Rearranging Jonathan Bowen's comments:

>There could even be a top-level "mus" domain (like "edu" for
>educational establishments and "com" for commercial sites).
>Perhaps ICOM could administer this top-level domain. These
>suggestions could help prevent the fragmentation of museum site
>names between "edu", "org", "com", "ac.uk", "gov.uk", "co.uk",
>etc. which is currently occuring and also save the museum
>community a lot of money in name registration costs.

Active plans are currently being made for the registration of a
large number of new top-level domains (TLD's). It would, indeed,
be very useful if the museum community could arrange for a
".mus".  As the domain name operator for ICOM, I would be quite
willing to pursue this matter. However, the cost for doing so
would be far higher than you may realize.

First, authority for the new TLD's will not be given away. Since
there is tremendous commercial potential in TLD management the
rights to a TLD are likely to cost a *very* large amount of
money.

Second, the actual task of managing even a small TLD would
require full-time administrative staff. The legal complications
that invariably arise for TLD operators are also daunting and
legal staff would need to be at hand.

>I would recommend that national museum organizations start to
>address the problem of museum names on the Internet. I suggest
>national organizations set up sub-somain names for museums and
>use existing registered names if available. For example, in the
>UK, the Museums Documentation Association (MDA) could negotiate
>to manage a new UK sub-domain such as "mus.uk", similar to the
>academic "ac.uk" sub-domain. There is already a "sch.uk"
>sub-domain for schools. This could save a lot on registration
>costs of $100+ per individual domain name. Museums in a whole
>country could be registered en masse by an appropriate national
>organization.

There is no universal practice for sub-domain registration in the
various national TLD's. It is obvious from Jonathan's remarks
that a $100 registration fee is common in the .uk domain. In many
other countries there are no registration or maintenance fees at
all. The three-letter TLD's (.com, .edu, .org, etc.) currently
charge $50 per year for a second level domain (SLD)

Also, the use of sector-based SLD designations is a rather
uncommon. Any museum that is currently able to register its own
SLD would need to have its head examined if it voluntarily agreed
to be bumped down to a third level domain. (Having an autonomous
SLD *is* worth tangible extra cost.) Moving from "mymuseum.se" to
"mymuseum.mus" would be a step in the right direction. Moving
from "mymuseum.se" to "mymuseum.mus.se" would not. Nor would many
state operated museums be able to end up with less than
"mymuseum.mus.gov.se".

In short, if the museums of the world perceive value in
establishing a sectorial domain identity, this should be
targeted at the top level, rather than what would end up being
an erratic sequence of national solutions. Problem is that the
total cost of a museum TLD would very likely be whoppingly
greater that the cost of our current less centralized way of
doing things.

>Any comments? I would be particularly interested to here from
>appropriate national museum organizations who could take on
>such a role.

I can speak authoritatively on this issue both on ICOM's behalf,
looking towards a .mus TLD, and on behalf of the Swedish national
organization (INSAM) that would be responsible for any move
towards a mus.se.

>I am happy to link to relevant initiatives in the Virtual
>Library museums pages "museum contacts" section under:

If there is significant interest in this subject I would be
happy to set up a dedicated distribution list for the
purpose.


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Cary Karp <[log in to unmask]>   Department of Information Technology
Phone: +46 8 666 4055   Swedish Museum of Natural History
Fax:   +46 8 666 4235   Svante Arrheniusv. 3
http://www.nrm.se/      Box 50007, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
Personal:  [log in to unmask]   http://www.pi.se/karp/