WHITE PAPER

New Domain Name, .museum, to be Issued

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The top-level domain, .museum (“dot-museum”), was created to enable museums, museum associations and museum professionals to register .museum Web sites and e-mail addresses. The .museum extension makes it easy for the general public and those in the museum community to recognize genuine museum activity on the Internet.

Overview
The .museum top-level domain (TLD) is a unifying label on the Internet, developed exclusively for the museum community. The new .museum extension allows legitimate museums to be easily identified on the Internet as a reliable source for information. Beyond helping the general user identify museums online, it also helps museums worldwide to access and share information with one another.

A great benefit of the .museum TLD is its restricted use. While other TLDs – like .com or .org – can be registered by anyone, the .museum extension is reserved for museums only. Eligibility for .museum is based on the definition of a museum as provided by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), and the ICOM defines a museum as:

A museum is a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, and open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment.

(For more information on museums and their status, visit the ICOM at http://ICOM.museum.)

By its restriction to genuine museums, the domain validates and verifies the legitimacy of museums around the world.

The .museum TLD is globally visible. The structure of the .museum name space makes it easy for the general public, and museum professionals alike, to locate museums without knowing their precise names. The dedicated domain also provides all museums — regardless of their specialization, size of collections, or level of funding — with equal opportunities for visibility on the Internet.

More museums are registering the .museum extension everyday, and many subcategories, known as second-level domains, have also been established. For example, the extension “air.museum” identifies air museums, and groups such as the Experimental Aircraft Association have registered under that domain as http://eea.air.museum. As the popularity of the .museum extension grows, more second-level domains or subcategories will become available. To view a list of all of the .museum second-level domains, as well as those groups that have registered the Web addresses, visit http://index.museum.

If you think the .museum extension could benefit you and your museum, take the following steps to secure this important domain:

Obtain a Community ID
A Community ID identifies your group as a member of the museum community when dealing with the domain registrars. If you do not have a Community ID, you need to apply for one by visiting https://ens.museum/. After your application has been processed, you will receive your Community ID and a password to prevent unauthorized use of the ID. You will also be notified about the names that have been reserved for you to register.
Select and submit domain names
Brady Communications can assist with suitable name suggestions and submission. In addition to the general standards that apply to domain names sbumissions, it is important to remember that:

The names you choose must be clearly derived from your museum’s name. For example, if your museum is called the Judy Garland Museum, you can not try to establish a domain name of Oz.museum.

The name must be specific to your museum. It can not be a generic term. For example, if your museum is called the Steel Industry Museum of Pittsburgh, you can not try to establish a domain name of pittsburgh.museum.

Several other rules apply to the formation of names in .museum, and Brady Communications can guide you through the eligibility polices.
Register names
Only authorized registrars are able to register names to .museums. You may select any of the authorized registrars to work with, but it is important to note that each provides services in different languages and each may have varying terms of service, including different costs. You can submit your desired domain names, and you can request additional names at any time.

Brady Communications can guide you through this process. Please contact us at 412-288-9300 for assistance.

This White Paper was produced by Brady Communications. To learn more about this subject, contact us or visit our Web site at www.bradycommunications.com for helpful information about marketing communications.