A few weeks ago it was reported that AtMeeting Industries had been sub-contracted by Littlehall Corporation to provide backbone network services for the IDCAS virtual environment, Education 3D Grid (Edu3DGrid.com).
One of the roles which AtMeeting obtained through this contract was the administration of the grids authorization service framework.
First a little background: Each user (called a resident) of the grid is allocated a username consisting of two words (similar in nature to real life). The first name is optional and the user is free to choose any word they like so long as it does not go against the grids terms of service. On the other hand, the surname part is restricted to just a few options. There are many technical and policy reasons for this to be the case. Needless to say it takes a considerable amount of resource allocation to provide additional surnames to the list. Good news for new users today though as AtMeeting has negotiated with Littlehall for the provision of extra surnames to general residents. These will be available for use from midnight (GMT) tomorrow.
The new surnames include; Babka, Baker, Bessie, Bogart, Cinquetti, Dalek, Debs, Electricteeth, Huckleberry, McLuhan, Nilsson, Odets, Rosebud, Trumbo, Ullman, Welesa, Wijaya, Zugzwang.
A number of these are unusual for one reason or another in terms of allocation to general resident community. Historically Littlehall Corporation has only provided rights of use to surnames which are not used as genuine real life surnames. Some of the exceptions listed above to this rule are Baker (common British surname) and Bogart (eg. Humphrey Bogart). Even the names Wijaya and Zugzwang suggest a little added playfulness on the part of AtMeeting. Wijaya (in addition to being a common Indonesian surname) means “victory” while Zugzwang is a German phrase meaning “compulsion to move”. The added surnames are a welcome addition and I look forward to seeing which other ones make an appearance over time.