, please see the Digital Radio Summit website.

As participant numbers are limited, we will be giving priority to RadioDNS Supporters who subscribed to our Announcement or Developers’ lists prior to 1st January 2010.

The Digital Radio Summit follows our Second General Assembly on the 16th February, so you can combine both events. We will probably be organising some informal evening event on the 16th.

There is an opportunity to coincide our meeting with meetings from WorldDMB and IMDA, being held at the EBU in Geneva on the 16th-18th February 2010.

As many of the RadioDNS supporters are also involved in WorldDMB and IMDA, it seems to make sense to move the Second General Meeting into this week. That would reduce some peoples’ travel costs, and also allow for some informal networking and information sharing across the days.

So the RadioDNS Second General Meeting is now scheduled for Tuesday 16th February 2010 at the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva.

Apologies to anyone who has already made travel plans for the 9th February.

Eagle-eyed readers will spot this document is dated September 2009 as we had hoped to tie this release together with v1.0.0 of the RadioDNS specification. Unfortunately the RadioDNS specification got caught up in the formalisation process and, as a result, so too did RadioVIS.

With a device already on the market utilising RadioDNS and the RadioVIS application, we are looking forward to many more exciting implementations in 2010.

You can register at this website.

Jon Billings (BBC, UK)
James Cridland (Not At All Bad Ltd, UK)
Nick Jurascheck (PURE Digital, UK)
Spencer Leing (ABC, Australia)
Jeff Littlejohn (Clear Channel Inc, USA)
Peter MacAvock (EBU, Switzerland)
Ben Matthews (Absolute Radio, UK)
Richard Morris (Commercial Radio Australia, Australia)
Nick Piggott (Global Radio, UK)

This team will convene shortly to start work on the task, and will publish periodic updates. The intention is to deliver a complete draft by 1st February 2010, so that it can be thoroughly viewed by all interested parties ahead of our next General Meeting.

The next General Meeting has been set for February 9th at 14h00 CET, at a location to be agreed. At this meeting, it is intended the draft statutes will be ratified, and lead to an election of a Steering Board.

The initial RadioDNS team are grateful to the EBU’s help in counting the votes and organising the day, and for their invaluable assistance and advice.

If you are joining us by telephone, and have not yet received the details, or joining in person but do not have details on how to reach the EBU, please e-mail us on feedback@radiodns.org