In a surprise announcement at the ICANN Board Meeting in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Vint Cerf, chair of the ICANN Board, declared that the US-based agency responsible for the web’s domain system was now taking charge of assigned names and locations in the virtual world. Mr. Cerf is expected to be holding a virtual press briefing on this at the new Second Life Headquarters of ICANN shortly (direct teleport SLURL.)
Keep reading for the full statement….
Statement from Vint Cerf, Chair of the Board, International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
December 12, 2006
Sao Paolo, Brazil
Dear Colleagues,
As you know, ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet’s
domain name system (like .org,
.museum and country codes like .UK), the system that allows people to reach sites on the web no matter where they are located. Careful management of these
resources is vital to the Internet’s operation, so ICANN’s global
stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the
Internet’s ongoing security and stability.
With the expansive growth of virtual environments such as World of Warcraft, Eve, and Second Life, it has become clear that there are growing challenges in managing and coordinating unique name and virtual address locations. As the body which has since the inception of the World Wide Web kept the addressing system functioning and expanding, it seems natural and appropriate that ICANN should step into the role of managing virtual name and address assignment.
So, as of today, December 12, 2006, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will be forming an ancillary body entitled the Agency for Virtual Nomenclature and Addressing (AVNA.) AVNA’s authority will supercede the naming authority of such private companies as Linden Labs and Blizzard and will be the first contact point for virtual world residents, MMORPG players, and other denizens of the evolving metaverse seeking to procure the use of particular names and virtual locations.
Our first order of business will be the levying of regular fees for all virtual land, object and avatar names. For your convenience, these fees will be payable in Linden dollars, There bucks, Everquest gold or any of the other standard virtual currencies. Then we will begin adjudicating intellectual property disputes for companies that feel that their trademarked names and images have been illegally appropriated by virtual world residents. Finally, we will engage in a lengthier and much more complicated process of creating multi-verse name and identity tracking so that whether you are on gmail, Everquest or myspace, you are always known by the same identifier. This, we have been assured by government authorities, is the basis for a secure and stable multi-verse environment.
Rest assured that while we implement these changes, we will seek to continue to be available to the public, whether at our regular public forums around the world, on the internet via IRC chat, or in our Second Life headquarters where I will have regular office hours starting in January.
We rely on your trust and support as we expand our work into this exciting and important arena of human communications and information exchange.
For more information see icann.org .
Is it April Fool’s Day already?
ROTFL
Ahaha.
I’d like to state that Metaversatility had /nothing/ to do with this. 😀
Except, you know, we did the build.
Adri, I thought the build looked very good but was a real pain in the ass to navigate. There are ceilings, so you can’t fly in through the top of the building, the hallways are too narrow, and sometimes its hard to open the doors. I know you didn’t ask for feedback, but there it is.
Is this real or not?
I think this is a joke. I can’t find any reference to it on the ICANN website, nor is it on any other news site. Plus this sounds phenomenally far-fetched. Unless ICANN developed a military presence of some sort recently I can’t imagine them being able to implement such a thing.
Okay, this gets way more interesting.
The island Rik mentioned, “Ninca”, is owned by an avatar, “Lex Flagstaff”. Lex, in his 1st Life Profile, has the following link:
http://www.lextext.com/
Following the site to his blog, I found that he claims to be a lawyer from the CFIT, currently suing ICANN on antri-trust grounds.
Could the REAL story be that a lawyer for the CFIT has a fake ICANN island and is putting out disinformation? I’m still waiting to hear where Rik got his “press release”.
I knew something was up because it looked awfully suspicious seeing Vint spell “gmail” as lowercase!
This will so make people blink, yell, scream, rant and rave, then turn red when they figure out it isn’t real. 😉
I give this an 8. Much more imaginative than the recent friend request virus rumor, plus there’s a picture of a smiling man in a yellow tie…for authenticity!
This is the 3-D equivalent of an ICANN Sucks website.
Alright, folks, this build was funded by a member of the ICANN At-Large advisory committee as a proof of concept build. It has not been announced to the public because ICANN is not funding it. Several tests are being run with it in regards to how it can be used during ICANN meetings and in the off times to make ICANN more accessable to the public and less of an ivory tower as well as making telecommuting easier for the ICANN members and committees.
ICANN is not taking over Second Life.
Adri, why then does the owner of the island have a link to a blog in his profile where the blog owner claims to be a lawyer involved in an anti-trust suit against ICANN?
I just noticed that the island name (Ninca) is an anagram of ICANN.
I think u been had, Rik. May want to re-CANNt…
Vint Cerf would never misspell “supersede”. 🙂
I had IM’d Rik inworld last night suggested his sources; today I got back a “lol” response.
Rik, you know what happened to the journalist who cried wolf, right? 😀
Well, just got the official word from Rik, it’s a joke. And this apparenrtly isn’t the end of his antics, something else is in store.
Hi all. I’m checking my sources as I type this. Apparently you should trust a tip from a guy who emails you from a .xxx domain name.
ICANN?
No, you CANT.
On personal opinion, I find this very helpful.
Guys, I have also posted some more relevant info further on this, not sure if you find it
useful: http://www.bidmaxhost.com/forum/
Of course
ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet’s domain name system
Many Thanks
Kostas I.
http://harvardconferences.blogspot.com/
http://sfaka.blogspot.com/
http://wseas-cscc.blogspot.com/
Several tests are being run with it in regards to how it can be used during ICANN meetings and in the off times to make ICANN more accessable to the public and less of an ivory tower as well as making telecommuting easier for the ICANN members and committees.