The .tel TLD secret

Whilst, I admit, I'm sure that my readership is small, what I am fairly certain of is that probably none of you will have heard of the .tel domain name, what it does and how it is apprarently going to become the next "must-have" top level domain name.

Anyone? Anyone? Nope, I didn't think so. Sadly, this interesting new development is a very well kept secret. I only found out about it after stumbling over it on the nominet website. A bit of research later and I realised that it was a good idea and I bought myself steveclarke.tel. Click on the link and it'll take you to a page that shows my public contact details. Essentially, my business card now just needs the simple tag line: steveclarke.tel and that's it. It'll never go out of date, it'll never cease to be relevant because I can update the information on steveclarke.tel easily and simply. It's not even stored in a webpage or in html, it's all stored in the DNS information which should make it harder to hack (here's hoping).

My name is unfortunately very common, googling my name reveals lots of "Steve Clarke"s, famous and otherwise: A Chelsea football coach, a Times writer, a Scottish International Footballer, a Photographer, a Devonian car-dealer, a Norwich based French Polisher, an Author, a DJ... I could go on. These all come up before a single search result shows one that refers to me. So I thought I'd better get in quick and this was when I realised it was a well kept secret because much to my surprise I managed to purchase steveclarke.tel in the landrush prior to general availability. I thought it would have been well gone. I also found that clarke.tel was also available as were many famous names and after trying a number of different name combinations, the lack of current take-up was obvious.

Is it going to take off, this .tel thing? Yes, I think it will. I for one am fed up with continuously having to update details of people when they move or change jobs. I suppose people might be anxious about having this kind of detail in the public domain, but equally the system allows for people to control who can access their information via a simple control panel. Once a few people have their new-fangled business card out and about, people will start to take a real interest and the domains will be snapped up. It plugs in to Outlook, it works on the mobile, managing the data is simple and quick.

Already, I'm using it on my linkedin headline and when I need some new business cards, I'm hoping that I can pursuade Facilities to just put steveclarke.tel on it. We'll see, that might be a step too far for facilities!

General Availability kicks in tomorrow, so if you want to land-grab your .tel and are worried someone else might get it, you need to move quickly!

Desktop Security and Flexibility

A friend recently complained to me that he had been unable to work effectively because the tool he wanted to use wouldn't work. It wouldn't work because his technology function had set his rights to his own laptop too low for the software to operate. His IT function was unmoved even in the face of escalation. If it didn't work within the standard configuration, it wasn't going to be used. Security and stability were used to justify their stance.

The irony is that my friend eventually exposed his company to a greater security issue by bringing in his own laptop, installed the tool on it, connected to the work LAN and used it to get the job done.

This is an IT department acting as policeman and divorced from the rest of the business. Their users can't be trusted, they must be controlled and only allowed to operate within a specific walled garden for their own safety. In my opinion this uncompromising and ineffective approach is outdated and gives the IT function a bad name that will once more have CEOs looking to outsource, potentially jumping out of the frying pan and in to the fire - outsourced desktop contracts will always be constrictive!

IT departments must treat users like adults and allow them the flexibility to get the job done and it's a good start in partnering with the business. Security and stability can still be achieved within these environments, it just takes a little bit more thinking about, innovation and collaboration with the customer. What a scary thought!!