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    • .museum

    Sponsored top-level domainsIDNDNSSEC

    Overview

    .museum is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) reserved for museums, museum associations, and individual members of the museum profession as defined by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). It was created to provide a dedicated, verifiable namespace for museum-related websites and to help visitors confirm the authenticity of museum sites.

    History

    • Entered the DNS root on 20 October 2001.
    • Created and sponsored by the Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma), an organization set up by ICOM in joint action with the J. Paul Getty Trust.
    • MuseDoma was headed by Cary Karp during the TLD's establishment.
    • .museum was the first sponsored top-level domain instituted through ICANN's action.

    Usage and Audience

    • Intended users:
      • Museums (institutions and organizations)
      • Museum associations
      • Individual members of the museum profession as defined by ICOM
    • Actual use: Primarily by museums and museum-related organizations; the record notes that relatively few museums use .museum as their primary advertised address.
    • Typical purposes:
      • Provide an authoritative, recognizable domain for museum sites
      • Support discoverability and potential central indexing of museum content

    Registration Rules

    • Eligibility: Registrations are restricted to entities and persons that meet the museum-related definitions and eligibility criteria set by ICOM and the .museum charter.
    • Verification: Applicants' credentials are checked before registration is permitted.
    • Structure: Registrations were originally required at third or higher levels beneath generic category labels; later direct second-level registrations were allowed.
    • Processing: Registrations are processed via accredited registrars.
    • Internationalization: Support for internationalized domain names (IDNs) has been introduced.
    • Dispute policy: Uses UDRP and the Charter Eligibility Dispute Resolution Procedure (CEDRP) as applicable.

    SEO and Brand Impact

    • Trust and verification: .museum functions as a form of third-party certification—helping users quickly verify the authenticity of a museum site and allowing museums to signal legitimacy.
    • Brand positioning: The TLD is tailored for institutions that want a dedicated, sector-specific namespace aligned with museum community conventions.

    Notable Cases or Examples

    • Relevant sites and resources associated with the TLD include:

      • welcome.museum (official welcome site)
      • index.museum (index of names in .museum)
      • musedoma.museum (MuseDoma/Museum Domain Management Association)

    • Policies and registry information are available from the .museum site and published .museum registration policies.

    Operator

    Museum Domain Management Association

    Whois

    % IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       MUSEUM

organisation: Museum Domain Management Association
address:      International Council of Museums
address:      22 rue de Palestro
address:      Paris 75002
address:      France

contact:      administrative
name:         Account Manager
organisation: AFNIC
address:      7, avenue du 8 mai 1945
address:      Guyancourt 78280
address:      France
phone:        +33139308300
fax-no:       +33 139308301
e-mail:       museum@afnic.fr

contact:      technical
name:         TLD Technical Contact
organisation: Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération (A.F.N.I.C.)
address:      7, avenue du 8 mai 1945
address:      Guyancourt 78280
address:      France
phone:        +33 1 39 30 83 00
fax-no:       +33 1 39 30 83 01
e-mail:       pocmuseum@afnic.fr

nserver:      D.NIC.FR 194.0.9.1 2001:678:c:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      F.EXT.NIC.FR 194.146.106.46 2001:67c:1010:11:0:0:0:53
nserver:      G.EXT.NIC.FR 194.0.36.1 2001:678:4c:0:0:0:0:1
ds-rdata:     21025 13 2 9149a23c9151e0812505df827e0aaa504a43b830a58100512e976eeaaf0fa8cf

whois:        whois.nic.museum

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: https://about.museum

created:      2001-10-20
changed:      2024-09-11
source:       IANA

    Registrars