ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions. ***************************************************************************** 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] *********************************************************************** For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org. Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org. The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html. To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to [log in to unmask] *********************************************************************** For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org. Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org. The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html. To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to [log in to unmask]