"Alexandra D. Hamilton" wrote:
>
> I am a development researcher with a science museum in San Francisco,
> CA, and new to the list.  Recently, I was asked to provide examples of
> museums that have partnered with internet service providers (ie.,
> Yahoo!, America Online, Excite or Lycos), receiving support such as a
> corporate sponsorship.
>
> Has anybody had any experience with this?  Any thoughts about your
> experiences would be greatly appreciated.  If you would like to reply
> directly to me, my e-mail address is [log in to unmask]  My
> direct telephone line is 415-750-7478.
>
> Thanks, in advance, for your help!
>
> Alex
>
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Funny you should ask.  Just entered into a partnership agreement with
our local Internet Service Provider today.  Probably not as large as you
envision but significant nevertheless.

We have had a very close working relationship since we first put up out
site some years ago.  For a very reasonable fee, the SP provided 200
megs of disk space (filled a long time ago--look at our site and you
will see why), and provided email slots for six employees.

Today, the owner offered to suspend our monthly access fee in return for
exposure.  He also created a domain for our annual historic re-enactment
festival.  I suggested, so that he could take a tax deduction, that we
continue to pay the monthly fee and that he pledge a like amount back to
us, payable on a quarterly basis, as a Festival Sponsor.

This company is a strong promoter of the county, as are we and our site
has drawn a tremendous amount of attention statewide (as well as a few
awards).  In fact, again coincidentally, he was just finishing
installation of a new counter and we brought it up as we talked.  We
were astounded to see that, at about 11:00 a.m. we had already received
some 700 visitors to the site.  By the end of the day, that figure had
climbed to over 1200.  We knew we were getting a lot of visitors but
never dreamed it was that many.  If this was a typical day, and I am
sure it was not, this would reveal we are getting over 400,000 hits a
year.  Even cutting that in half would put us over what we had imagined.

Needless to say, that influenced his generosity.  I think this will be a
valuable partnership and one I would recommend others with web sites to
pursue.  Probably a better chance with your local Service Provider that
with the big guys but then, that all depends on who you are and how big
you are.
--
Robert Handy
[log in to unmask]
http://www.bchm.org

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