>Personally, I think that the Smithsonian's educational mandate would be
>ill-served by a strictly commercial access.
 
Bayla--
 
Before you flame, you should check out the NMAA on America Online. AOL has a
very easy to use interface, is accessible to anyone with a Mac or PC and a
2400 modem, and costs only $10.00/month for 5 hours. The discussions there
attract all kinds of people, not just academics and government employees who
are the primary inhabitants of this list and of the Internet in general.
 
For roughly equivalent services on the Internet on the other hand I, as an
individual, pay approximately $170/month for access (using SLIP for a
quasi-"real" connection).  I also need a 14.4 modem, assume a pretty
substantial technical burden simply to administer my connection, have to pay
long distance access charges, and then still have to figure out where
everything is and learn to use dozens of different software tools.
 
Its nice to think that the Internet is the place to be, but if you want to
reach THE PUBLIC, America Online is a much better choice in the short run.
It may be "commercial," but it works for me.
Guy Hermann   | Mystic Seaport Museum | Gentle breah of yours my sails
[log in to unmask]   |  Mystic, Conn., USA   | Must fill or else my project fails