Seriously, though, how much do you feel would be a reasonable amount for a
user to pay per year for a nominal directory listing
Well, probably about the same as it costs for a telephone directory listing.
That is to say, some very small amount that is included in the cost of service
indexed by the directory. Similarly, use of the directory for common types
of lookups should be free or a small flat fee per unit time (I don't get
charged a penny every time I open my Bell Atlantic white pages :)).
On the other hand, charging per lookup would create an immediate secondary
market for people who walk the directories and produce a quarterly set of
CD-ROMs. I know we'd subscribe to such a service, even though the information
wouldn't be as up to date, because the cost of use would be budgetable.
Amanda Walker
InterCon Systems Corporation