>Also, in the proposal already mentioned, a multimedia programmer would be a
>member of this Information Technologies division. This person would
>(theoretically--not a real job yet) engineer CD-ROMs, web pages, interactive
>kiosks and other multimedia projects brought to him/her by marketing, education
>or curatorial personnel. This particular issue is sticky, as at least one peron
>(me) fervently believes this is a design position that should be in marketing,
>education, or a shared position between the two. Anne,

Anne,

The situation that you are opposed to is what in my mind would be the best
possible answer.  The IT personell should be independent of any other
departmental influence due to simple politics.  I'm suprised that you wouldn't
put the greatest emphasis on the curatorial/exhibit department having the
primary access to this resource.  Often the aims of marketing, education and
curatorial/exhibits are different and when you put IT under one of those
departments, someone else is probably going to suffer.

I am drawing on my own personal experiences to formulate my opinion.  For
example, I used to work at a science museum in the exhibits department.  My
knowledge of computers/programming/Internet/Software... etc. being what it was,
I was often consulted with and asked to participate in projects by the marketing
and education departments.  I enjoyed doing this, but the amount of time I often
gave to these projects fell into a gray area of "discretionary" time.  Even
though I had the best understanding of the technology and the means to implement
it effectively there was no guarantee that my advice would be followed and I
would often watch resources being wasted on doing something the "wrong way" (in
my opinion).  Each year at my evaluation I asked for a seperate division to be
created which would give me primary responsibility and authority developing
marketing/education/exhibits technology.  I never received that position, and
now I no longer work at the museum and I own my own company.

My advise to you is to create a seperate IT department which is responsible to
the Director/President of your facility.

If I were to go job hunting now... I wouldn't circle a job which would put me
under the authority of education or marketing.  Of course a techno-weenie with
no museum experience might envision the job as being the "best thing since
sliced bread".  Who would you want working for you?

BTW, while you are developing your plan, if you are in need of any of the above
mentioned skills, let me know.

Mark C. Vang
Freya Ventures