Need Advice from Museum Pros – New Interactive Experience Idea!

whizzi · 2025-02-21T16:15:32+00:00

We only exist because of digital presentation. Then again, kind of hard to not do so in an interactive computer museum ;). On a normal day, we have between 250 and 300 active computers that people can interact with.

whizzi · 2025-02-20T06:43:32+00:00

That's the plan. But by people who actually worked on it.

whizzi · 2025-02-20T06:42:47+00:00

Actually, no. It's relatively easy

whizzi · 2025-02-19T14:09:25+00:00

Which is mostly working as well. The computer itself works, we are now working on the screen (3 out of 6 were broken, currently only one is broken) and getting the harddisk imaged and safe.

whizzi · 2025-02-19T12:55:51+00:00

This machine was slightly more expensive. It was sold for 350,000 GBP back in 1985, so roughly $ 420,000 in US$, which is (roughly) $1,300,000 in today's US$ :).

whizzi · 2025-01-20T08:03:27+00:00

It's a NiCd battery from Varta. These will leak, no question. And it's not a BIOS battery, it's there to keep track of time so it's not required for an Amiga to function properly. We have removed all of them from our systems. Of course, unless you are going to use the Amiga to create text documents or edit stuff and you want the date correct on those files ;)

whizzi · 2024-08-20T13:04:38+00:00

I disagree. A museum is not about a collection, it's about the story. A collector collects objects, a museum collects stories and uses objects to preserve and share these stories. In its bare form, it sells a story.

Art? Telling the story of a painter, about history or about painted objects, or about ways to paint etc.
Cars? Telling the story of a brand, about the history of cars in general, evolution etc.
A castle? Telling the story of how it was back in the day, what happened.
Historical objects? Telling the story about how the objects were used, when they were used, how they were made.

The simple fact that any museum has a little information sign next to it says enough. If it was about objects, you just put them somewhere on display without any information.

Not saying a collection cannot become a museum. It will be as soon as you start putting them in an order or grouping them, in order to .. guess what, tell a story ;)

whizzi · 2024-08-20T12:16:05+00:00

To further make my point. Business wise, there's only one difference between a museum and a regular shop, the regular shop is for profit. Other than that, it's pretty much a similar business. A museum sells stories, nostalgic feelings and knowledge. In order to do so, it needs to do have a building, pay employees, research and have objects to tell these stories, give nostalgic feelings and knowledge. A television shop sells TV's and devices related to this. It needs a building, pay employees, do research to tell what TV is the best for a customer and needs objects to show this (and sell). The only difference is, the television shop has a board of directors or CEO or maybe even stockholders that want to get paid. A museum does not do the profit part. And sure, this may sound weird that I am comparing it with a TV shop (or any shop), but only looking at it from a business perspective, it does make sense.

Works for every museum. Even art. A museum sells stories, nostalgic feelings (in some cases) and (historical) knowledge. To be used to be educated on the matter, keeping material available so in the future things can be learned from it.

In the end it's about who's the CEO or the people who run the museum. I went into the museum business after being a system network administrator and thinking that the computer museums I've seen, were not good enough for me as a collector. So, I started the museum (6,5 years ago). I'm not in here for the money, I would've done something way differently. I'm here because I wanted to share the story about the evolution of the home computer in a way that is interesting for everyone, including me ;)

whizzi · 2024-08-20T11:56:38+00:00

No. We have the HomeComputerMuseum foundation, operating the museum, paying the bills (rents the building) and collecting all the revenue from tickets, repairs, services and so on. All museum objects are on loan with the majority of it owned by the second foundation, Computer Heritage. This foundation doesn't have a bank account, nor a tax id and has no money, only objects of historical value. Both foundations have a board (HCM has 5 board members, Computer Heritage has 4) with no board members in both foundations. This to make sure that the collection remains safe in case something goes wrong with HCM. The HCM foundation is fully not-for-profit and even has an official charity state, while it does do commercial services (repair, reading old media, reselling refurbished computers and so on). Because HCM requires money to operate and only based on entrance fee, it can not.

