Folks:
 
"Before you flame..." read my flame retardant!  I have no beef with AOL, I
just think that limiting access to *strictly* commercial services, -and-
-no- -others-, is poor judgement and serves the Smithsonian ill.
 
I also pay for long distance access, getting a good bargain from Sprint:
$30/mo for 30 hrs offpeak, $50/mo for 60 hours (offpeak being 6pm to 7 am
M-F, all day Sat & Sun).  Extra offpeak time is $3/hr, prime time is
$10/hr.
 
If I didn't have a courtesy Internet account, I'd probably go with netcom,
which I understand costs about $20/mo for full Internet services and no
time limit.
 
Whart I -would- object to is a fractured landscape of services, so I'd
have to, say, subscribe to Prodigy for the Library of Congress, to AOL for
the Smithsonian, to Compuserve for the Gutenberg project, etc (all
hypothetical, except AOL).
 
--bayla