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Wow--I will have enough material to write a whole book on the Franklin
project if this feedback keeps up, You have all been very helpful.
I'mforward two
messages from Ann Mintz that rounded out my information. This was the first
of two updates--just sent the other one out prematurely.

Thanks everyone!


On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 8:00 AM, Ann Mintz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I projected-managed the Unisys network at the Franklin Institute.  It
> included between 1-3 computer stations in each exhibit, visitor service
> stations at major intersections like elevator lobbies, and a couple of
> centralized printer stations. All the computers were networked.  Visitors
> would build the folder of print requests as they interacted with the
> stations distributed throughout the museum and then print them out at the
> print stations-- the printouts were takehome activities and information.
>  Visitors had a bar-coded pass that tracked their interactions, which is
> how we knew who wanted which printouts.  Info was available in four
> categories-- little kids, older kids, adults, and teachers.  The teacher
> info was initially intended to be available on site but in formative
> evaluation we determined that it had to be made available in advance so we
> kind of backed into doing it on line.   The system went live in 1990.   We
> developed a sub-routine that assigned display characteristics to text
files
> on the fly and would pull science and technology updates from the Net
(this
> was actually pre World Wide Web, believe it or not) and send it to
> individual stations to a "what's new" menu item.  This included opinion
> polling in as many places as we could think of relevant questions.
> --
> The original idea was that the bar coded cards would  pre-select the
> categories of information but visitors hated that.  They wanted to
navigate
> between the info designed for younger kids, older kids and adults in the
> different exhibits or sometimes within the same exhibit.  So the main
> function of the bar code interface turned out to be the printouts, and
> tracking individual users.  We had a tremendous amount of data about how
> people used the system.
>
> Almost half our visitors used the system.  The average visitor used the
> system 4-5 times and the average interaction was around 2.5 minutes.  We
> were very happy with this-- it was pretty much exactly what we had hoped.
>
> There also was a physical exhibit that showed the architecture of the
> system-- a literal window into the network control room.  Not the most
> popular part of the system.  Given that it was developed in 1988 and went
> live in 1990, it was very much a pioneering effort.  IT was supported by
an
> NSF grant and an in-kind donation from Unisys  that was around $2.5
> million.  I asked for and got a 5 year maintenance contract from Unisys--
> teh company had written several software extensions for us, including a
> barcode and touchscreen interface that became part of their standard
> software inventory.
>

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