The "Digital Archery" Revolution...That Didn't Happen (Yet).

By Duane J. Higgins, ceo
xtradot.com

On  March 31, 2012  I purchased the domain name DigitalArchery.com and I was set to make at least a million dollars in my sleep.

ICANN had just announced the "Digital Archery" program  as part of the selection process relating to the new GTLD applications. Digital Archery was a mechanism developed by ICANN to determine the processing time or batch slots for each gTLD application using "target time variance." Digital archery was approved by ICANN during a special meeting of the ICANN Board on March 28. 2012.

Within days- the first Digital Archery providers announced their own specialized service. At least a half a dozen different Digital Archery services popped up literally overnight.  The new providers were charging (i'm not kidding) from  $15,000 to $25,000 for a single successful batching result.  With upwards of 2000 applications to be processed and batched- the "Digital Archery" revolution was well on its way. The Internet was about to see something that maybe it had never seen. The ICANN organization had proposed a technology and vernacular that had never been used or tested and was in the process of spurning a 20-50 million dollar cottage industry. 

However, as often happens with new ideas (at least the first try) ICANN suspended the program on  June 23, 2012. Following complaints that there were unexpected variances in the results of the process due to various circumstances, including network latency.

So what will become of Digital Archery? If you ask me it was probably great idea whose time hadn't come yet. Nor had its proper purpose.

After my Digital Archery dream came crashing down. I decided to throw together a few ideas of what might be the proper application for the "Digital Archery" technology. First of all from the ICANN Wiki- This is what Digital Archery is:

The process was to be completed in the following four steps:^[5]

• Step 1: Applicants will enter their batch preference and a target date and time into the batching system accessed via TAS. For example: Target Date: 11 June 2012 and Target Time: 08:00:00 EST
• Step 2: Applicants must re-enter TAS as close as possible to the original time stamp to generate a message to the batching system. The online batching system will then record when this message was received. For example: Message Received Date: 11 June 2012 and Message Received Time: 08:00:03)
• Step 3: The secondary time stamp will be calculated by the system using the time variance between step one (when the applicant entered his/her target time) and step two (when the message received date/time was generated/recorded). The example shows that the secondary time stamp between step one and step two is 3 seconds. An application will be included in an earlier batch to be processed if the time stamp is closer to 0, if the applicant selected to participate in the earliest batch to be processed.
• Step 4: The batching selection process will combine the applicant's batching preferences, the secondary time stamp and the geographic region of a specific new gTLD application to determine which applicants end up in which batches. 

ICANN created this process. It is their baby. What could and should be some real life applications?

How about gaming/lottery application? What I refer to as a "Skilled Lottery." For example see below for my proposal which can be facilitated with an app. This proposal requires some modifications to the ICANN technique however the mechanism is basically the same:

The Digital Archery App; Facilitating the "Skilled Lottery" Disruption.
A "cloud based" app.

This is a real game of digital archery with strategy, skill (and luck) involved. 

Object of the gaming application is to hit the target in prescribed time. (think video game graphics)
You can adjust trajectory, distance and timing for your "archery shot".
Composite score based on time sensitivity and closeness to target (archery) (time/target variance)
You pay per click (shot). Combine app with "micro payments" service.
There is a daily winner who wins the pot (just like in most lotteries)
Purse is based on take.
Real-time scoreboard and purse.

Anyone looking for a new disruption? This could be it.

I'm going to hang onto that domain name for a little longer.