[council] ICANN Announcement Concerning .museum

[Louis Touton <touton@icann.org>]

To the Names Council:

The following announcement concerning .museum was posted on the ICANN
web site today.

Best regards,

Louis Touton

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ICANN Completes First Sponsored TLD Agreement; .museum to Go Live in
November

Marina del Rey, California, USA (18 October 2001) The Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced the signing
of an agreement with the Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma)
to oversee the operation of the first "sponsored" top level domain,
".museum". This new TLD is targeted to meet the needs of the
international museum community. It will allow museums and other
qualified organizations and individuals to register domain names ending
in ".museum." 

"This is the first of several such specialized TLDs authorized by the
ICANN Board of Directors," stated M. Stuart Lynn, ICANN CEO/President.
"They represent a whole new direction for top level domains. ICANN is
pleased to join with MuseDoma in taking this important step for museum
lovers everywhere and for the global Internet community."

Sponsored TLDs are coordinated by policy-making organizations – like
MuseDoma – responsive to a defined group of stakeholders with a common
purpose as defined by the organization's charter. These oversight
organizations operate in an open, fair, and transparent manner. The
charter of ".museum" limits domain name registrations only to bona fide
museums, their professional associations and individual members of the
museum community.

MuseDoma is a not-for-profit corporation established for the purposes of
overseeing the ".museum" TLD. Its founding members are the International
Council of Museums (ICOM), headquartered in Paris, France, and the J.
Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Its bylaws provide for
the addition of other members drawn from the international museum
community. Initial start-up funding for MuseDoma was provided by the J.
Paul Getty Trust, and ICOM, but MuseDoma intends to become
self-supporting through ".museum" operations.

"We are delighted to be joining with ICANN in launching ".museum" for
the ultimate benefit of museums and museum professionals across the
world," said Cary Karp, President of MuseDoma. "It will provide a home
on the Internet for those who work to make our museums such great
cultural assets."

It is expected that by early November, 2001, ".museum" will become a
functioning TLD able to resolve domain names ending in ".museum". Over
500 museums have already requested their ".museum" domain names as part
of an early registration process that will last through the end of
October.

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