January 15, 2002 Boston, MA  EnCirca Inc., announced that the first .name Internet addresses will go live today. .name is the first Internet domain reserved strictly for individuals. Domains are reserved in the form of http://www.tom.barrett.name and an email would appear as, tom@barrett.name.

The looming e-wallet battle between AOL, Microsoft, SUN Microsystems and Yahoo is really a fight for control of the individual consumer’s digital identity. The .name domain is where most of these battles will take place,” states Tom Barrett, CEO of EnCirca.

Consumers will use their digital identity as their electronic home base. They will use it to conduct ecommerce, publish personal information and communicate with their human network of friends, colleagues and family. The individual will be in complete control: deciding who has access to their personal information.

Although the technology for achieving this is still immature, initial registrations to EnCirca indicate there are several groups rushing to secure their personal name in the .name domain:

1. Celebrities, whose name is equivalent to a brand and fictional characters, are securing their name for use for marketing and merchandizing purposes.
2. Job Professionals, who want to use it for career management and maintaining their personal network
3. College seniors and MBA’s, looking for an edge in today’s tight job market.
4. Families, looking for a space to establish family websites.

As individuals change jobs, marry, upgrade to broadband or move to a new town, the .name address provides continuity for the person’s personal contacts.

About Encirca

EnCirca is a Registrar focusly solely on personal domains.    EnCirca CEO, Tom Barrett is an expert in Internet domain names and the new top-level extensions. An industry veteran, Mr. Barrett is former Global CEO of one of the leading domain name registrars for generic and country-code top-level domains.  Mr. Barrett was also a founding member of the consortium, Afilias, which was awarded .info and was a consultant to the joint venture awarded .biz.