News Release

Museum Domain Management Association
The .museum Registry

Press Contacts:
Elizabeth Tobey
Hill and Knowlton Public Relations
+1 323 966 5785
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Valerie Jullien
Communications Officer
International Council of Museums
Barcelona, through July 6: +34 93 233 2392
Paris, after July 9:  +33 1 4568 2836
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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:
[log in to unmask] For information about the International
Council of Museums and ICOM 2001, visit www.icom.org.

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