Summary

There are as yet no widely deployed devices on the Internet that allow a user to locate a specific resource with any degree of ease or accuracy. Although tools that enable keyword searches are constantly being improved, the amount of material on the Net is growing even more rapidly.

Until there is some degree of convergence on a general solution to this problem, any body that provides content to the Net would be well advised to take advantage of the fullest available range of discovery tools.

The Domain Name System (DNS - which formally structures network addresses as MYSHOP.COM, ARTMUSEUM.UK, etc.) has untapped potential for enabling the intuitive and memorable location of such things as the World Wide Web sites operated by museums.

Another obvious device for providing access to the collective resources maintained within a clearly defined sector would be for that sector to maintain a well-known listing of its component network services.

Various listings of museum resources are already maintained by organizations serving the museum community. As the number of such services grows, the burden placed upon the user desiring to search them exhaustively becomes all the greater. Here, again, a common point of entry to a broader set of resources should be to the benefit of all concerned.

An attempt is therefore being made at creating a Registry of Museum Network Resources (REMUNERE), not as yet another project conducted by a single agency, but as a step towards the goal of establishing a well-known point of access to the collective sectorial resource. The operation of REMUNERE, and recognition for the effort, is to be fully shared by all participants.

Initial steps towards this end include the creation of the e-mail distribution list, REMUNERE-L, and the Web site at http://www.remunere.net/. Action has also been taken to voice sectorial concerns during the course of the present expansion of the DNS. Experimental Internet domains have been registered, should the community feel it worthwhile to attempt the establishment of a coherent Internet domain identity.

Detailed information about the background and current status of this initiative may be found at the publicly accessible REMUNERE Web site. Discussion among those interested in active participation may be conducted on REMUNERE-L, which is not currently a public resource.

http://www.remunere.net/summary.html
Latest update: 3 July 1997