I think that a survey would be in order to establish stats. The number of installations is currently in great flux due to the rapidly declining price of hardware and accessibility to expertise. For example, if you had asked me eight months ago if we had any intention of developing an educational multimedia kiosk in the gallery or an informational kiosk in the foyer within the next two years, I would have regretably answered no because of a lack of funding and higher priorities on other aspects of IT development. However, because the cost of accessibility to the hardware, software and expertise has dropped so dramatically, we have an interactive multimedia pilot project installed in the gallery next to a perminent exhibit and we should have an information kiosk in the foyer by March. I am sure that the numbers of actual installations will increase dramatically over the next six months. It will be very, very difficult to estimate that growth through a survey if many institutions acquire the technology as mine did. >Just out of curiosity (and because it is the topic of a paper I am >writing), does anyone have an idia of how many of the major museums in >the United States have some kind of interactive multimedia set-up >(kiosks, workstations) accompanying and/or augmenting museum exhibits, or >even as exhibits in and of themselves? I do not need to know an exact >number, just a ballpark figure or percentage would be fine. I appreciate >any information anyone might have in this area. Thanks a lot! > >Suzanne Rumsey >Doctoral Student >Annenberg School for Communication >University of Southern California >[log in to unmask] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ron Bogdonov [log in to unmask] MIS Administrator Tel: (604)682-4668 Vancouver Art Gallery Fax: (604)682-1086 ---------------------------------------------------------------------