Dig out your security and filtering manuals, because a VP will soon
knock on the door. He or she will demand action to deal with the new Top
Level Domain, .xxx, just approved by ICANN (Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers).
Of all the domains to authorize, why Triple X? Homage to the action
movies?
Why not encourage better use of geographic tags? Businesses need ways to
attract local users, and using the proper state and country tag would
provide excellent filter fodder. Nope, we get a supposedly easy way to
isolate adult content, so the Powers That Be can say they've done
something when in fact they've done nothing of value.
What they have done, however, is create a desire for easier corporate
filtering of Web sites. As proxy servers and firewalls get smarter, soon
requests for any *.xxx URL will be blocked and forwarded to the manager
of the user sending that request. This will only cause more workplace
problems, however, because the user may not know they've asked for an
xxx domain name if the URL was buried in an e-mail or another Web page,
or if a Trojan program launched the request.
No matter the real reason, already thin IT staff will be flogged until
they track each request back to a user. No matter that an executive
checking stocks wastes more company payroll than 50 wage slaves checking
for adult content. No matter that alert management deals with these
problems better than filters.
So get ready for the request, because it will come. Start putting your
report together now and save yourself some time later, because your
deadline will be short.
My biggest laugh? ICANN knows these extra domain names don't really
matter - they own icann.com which goes to a portal showing how to reach
icann.org, their real site, and a bunch of other Internet .org sites.
Only .com matters, and ICANN, and fanatic filtering executives, won't
gain any value from the new domain. What a bunch of sound and fury
signifying nothing.
Plug: My consumer and small biz VoIP book, Talk Is Cheap, is nearing the
stores. Check out details here.
