Since this message is about a paid, but in my opinion, VERY important museum
web service which will soon be available (it is now in pilot form), I ought
to preface my remarks by saying that I and my museum, the Bagatti Valsecchi
Museum, derive no compensation whatsoever from this service, nor for
providing you with this information. I am providing this information freely
solely because I think it will be helpful and of interest to the MUSEUM-L
list members.

MuseDoma recently has been granted the right to the creation of a new first
level domain name in internet called ".museum" , which is strictly for
legitimate museums, and which is intended to create a central reference
point for anyone searching the internet for information on museums world
wide. For museums, MuseDoma also will offer a paid service of creating and
housing web pages for who do not already have them, or museums may choose
only to ask to register a ".museum" name which will serve as a quick way for
people seeking their museums to be linked to their existing pages.

The first level domain name (the levels are "counted" in reverse order, for
those of you less familiar with the web; other examples of first level
domain names are ".edu", ".org", and ".com") is preceded by a second level
domain name which provides a category for organizing the participating
museums. The list of currently available second level domain names (i.e.,
categories) is very detailed, probably will expand as need requires, and I
think this feature is of the utmost use to our potential visitors, one which
gives them a central point of reference, and a detailed subject-oriented way
to find us. The third level domain name typically would be the name of the
museum.

To give an example which might help clarify the "domains" question, our
museum, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan, Italy, will keep its existing
web site, http://www.museobagattivalsecchi.org (in which ".org" is the first
level domain, and the second level domain is our museum name), but we also
have asked MuseDoma to register the name
http://www.museobagattivalsecchi.house.museum (in which ".museum" is the
first level domain, ".house" is the second level domain, and our museum name
becomes the third level domain) which will forward people searching the
".museum" site to our own web site.

Although your web people may have technical questions about linking
pre-existing web sites to the MuseDoma pages, I tend to think that choosing
the institution's potential ".museum" name (or names, you may register as
many versions as you wish to pay for) for most of us is pretty straight
forward. The first thing after WWW naturally will be a version of your
museum's name (you can register as many as you want to pay for <grin>, and
first come first served!). The next thing will be the category (or
categories) in which you wish (to pay) to appear, and, finally, the domain
".museum" . Complications seem to arise only in the case of generically
entitled museums, like "National Gallery of Art," for which another level of
categories by country is introduced, I believe.

For more information, copious FAQ (which probably will clarify any questions
you may have, even about figuring out how to register your museum if your
title is something generic like "National Gallery of Art"), and how to sign
up to a discussion list and an e-mail newsletter, go to:

 http://musedoma.museum/

The pilot project is up and running. I have seen no clear cut information,
yet, about when the service finally will be available, nor about the costs
for registering each name (the estimates have waffled between something like
around $30 to $100 depending on the difficulty of verifying the information,
and setting up the link, but there has been nothing definite, yet, and there
also is a question about initial versus annual fees). Nevertheless, I think
that it is a great idea, and that the site will help museum seekers know of
one place to go to find us all.

Do try to find all the info you need about the project and about signing up
to the newsletters on the MuseDoma web site, but if you have difficulties, I
have put the lists' moderator, Cary Karp, copied in this message; he also is
one of the collaborators in the project, so he will be able to answer your
questions (to which answers have been formed, at this stage, anyway). So
that Cary doesn't curse my name in eternity <grin> because of all the
questions which could have been answered by examining the web site with a
bit of patience, please do visit the web site first.

Hope this has been helpful, best regards,

Star
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