Comp Social Science and Decision Making

[McNamara, Laura A]

Hey all,

I'm looking for articles or writing about computational modeling in the
APPLIED social sciences - more specifically, I'm looking for information
on how/where computational social models are being used in the
development of policy and in decision making.  EpiSims is one example,
as is TranSims - can you think of others?

Does anyone know of critiques, discussions, studies of the role of
computational social science in decision making?

Thanks,

Laura

[Tom Johnson]

Laura:

I don't know if  this is exactly what you're after, but do a Google on
"Lars-Erik
Cederman"  He has done/is doing some interesting work on complexity in
democratic societies.

Also check out:

*In EVOLUTION IN THE COMPUTER AGE - Proceedings of the Center for the Study
of Evolution and the Origin of Life, edited by David B. and Gary B. Fogel.
Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, Massachusetts (2002).
Computer Models of Cultural Evolution
Nicholas Gessler
gessler at ucla.edu
http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~gessler/ <http://www.bol.ucla.edu/%7Egessler/>
Ideas, and other atomic particles of human culture, often seem to have a
life of their own -- organization, mutation, reproduction, spreading, and
dying. In spite of several bold attempts to construct theories of cultural
evolution, an adequate theory remains elusive. The financial incentive to
understand any patterns governing fads and fashion is enormous, and because
cultural evolution has contributed so much to the uniqueness of human
nature, the scientific motivation is equally great. (Taylor & Jefferson
1994, 8.)
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/geog/gessler/cv-pubs/02comocultevo.htm

* "Robert Axelrod, in his book THE COMPLEXITY OF COOPERATION, presents "a
model" of culture based upon three principles:  agent-based interaction, no
central authority, and adaptive rather than rational agents, to show how
global polarization can be generated from the convergence of local social
influences such as beliefs, attitudes and behaviors."

* In many ways, much of the long-view GIS activity is tied to "computational
modeling and applied social science."  (One might make a case that
government agencies are doing more with GIS as a tool for developing policy
than the private sector.)  Go to www.esri.com and do a site search with
"policy making."  Also see ESRI Press: GIS in Public
Policy<http://gis.esri.com/esripress/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=41>

And, he casually added, the Ver 1.0 workshop
<http://www.ver1point0.org>scheduled for Santa Fe in April (with a
number of FRIAM-ers participating)
will be looking at how to verify public records databases, which, of course,
drive a ton of decision-making.  And in these cases, if the data is dirty,
so can be the policy decisions.

I'd like to talk with you more about this.

-Tom Johnson

On 11/22/05, McNamara, Laura A <lamcnam at sandia.gov> wrote:

>
> Hey all,
>
> I'm looking for articles or writing about computational modeling in the
> APPLIED social sciences - more specifically, I'm looking for information
> on how/where computational social models are being used in the
> development of policy and in decision making.  EpiSims is one example,
> as is TranSims - can you think of others?
>
> Does anyone know of critiques, discussions, studies of the role of
> computational social science in decision making?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Laura
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at Mission Cafe
> Wed Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, maps, etc. at
> http://www.friam.org
>

--
==============================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c)                                 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com               tom at jtjohnson.com

"He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense."
           -John McCarthy, Stanford University mathematician
==============================================
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[Parks, Raymond]

Laura,

  You really need to talk to the folks in the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), both here at Sandia and at Los Alamos.  I know that their models of hurricane effects on power grids were used for planning of the response to last year's hurricanes.  I don't know how involved they were in this year's mess.

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] on behalf of McNamara, Laura A
Sent: Tue 11/22/2005 5:09 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: [FRIAM] Comp Social Science and Decision Making
 
Hey all,

I'm looking for articles or writing about computational modeling in the
APPLIED social sciences - more specifically, I'm looking for information
on how/where computational social models are being used in the
development of policy and in decision making.  EpiSims is one example,
as is TranSims - can you think of others?

Does anyone know of critiques, discussions, studies of the role of
computational social science in decision making?

Thanks,

Laura


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at Mission Cafe
Wed Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, maps, etc. at http://www.friam.org


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[Ajith Rao]

Hi,

You might like to take a look at work being done by the Center for
Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS) group at
Carnegie Mellon. Their website is at <http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/>

Ajith

On 11/22/05, McNamara, Laura A <lamcnam at sandia.gov > wrote:

>
> Hey all,
>
> I'm looking for articles or writing about computational modeling in the
> APPLIED social sciences - more specifically, I'm looking for information
> on how/where computational social models are being used in the
> development of policy and in decision making.  EpiSims is one example,
> as is TranSims - can you think of others?
>
> Does anyone know of critiques, discussions, studies of the role of
> computational social science in decision making?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Laura
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at Mission Cafe
> Wed Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, maps, etc. at
> http://www.friam.org
>

--
-----------------------------------------------
Ajith Rao
PhD Student
School of Architecture
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
-----------------------------------------------
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