(+) What Should Your Genealogy Society Give Away Free of Charge?
eognIf your genealogy society is thinking of creating a web site or improving an existing web site, one discussion is sure to arise sooner or later: how much information should the society place on the web site?
Should the ENTIRE society newsletter be published online? Or should the newsletter be held back as a "benefit of membership" and only made available to paid members?
How about records that the society has transcribed? Should the society publish old tax lists or census extracts or cemetery transcriptions online? Such lists probably were printed in booklets in the past and were sold for a modest amount of money, generating a bit of income for the society. Should the society now give the information away free of charge in electronic format?
In fact, the same question arises when individuals decide to place the results of their hard work online, such as extracts of various records.
I don't have all the answers, but I can offer a few observations.