Field Report: Logging.Sucks
See how the National Parks Association of New South Wales (NSW), Australia is using .SUCKS to raise awareness about the effects of deforestation.
Majority of Fortune 100 registered in dotSucks
We are in the midst of celebrating the first anniversary of Vox Populi Registry and its dotSucks Internet domain names. Launched to both acclaim and opprobrium, the results have exceeded even our modest expectations. There are, of course, many ways registries measure success; some to which we subscribe (like innovation) others we don’t (like gross revenue). There are even some yardsticks created for other purposes that yield an even better measure of just how we’re doing. One of those that makes particular sense for the dotSucks platform, which aims to give companies a chance to curate criticism in ways that can deepen customer loyalty, is Fortune Magazine’s list of the top 100 companies. As Fortune notes on its website, these “companies are ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal years. Included in the survey are companies that are incorporated in the U.S. and operate in the U.S. and file financial statements with a government agency.” Essentially, these companies are doing something right. The top ten are well-known to most people. Beginning this year with Walmart and running to CVS Health, it is a diverse group, reflecting the broad reach of business. Each has a history of making the right decision most of the time. We’d like to think registering a dotSucks domain name is another one of those. Of those first ten brands, six have been registered. Among the top 100, 55 have been taken to this point. It is a good thing there is still room for us to grow. Compared to the companies on the list, we are just a toddler. Here is the list of registered dotSucks domain names taken from Fortune 100 list: Walmart Exxon Mobil Chevron Apple General Motors Ford Motor AT&T Valero Energy UnitedHealth Group Verizon Fannie Mae JP Morgan Chase Bank of America Corp. IBM Cardinal Health Citigroup Amazon.com Wells Fargo Microsoft Home Depot Walgreens Target MetLife Alphabet Freddie Mac Comcast AIG UPS Dow Chemical Lowes ConocoPhillips Prudential Financial Pfizer Cisco Systems Ingram Micro FedEx Johnson Controls American Airlines Group Merck Best Buy Delta Air Lines Liberty Mutual Insurance Group United Continental Holdings New York Life Insurance Oracle Morgan Stanley Tyson Foods Nationwide DuPont American Express Allstate Cigna TIAA-CREF DirecTV Twenty-First Century Fox
Neustar is our best business partner for 2015
Vox Populi Registry, the company bringing dotSucks domain names to the Internet, has announced that its technology platform services provider, Neustar, Inc. (NYSE:NSR), has been given the Registry’s first-ever “Best Business Partner” award. Created last December, Vox Populi Registry, located in the Cayman Islands, initially partnered with Australia-based ARI Services as its back-end technology provider. Neustar, based in Sterling, Virgina acquired that company last Summer. The award – “Recognizing exemplary technical support in year one of the domain name registry” — was presented to Adrian Kinderis, former CEO of Bombora Technologies (ARI’s parent company) and now VP, Corporate Development at Neustar, at the domain name conference, NamesCon, this week in Las Vegas. “Our success in this first year of operation is a product of our business plan, marketing, sales channel and rock-solid technical support for our names,” said John Berard, Vox Populi Registry’s CEO. “Neustar is making sure of it. They’ve earned this award.” The award acknowledges that Neustar was essential to Vox Populi Registry’s success as its “impeccable” technical platform allowed Vox Populi Registry to devote itself full-time to market awareness and sales. Vox Populi Registy is just one of hundreds of companies bringing new Internet domain names online. The program, managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN, was designed to help people better portray their digital identity. According to Berard, dotSucks names offer an unprecedented opportunity for people with a point-of-view not just to speak, but be more likely heard. “As a provocative service, with deep roots in free speech and fast-growing branches of comment and criticism, it was imperative to rally a set of business partners who could support us in our mission,” Berard said. “First as ARI and then as Neustar, they did the job.”
Keeping dotSucks Current
Last month, Vox Populi Registry implemented a new policy to keep the dotSucks platform current. Going forward, it is our plan to regularly update both our Market Premium and Reserved domain lists. At this point, monthly. As noted on our website, www.registry.sucks, Market Premium names are those that have been curated from a broad set of sources indicating a persistent and high interest in their use. Reserved names affected by this change are those that are held by the Registry, initially, for its own purposes and use, as in marketing. I don’t know of other domain name registries that are taking the time to curate their lists, but here is why we’re doing it. It is clear to us that the new gTLD program has yielded some fresh insights into the way we want to live online. It is a powerful human urge to let the world know who we are and what we think. We want to be seen as ourselves. That’s why identity has been a key driver of the new Internet landscape. Whether .doctor, .lawyer or .indianchief, the rapid adoption of new gTLDs has been fueled by their ability to effectively represent who we are in all the worlds we inhabit. We want to influence our world. That’s why comment and criticism have accelerated Internet growth. Whether a good review or bad, a question or an answer, a quick take or thoughtful suggestion, the urge to be heard – combined with identity, to be recognized — is undeniable. The new gTLDs help there, too. When the public Internet was made real 20 years ago, it gave us a start. A company’s email address was a “welcome mat” for conversation. The rise of eCommerce then led companies courting consumers actually to begin listening, but selectively and on their own channels. Now, just as the new gTLD program created the opportunity for all to be ourselves on line, it offers greater assurance that we will be heard – on our terms. An essential element of our identity and our passions is context. At work we can be a boss or an employee. At home we can be a husband or a wife. In polite society, we can be a Republican or a Democrat. We can love the new restaurant or hate it. The movie may be fabulous or perhaps it just sucks. The new gTLD program has given each of us a chance to be and say each of those things. This was the rule of human behavior that led us to create Vox Populi Registry a year ago and the dotSucks domain names. It strikes us that, as events occur and passions wax and wane, a list of names, either Market Premium or Reserved, ought to change with the times. Moving forward monthly, once a name is removed from the Reserved list, it will become instantly available for registration. In the same way, a domain removed from the Market Premium list will become instantly available for registration at the standard price. Our Registrar partners will be able to help Registrants navigate the changes as they occur. Vox Populi Registry has worked hard to be true to our mission: “dotSucks is designed to help consumers find their voices and allow companies to find the value in criticism.” By being sensitive to the issues and events of the day, we intend to stay in tune with what people are talking about and keeping dotSucks current.