Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
Highlights
from Verisign's 25 Years of .Com Gala Held Wednesday
Night in San Francisco
Verisign
stagedthe25 Years of .Com Gala(that we
previewed
last week)on Wednesday night (May 26) in the ballrroom
at San Francisco's City Hall. The gala,
co-hosted by comedian Dana Carvey and Sun
Microsystems Co-Founder Scott McNealy,
was part of a year-long
celebration
to mark the 25th anniversary of the
world's most popular extension. AronMeystedt,
the current owner of the first .com domain ever
registered - Symbolics.com - was
among those recognized by Verisign President
& CEO Mark McLaughlin at the gala.
Aron dropped me a note today to fill me on what
he called a "great event - top notch all
around!"
The
highlight of the evening came when 25 people and
companies (selected by a distinguished panel of
some of Silicon Valley's elite) were
honored for being remarkable innovators,
entrepreneurs and companies whose inspiring
contributions were fundamental in shaping the
Internet.
Scott McNealy was one of those selected (you can
see the complete
list of honorees here).
Verisign
President and CEO Mark McLaughlin
(left) with Symbolics.com owner Aron
Meystedt at the 25 Years of .Com Gala
Wednesday night (May 26) in San Francisco.
Dana
Carvey kept the crowd laughing and also proved
he recognized the importance of a good domain
name when he recounted what he had to go through
to acquire DanaCarvey.com. "It turned
out that a guy in Florida owned the name and
when I called him, he wanted to know how
he could be sure I was really Dana Carvey. So I had to do a bunch of impressions to convince
him!," Carvey said as he demonstrated with
his well-known impressions of President
George H.W. Bush and actor/Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
McNealy
tried his hand at humor too, reading off his
list of "10 Reasons I'm Surprised We Are
Celebrating the Internet!". Those
included Facebook "for ensuring that
anyone under 20 is never employable" and CraigsList
"for getting Tiger Woods, Elliot
Spitzer and most of Congress in
trouble" (a reference to escort services
who advertised on the site). McNealy acknowledged
that he wasn't as funny as Carvey, but he was quick
to add he wasn't being paid either!
VeriSign
also used the occasion to announce a grant
program designed to promote
and foster new research to strengthen
the Net’s infrastructure. Toward that
end VeriSign will fund four $75,000
research grant that are to be awarded
this fall. The recipients will then
present their findings at symposium in Washington
D.C. in June 2011.
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