Matthew White wrote
> One issue I would like to raise that I have not seen raised yet though
> hinted at.  Most people who have internet access have simple dial in
> connections with text readers only and cannot even get simple graphics let
> alone Macromind Director Multimedia (A program that goes for over a
> thousand dollars on the Macintosh platform,  exactly how many museums do we
> expect to use this feature? See my earlier diatribe on technology for poor
> museums)  If we create a Web page or series of pages that utilize features
> that are only available to a few and "look like crap" to others, what does
> that say about us as educators?  Don't you think people who have limited
> resources would also like to learn about why the Museum of Natural History
> has a DNA  lab?  It all sounds a little elitist to me.

Yes, but so is ownership of computers, let alone an internet link (I
know you have a different system but here in Britain they charge by
the minute for local calls - and many places don't have internet
servers within local call distance.  This can make the whole business very
pricy!).

If museums are aiming at the poor the Net is simply not a
 viable medium -at the moment.

But given the way all computer-related stuff drops in price over
time, we can expect wider access in the future, so why not think of
this as a training period, shielded from the truly mass audience we
can expect in the future?

Victoria Clare
Leicester University
Museum Studies Dept