Please note two planned multi-agent sessions at next fall's HDGEC 
meeting in Bonn.  The first focuses on the use of empirical MAS models 
to bridge knowledge gaps among planners, scientists, and resource 
users, and the second compares alternative tools for representing and 
parameterizing  agent behavior.  Please circulate to interested 
parties, and apologies for cross-postings.

Dawn Parker


Invitation for Submission of Abstracts to the Session:

“Modeling and Collaborative Planning within a Multi-Agent Framework – 
Empirical Approaches and Methods”

<< Please circulate >>

6th Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change 
Research Community

9-13 October 2005, University of Bonn, Germany

Session organizers
Thomas Berger, Marco Huigen, Dawn Parker (moderator)

Summary
In this session we will present multi-agent modeling approaches to 
bridge the knowledge gaps among planners, scientists and resource 
users. In particular, we will discuss the application of specific 
agent-based methods for data collection, analysis, modeling and 
planning. Topics to be dealt with are
o how to identify management options and stakeholders’ criteria in 
analyzing them,
o how to parameterize empirical multi-agent models,
o how to deliver simulation results to stakeholders and capture their 
feedback
o how to analyze the institutional context of decision-making and 
monitor the impact of model results on planning and policy 
implementation


Description

Multi-agent modeling holds the promise of providing an enhanced 
collaborative framework in which planners, modelers, and resource users 
may learn and interact. The models’ agent behavior is not hidden in 
differential equations, but can be directly observed. Human actors 
should therefore be able to identify with their analogs in the computer 
model. This direct interpretability offers exciting prospects for using 
multi-agent methods in experimental settings—to empirically 
parameterize the models’ agent behavior— and in planning/negotiation 
processes—to provide science-based information for environmental 
management.

In recent years a number of empirical methods and tools has been 
developed for modeling and planning of human-environment interactions. 
Examples are survey sampling methods, participatory planning, and 
model-enhanced learning. Until now these methods have been used in 
isolation; this session will show how to integrate them within a 
multi-agent framework to bridge the knowledge gaps between scientists 
and practitioners, policymakers and resource users.

Deadline for submission
Please submit your abstracts until March 15, 2005 at 
http://openmeeting.homelinux.org/

  Early Announcement of Pre-Open Meeting Workshop:

“Multi-Agent Modeling and Collaborative Planning – Method2Method 
Workshop”

<< Please circulate >>

In conjunction with the 6th Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of 
Global Environmental Change Research Community

6-8 October 2005 (to be confirmed), Center for Development, University 
of Bonn, Germany

Workshop organizers
Thomas Berger, Regina Birner, Franz Gatzweiler, Marco Huigen, Nancy 
McCarthy, Jean-Pierre Muller (not yet confirmed), Dawn Parker

Summary
The aim of this workshop is to learn more about the methods and tools 
developed by various scientific disciplines for representing agent 
behavior and interactions, critically assess them and come up with ways 
of integrating them for multi-agent modeling and planning. In a case 
study workshop participants will compare methods and tools for setting 
up a collaborative learning framework for planners, scientists, and 
resource users.

Description
Scientists have developed a number methods and tools for modeling and 
planning human-environment interactions, each guided by their own set 
of disciplinary backgrounds and research paradigms. Examples are 
bio-economic modeling, survey methods based on common sampling frames, 
collective action research, experimental approaches, role-playing games 
and participatory planning. There is much scope for integrating these 
methods in a multi-agent framework and thereby improve modeling and 
planning outcomes.

For a case study in developing countries, participants will receive 
background information and empirical data to present how they would go 
about designing and applying multi-agent models. The idea is not so 
much to do the actual modeling but to discuss how participants would 
approach it, what motivates their choice of methods and tools, what the 
pros and cons of different choices are, and what complementarities 
exist between methods and tools.

It is planned to publish the papers and findings of this workshop in a 
journal special issue on multi-agent methods and tools.

Participants
This pre-conference workshop will convene practitioners, policy makers, 
scientists and students from the North and the South. The workshop will 
be organized by ZEF, IFPRI and CIRAD (not yet confirmed); a number of 
slots will be made available for participants of the Open Meeting 2005.

Dawn Cassandra Parker
Assistant Professor
Departments of Geography and Environmental Science and Policy
Center for Social Complexity
George Mason University
703-993-4640
[log in to unmask]
http://mason.gmu.edu/~dparker3