There are many influential people in the domain industry, but there aren’t many who were already carrying that prestigious badge sixteen years ago.
A post by Logistik Labs in 2007 listed 20 individuals, some of which are not domainers, among the most influential people in domaining.
The list is as follows:
- Vinton Cerf – Co-designer of the TCP/IP protocol and thus “father of the internet.”
- Rick Schwartz – Co-founder of TRAFFIC
- Ron Jackson – Publisher of DNJournal
- Monte Cahn – Founder of DomainSystems
- Kevin Ham – The man who owned the internet, before Frank Schilling
- Jon Postel – The original tab-keeper of domain registrations
- Frank Schilling – Investor at SevenMile.com
- Adam Dicker – At the time he was a GoDaddy VP before he was forced out
- Russell C. Horowitz – CEO of Marchex
- Yun Ye – The whiz kid who sold his portfolio to Marchex
- Tim Schumacher – Co-founder of Sedo
- Tim Berners-Lee – Inventor of the world wide web
- John Berryhill – Attorney and UDRP specialist
- Chris Chena – Paraguayan domain prodigy
- Bob Parsons – Founder of GoDaddy
- Craig Nine – Some dude we never heard of before
- Sahar Sarid – Recall Media / Conceptualist.com
- Ron James – The founder of NamePros
- Rick Latona – DigiPawn founder
- You – The average Joe Domainer
So where are these folks now?
Jon Postel was already dead by 1998. Frank Schilling retired from domaining and is a real estate developer and restaurateur in the Grand Cayman.
Vinton Cerf is alive and active on Twitter. Rick Schwartz is doing great and also active on Twitter! We have no idea where are Yun Ye, Kevin Ham, Tim Berners-Lee, Chris Chena, Craig Nine, or Ron James.
Sahar Sarid: We know where he is but aren’t sharing. John Berryhill is very active, in UDRP courts or on Twitter. You can find Tim Schumacher here.
With special regards to Ron Jackson of DNJournal.com who deserves everyone’s thanks year-round.
