Gala celebrates big companies and players in the dot.com revolution.
Last night I had the honor of attending VeriSign’s “25 Years of .Com” gala at city hall in San Francisco. It was a fantastic event with a lot of the companies and people that made the internet what it is today in attendance.
After cocktails, comedian Dana Carvey took to the stage to warm up the crowd.
“Welcome. How many people have a net worth over $10 million? Don’t think, just raise your hand,” joked Carvey. He then pointed to another audience member. “Are you worth a billion dollars? You look like you’re thirteen.”
Carvey then introduced Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, who provided a list of 10 reasons we shouldn’t be celebrating 25 years of .com. One of his reasons: “I’m still waiting on my new Nigerian friend to send me that twenty-five thousand dollars.” (Note to self: never follow an emmy-award winning comedian on the stage and try to be funny.)
The gala included a video celebrating the “.com 25″, including eBay, eTrade, and Craigslist (the latter of which is actually on a .org domain). VeriSign also welcomed the “Domain Pioneers” consisting of some of the biggest domain name registrars. Among those accepting the honor on behalf of their companies were Warren Adelman of Go Daddy, Elliot Noss of Tucows, Bhavin Turakhia of Directi, and Jeff Kupietzky of Oversee.net
But the most entertaining moment of the evening was Carvey’s improvised introduction of ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush. I know the video below is of low quality (hey, I had a Flip in the back of the room), but you’ll get a kick out of it.
VeriSign celebrates 25 years of .com this evening.
I’m off to San Francisco for the 25 Years of .Com Gala this evening. The event will be hosted by one of my favorite comedians, Dana Carvey (Saturday Night Live, Wayne’s World, etc).
The evening will celebrate the “.com 25″ honoring “remarkable innovators, entrepreneurs and companies whose inspiring contributions were fundamental in shaping the Internet and, thereby, forever changing the way we think and act as individuals and as a society.”
Possible honorees to the .com 25 include Al Gore, Amazon.com, Google, Napster, Vint Cerf, and eBay.
I’ll try my best to cover the event live via Twitter, assuming there’s good cell phone coverage at the gala. You can follow me on Twitter at @DomainNameWire.
Politicians and instrumental web companies nominated for awards.
As part of a year long celebration of the 25th anniversary of .com, domain registry VeriSign today announced nominees for its “.com 25″. There are 75 nominees; a panel of judges will whittle it down to the “.com 25″. The public is invited to show support for nominees to help the judges.
Winners will be announced at a gala in San Francisco this May, hosted by comedian Dana Carvey.
Among the nominees are Al Gore, who was instrumental in the commercialization of the web (no joke), Vint Cerf (of ICANN and later Google), Steve Jobs, and James Gosling (creator of Java).
In addition to people, there are a number of companies nominated. Web 2.0 favorites include Digg and Flickr. E-commerce nominees include Amazon.com, Zappos, and Overstock.com. Of course, the web has also transformed dating. So it’s only fitting that Match.com and eHarmony are nominated. Blogs on the list include the Gawker network and celebrity site TMZ. Representing social networks are Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.
You can read more about each nominee and rate them at 25YearsOf.com.
VeriSign launches campaign to celebrate 25 years of .com.
.Com registry VeriSign has launched a new campaign to celebrate 25 years of dot com domain names and the emergence of the web. The campaign — found online at 25YearsOf.com — will celebrate a number of the milestones and important individuals that have made .com what it is today.
As part of the program, VeriSign will sponsor a Policy Impact Forum in Washington D.C. on March 16. This forum will examine the disconnect between policy and technology, and how the former fails to keep pace with innovation in the latter.
On May 26, VeriSign will host a “25 Years of .Com” gala in San Francisco. The .Com 25 Awards, recognizing the people and companies who have made the most notable impact in shaping the internet, will be announced at the gala.
As the registry for .com, VeriSign earns $6.86 per .com domain name per year, or about nearly $600 million. This price will increase to $7.34 in July 2010.
I’m off to San Francisco for the 25 Years of .Com Gala this evening. The event will be hosted by one of my favorite comedians, Dana Carvey (Saturday Night Live, Wayne’s World, etc). 
.Com registry VeriSign has launched a new campaign to celebrate 25 years of dot com domain names and the emergence of the web. The campaign — found online at