Cohen talks about the cost of a website in this week’s readings. As anyone who has worked in a small museum or historical society knows, funding can be hard to come by and especially hard for a new technology. Grants are available but competition for these grants is fierce and it is frustrating to see the bigger museums win out.
A great website that shows all upcoming events and programs and has information that users who have never heard of the museum could use would be an excellent resource in any museum. However the time and money it would take to implement may outweigh the benefits for some. Even if the museum went for one of the cheaper versions through Yahoo or some other website, there is still the problem of additional advertising on the website. The advertisements detract from the message of the website and may even cause your establishment to lose creditability. Also what if the advertisements are inappropriate for your target audience?
In addition to funding issues, museums often find that they need technical assistance as well. If they do not have a computer savvy person on staff they have to find other ways of dealing with bugs, viruses, and other issues that computers can throw at you. Technical assistance is usually not great and very expensive. Advice can be wrong or take a long time to arrive. These kind of problems may keep a museum from using the technology.
Museums need to try to keep up with technology as it becomes available but how can they keep it cost effective?
