The Glass Ceiling Sucks—and These 7 Women Have Helped to Smash It
From Zhou Qunfei to Oprah Winfrey, learn how these women help tip the scales as they take on positions of influence in the world.
Current Affairs & World News
Making friends and (perhaps) influencing people
Vox Populi Registry is just back from INTA16, the annual meeting of the International Trademark Association. Held in Orlando, Florida, it is the pre-eminent destination for anyone interested in intellectual property. As the company that has brought .Sucks domain names to the internet, it is easy to see why that community would have an interest is us. Less obvious – and the reason we participated – is the ability our platform gives companies to enhance their brands. The conference gave us the chance to meet as many IP lawyers in one place, at one time as is humanly (or should that be humanely?) possible. It also gave us time over the course of the four-day event, to make the case in detail. It didn’t hurt that .Sucks tee-shirts were a most significant draw! Our trip to Florida marked our return to the event. It was last year, at INTA15 in San Diego that we had our coming out party. Scheduled right in the middle of the registry’s Sunrise period, where only those with registered trademarks could register .Sucks domain names, we were able to answer the list of questions made longer by a lack of information. We thought it a good idea to confront that. And, of course, be confronted. It was not unusual last year for us to hear both the quiet criticism of people we had just met or suffer the charges loudly made by others as they passed by without stopping. Some of it was colorful. Some of it was alliterative. Still more of it was as much a call to action as a .Sucks domain name. Our presence there then, the clarity and consistency of our business model, the performance of the registry in the year since and the willingness to return to INTA to mark our first anniversary all led to quite a bit different reaction. No one leveled criminal charges (that happened last year), no one began a speech of condemnation hoping for a crowd to gather to join in and no one rushed by our booth shouting opprobrium. All in, I’d have to say it was a great Spring Break trip.
A recourse for political discourse
The platform for comment and criticism at Vox Populi Registry has always been aimed at giving passionate people a place not just to speak, but to be heard. We already have seen such a community emerge. It has been built on matters as straightforward as company customer service, as urgent as a medical condition, as local as a new development or as endemic as a bad meeting, meal or sales pitch. One place, though, may be even better suited for the dotSucks platform. That’s the two-sided, “screw you, strong letter to follow” world of politics. The role of political speech in democratic societies has been of great interest and from the day of our launch, Vox Populi Registry has sought to support social commentary. Our Advocates Program is designed to foster this kind of debate. In it “we seek to partner with a select set of out-spoken registrants…who, using their free speech rights and passion, can help make the VoxPopRegistry and the .sucks top level domain, an essential destination. We intend to solicit marketing plans for such sites and select a small group of them to support.” In the last six months we have seen the start of the U.S. Presidential campaign, the Greek bailout, a fatal stampede at Mecca, a global rush of refugees, a series of mass shootings and the Volkswagen scam-by-software to name just a few events at the intersection of social relevance and political interest – the definition of passion. Yet we have seen too few proposals. The dotSucks platform is still a new one, so it is important for us to show a little patience. After all, with as much as has been said and written about us, we’ve likely have only scratched the surface of the public’s itch to be heard. This will change as more dotSucks sites emerge on the Internet as they do each week. We will do our part, too. First, by maintaining our commitment to the Advocates Program. Second, by moving quickly to support well-founded proposals. And, third, by doing what we can to let people know about the program. The last point begins with social media – this blog entry, for example, and the Tweets and posts it inspires. We will follow that up with direct communication with the groups already involved in issues such as those noted above. And we will continue to make the program a part of our ongoing marketing. Our goal, now as when we launched six months ago, is to create a new platform, not just one that makes it easier to make a point, but is easy to find, creating the opportunity for a community of like-minded and passionate people to gather.