Communication needs in computer modeling

  • Authors:
  • Hubert Lipinski;Roy Amara;Kathleen Spangler

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-;-

  • Venue:
  • WSC '78 Proceedings of the 10th conference on Winter simulation - Volume 1
  • Year:
  • 1978

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Abstract

With the development of computer-based group communication media, the computer may play an increasing role in managing the complexities of the modeling process. Large-scale policy models are usually developed by groups of five to seven people. Frequently, some of these model builders work in different locations around the country; they nearly always come from at least two or three different disciplinary backgrounds. The users of their models typically come from different organizations, with their own perspective on problem solving. These basic characteristics of the modeling environment create a number of communication problems. These include communication barriers between model builders and users; obstacles to communication among model builders; inadequate documentation; and problems of validation. To address some of these problems, communication-oriented computer software should provide more frequent communication in the modeling group, easier record-keeping, special formats for presentation of results, structured interaction, and user training procedures. This paper examines the communication needs in modeling and introduces a computer-based communication system designed to meet some of these needs.