Online: views on costs and cost-effectiveness

Abstract

Interviews with online users—both intermediaries and end—users—in The Media and The City are used as the basis for an assessment of funding and cost issues. Few experienced any difficulties obtaining financial support for online activities, with most justifying the expenditure on the grounds of savings in staff, material and space. The 'information-is-free' syn drome continues to restrict the online industry, and the atti tudes of some database hosts to this barrier are reported. The issue of cost-effectiveness is addressed by outlining the case of the iritermediary and that of the end-user. Many online users experience difficulties in determining which hosts or databases are the most cost-effective for a given search or service. The variant and constantly-shifting price structures adopted by hosts were at the heart of their problems and made cost benefit calculations particularly difficult.