Museum Domain Management Association The .museum Registry

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For Immediate Release - June 28, 2001

DOT-MUSEUM DOMAIN WILL BEGIN ACCEPTING REQUESTS JUNE 30

New TLD .museum will create shared focus for the global museum community

PARIS -- The Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma) has announced that it will accept preliminary requests for name reservations in the new top-level domain (TLD), ".museum" beginning June 30. The .museum TLD, one of the first sponsored TLDs, was created to provide bona fide museums, their professional associations and individual members of the museum profession with a distinct and unified online identity.

The .museum TLD was proposed by MuseDoma (www.musedoma.org), a nonprofit trade organization created by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) with the assistance of the J. Paul Getty Trust. On Nov. 16, 2000 the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) selected .museum as one of seven new TLDs to be introduced into the nomenclature of the Internet, with MuseDoma to act as the sole trustee of the .museum TLD, responsible for its day-to-day operations, including policy decisions on the naming conventions within the domain and the use of revenues. The .museum domain will be restricted, with eligibility limited to museums and their professional organizations.

"We are enthusiastic about the opportunities presented by the .museum TLD," said Cary Karp, president of MuseDoma and director of Internet Strategy and Technology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. "We have received a great deal of initial interest and comment from the cultural and scientific communities and this first stage, when MuseDoma begins accepting name requests, is intended to generate additional community input and bring .museum one step closer to realization.

" "By establishing the .museum TLD, MuseDoma is changing the visibility of museums and enabling museums everywhere, regardless of expertise, size of collections or level of funding, to benefit from Internet technology," said Manus Brinkman, Secretary General, International Council of Museums. "The .museum TLD is a breakthrough for the museum community and ICOM is pleased to be among those who are leading this effort to increase public knowledge and access to the world's cultural and scientific treasures."

MuseDoma will introduce its directory service prototype for the .museum domain during the ICOM General Conference and Assembly 2001, which begins June 30 in Barcelona, Spain. Interested parties can find additional information about the .museum registration process at http://www.musedoma.org/name_requests or e-mail: request.form@musedoma.org.
For information about the International Council of Museums and ICOM 2001, visit www.icom.org