ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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First of all Sean, what do you mean by "Interactives?"  Are you speaking
strictly computerized or is it everything that can be manipulated?  I
believe the only way you can ever have something like 95% up time on
exhibits is to have full time staff dedicated to nothing but exhibit
maintenance and a well stocked spare parts crib.  And if you have a
large number of computerized exhibits that means having a computer tech
person on staff at all times as well.  

For many museums that is not possible just from a cost standpoint. Here
where I work I have two exhibit technicians who work with me. We are
here 40 hours a week, Monday thru Friday.  My technicians are not
computer geeks but they do pretty well trouble shooting what we have.
But we also design and build the new stuff and we maintain the facility.
If we are all out of the museum working to finish a new exhibit a repair
will have to wait.  

There is an old saying about putting all your eggs in one basket.
Having a high percentage of complicated and sophisticated electronic
exhibits sure looks great the day it opens but if the dedicated support
isn't there every day forward you will have lots of disappointed
visitors. And as we know, existing exhibits do not get cut from budgets,
staff gets cut.

Erich Rose
Exhibit Manager
Austin Children's Museum
201 Colorado Street
Austin, TX 78701
512-472-2499 x207, fax 512-472-2495
[log in to unmask], www.austinkids.org
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sean Gaffaney
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 8:40 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Percentage of working interactives

ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
************************************************************************
*****

Dear all,

In the eternal quest for a foolproof and meaningful method of measuring 
performance of interactives I would like to know two things:

1. How do folks measure the percentage uptime of their interactives i.e.
if you 
say they are up 95% of the time how do you actually know?

2. What repair strategies do you employ i.e. do you have staff waiting
for a 
breakdown?

We are examining the whole question of what does a statement of " we
will 
have 95% of our interactives working at all times" really mean and is
there any 
way of having a robust method of determining it??? So any ideas from
other 
places would be gratefully accepted.

Cheers

Sean Gaffaney
Head of Gallery and New Developments
Museum of Science and Industry
Manchester UK
email: [log in to unmask]

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