The .museum top-level domain (TLD) is a unifying label on the Internet, developed
exclusively for the museum community. Providing information and resources to the public, and a
clear identity for museums and the resources they offer, .museum is the place to find
genuine museums – enabling their definite recognition as a basis for sharing and
accessing information on museums worldwide.
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers) established .museum as a top-level domain through formal agreement with the
Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma), which both maintains domain policy and
administers the .museum registry.
.museum is a restricted TLD. This means that only genuine museums, museums associations
and museum professionals are eligible to register names in .museum.
History of .museum
In response to the unanticipated rapid growth of the Internet during the 1990's, the creators
of the Domain Name System proposed the introduction of new generic top-level domains (generic
meaning global, as .com .org .net, in contrast to national, as .uk and .fr),
ICOM (International Councils of Museums) realised that, sooner
or later, there would be a domain
for museums. In order for this domain to be meaningful for the museum community and the public,
responsibility for it needed to evolve from within the museum community.
In October 2001, an agreement was signed between ICANN and MuseDoma establishing .museum,
which went into operation the following month.
The basis for .museum policy is provided by the ICOM definition of museum. This policy
restricts the holding of names in .museum to genuine museums, museums associations and
individual members of the museum profession. All applications for names are subject to review,
but eligibility can often most easily be demonstrated by membership in ICOM or another
professional museums association.
Latest update: 23 July 2010
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• Museums
• Professional museums associations
• Individual members of the museum professional
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MuseDoma
Museum Domain Management Association
ICOM
International Council of Museums
NRM
Swedish Museum of Natural History
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