Claim Your Domain Name!

My good friend, Philadelphia photogrpaher and media philosopher Ed Wheeler, recently made a statement in a promotional mailing that struck me. It's all about the growing reality that we will need to manage our domain names as part of our identities. He's given me permission to recreate it here:

"The day will come when parents name their children based on the availability of a dot-com. Companies have been forced to become creative with their brand names. Their ultimate goal is to garner an unsullied URL. In the future, parents will have to do the same. Unless your last name is Radziejowski, Mary or Kevin will not be an option for the kids. There are 17 Ed Wheelers in the Philadelphia area alone. You do the math. If I was born in 2010, I might be Elvis Wheeler. Would you let your child grow up with a name that was owned by some guy is Pascagoula, Mississippi?

"At the start of the presidential campaign, half of the candidates did not own their domain name. RudiGiuliani.com was owned by a used car dealership. Now they all own their names, and you can imagine how much that cost them.

"Everyone should take a minute at [a domain name seller] to check out the availability of their name. I bought my children their domain names for Christmas. Who knows, some day they might even run for President."

Hmmm. I'm willing to bet that there weren't too many Barack Obamas out there in cyberspace, but Ed's points are well taken. Good advice for the 21st Century, Ed. Thanks a lot.

By the way, Ed's a really good photographer. Check out his work at www.edwheeler.com.