With all respect to Mary, I'm not aware of a museum that requires
potentially sensitive information before entering their site. I feel the
real issue here is being forced to supply personal information. Anyone
ever read Jean Paul Sartre? :)

George Garner



>
> Hey folk -
>
> You know, I try not to get sucked into these discussions - but as a
> visitor studies person, I feel somewhat compelled to put in my two
> cents.  I don't really understand all the angst about giving demographic
> information to the NYT, when they explicitly state that they won't sell
> individual info to anyone else.
>
> OF COURSE they want demographic information on who's using their FREE
> service.  I've got news for you - most museums take demographic info on
> their visitors too, any time the visitors are willing to give it, so we
> can tell who is coming to our (museum, website, program - pick one).
> It's not for nefarious purposes - it's so that we can tell whether or not
> we are reaching a wide audience (in terms of socio-economics, ethnicity,
> gender, and education), or if we still need to be working on that.  We
> also want to know the geographic distribution of our visitors, and how
> they found us.
>
> As to the spam - there's no way to get away from it, so set your filters
> high, keep up on deleting it, and don't spend angst on things you can't
> control.  No need for an ulcer...
>
> Okay - I'll get off my soapbox - I was just so startled at the level of
> cynicism about something that's really pretty innocuous.  Plus - it's
> really cool to read the NYT headlines every day and be able to read the
> articles without paying the bucks for the paper.  :-)
>
> -Mary Kidwell
>
>
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