What are the other parameters that I need to think about that affect difficulty or cost?

Are you (your university) hosting it? Would it be part of an existing website?

If you're paying for hosting, an open source solution (eg: Linux OS, PHP web pages with MySQL database) would probably be cheaper to host than commercial software (eg: Windows Server OS, ASP web pages with SQL Server database) but otherwise I can't really say which approach is better.

Would you require a web interface for entering the data? or would some desktop program (eg: written in Access) be adequate? Entering data in a spreadsheet would work, but that would require some sort of export-to-database routine, plus spreadsheets would lack data validation that you could get in a custom program.

As for pricing... I dunno. I'm guessing a consulting company might bill you $120-$140 per hour? with maybe a day's work for a simple solution (take that with a grain of salt - I rarely have to estimate how long thing will take). Maybe less time, or more if I'm underestimating how complex the whole thing would be. For example, setting up a new site and/or database server might cost more than using existing servers.

You could probably find a freelancer at a lower rate.

Vortex,

are you sure you can't do this using google spreadsheet (part of google docs)?

As Tommy says, the least expensive solution would probably be PHP/MySQL, which is available from many hosting companies but may not be on your university server. One factor would be how secure you want it to be and another would be how much data you're talking about and how many search parameters. There are some off-the-shelf and web-based programs.

Are you (your university) hosting it? Would it be part of an existing website?

yes, and yes.

Would you require a web interface for entering the data?

I don't know?

or would some desktop program (eg: written in Access) be adequate? Entering data in a spreadsheet would work, but that would require some sort of export-to-database routine, plus spreadsheets would lack data validation that you could get in a custom program.

It doesn't need to be particularly secure, it's all public information.

I've talked to the computer science department, and I can get a Ph.D. student to design it, I just dont' know how much it should cost or what kind of expectations to have.

that's simple:

I think you should charge an hourly rate that doctoral students typically are paid for graduate student research positions.

At my institution, that rate is about $22 an hour. I think you should get a student to meet with you and come up with an outline of a plan for the web site and then get an estimate of how many hours it will take.

So I think my hard drive is corrupted. I think I have the recovery discs at home, but if I have to take it into a shop, any recs?

I have a 3GS iPhone. I would like a nice case for it - preferably hard (not soft), and preferably transparent (I got black for a REASON, folks).

Recommendations? And if your rec falls outsides my prefs, go ahead and say - I'm not married to them.

Any recs for a free sound editor program? Nothing fancy, just have a file with some extraneous stuff at the end of it that I'd like to shorten. no big.

Any recs for a free sound editor program?

Audacity: [link]

For iPhone, I have the orignal version of this: [link] It looks like they have added velcro, which I am not a fan of, as it makes noise (bad when you are working theater).

For free audio program, I'll 2nd Audacity. It can be a little clunky, but that might be due to me knowing what the pro apps are like and wanting those features. It's handy that it's all platforms too.