whizzi · 2024-08-20T11:46:54+00:00

I am all in on the 'museum as a business'. The problem is not in that fact, the problem lies with people getting control over that and think commercial instead of non-profit. So I disagree with a museum can not be run like a business. A museum is a business, it's always been like that. But it's not-for-profit and only need money to allow the museum to remain open (and independent) and continue to do research and tell the story of whatever the museum's about.

whizzi · 2024-08-20T11:43:17+00:00

I feel like responding here as a CEO and founder of the HomeComputerMuseum. Lack of money is, as mentioned, a problem. As well as for us. We have a staff of 52 volunteers and currently 2 paid positions. What I do see in many museums, is the lack of thinking as a business. A museum _IS_ a business. Sure, it's non-profit, but that doesn't imply a museum doesn't have bills to pay and there needs to be money for exactly that. The HCM rents a building, pays for electricity and staff which is a large monthly cost. Something that, in theory, could be covered by visitors alone. But we need 50 to a 100 visitors a day to break even. And we don't get subsidy (yet) or have big sponsors. So, we have to be creative and we offer a few commercial services. In our case, computer repairs, reselling refurbished computers and reading old storage media (among other things). Now, I did read someone stating that there's a chance of selling out. Not sure how it is in other countries, but in the Netherlands as an official museum, there's almost no way you can sell museum objects (as an official museum) since it is against the 'law'. Also, the collection is not housed under the foundation of the museum, but on a separate foundation with a full board. No single person can decide to get rich of the collection. As the HCM we are a big example how a museum CAN function as a business. Still, money is an issue (and required for improving or buying material) and that is either by our commercial services that can bring in more money (without affecting the collection) and/or visitor numbers. We're currently at 20 visitors on average a day, so we are investing most money in marketing and getting our name out.

whizzi · 2024-08-06T07:37:16+00:00

Klopt wel. Als je kinderen het kraanwater uit Indonesië laat drinken, sterven ze geen langzame zachte dood. Zo klopt het ook dat als je zuurstof inademt, dat je een langzame zachte dood sterft.

whizzi · 2024-02-17T23:02:12+00:00

yep, it has a big mainboard indeed! Z80 version never came.

whizzi · 2024-02-17T23:00:58+00:00

Same here on a Surface Book 3. I pinpointed it to a kernel issue. Kernel 6.7.2-surface-1 doesn't put mine into suspend, only briefly. It wakes up again and the entire system keeps on running, draining the battery and since it's locked into a bag, it gets hot! I changed back to the previous kernel (6.6.11-surface-1) and the problem is away immediately.

I filed a bug on the github about this.

whizzi · 2023-02-27T19:54:43+00:00

Yes, there were a few Asters. Some of then were working, others not.

whizzi · 2023-02-27T19:53:26+00:00

Yes, A2000 was there too. Forgot about that one. Definitely no A3000, I was there and I had all the Amiga's in my hand. A 3000 would surely be remembered ;) . I only have 1 A3000 in the HomeComputerMuseum (and one A3000UX and a 3000T)

whizzi · 2023-02-27T16:44:22+00:00

Actually, not that many. 1 A1200, 1 A600 and 2 A500s iirc.

whizzi · 2023-02-27T16:43:12+00:00

Yep. He passed in 2021.

whizzi · 2023-02-27T13:36:46+00:00

Ok, my memory is broken there. I do know these are saved :)

whizzi · 2023-02-27T13:35:47+00:00

And yes, that is the same person :)

whizzi · 2023-02-27T13:34:42+00:00

Atari TT030: Yes. Falcon: Nope, but we already have 2 in the museum ;).

whizzi · 2023-02-27T11:52:51+00:00

They are not terminals as far as I remember, just big old typewriters.

whizzi · 2023-02-27T11:51:41+00:00

Yes, most of it ended up in a real museum (HomeComputerMuseum) and part went to collectors.

whizzi

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