Laura:
In the course of your research this summer, have you run across any examples that would suggest some standard (old fashioned?) Project Management efforts (ideally, files) that were created BEFORE the decision was made to invade Iraq? You know, a Gantt chart here, a PERT diagram there. Maybe even, gasp, a calendar?
-Tom
In the course of your research this summer, have you run across any examples that would suggest some standard (old fashioned?) Project Management efforts (ideally, files) that were created BEFORE the decision was made to invade Iraq? You know, a Gantt chart here, a PERT diagram there. Maybe even, gasp, a calendar?
-Tom
To follow on Mike's comments: what SFI, NECSI, UCLA, and other hotbeds of
complex thinking have in common is some luxury to consider complexity,
modeling, and social evolution, to creatively push the application of
complex systems studies to culture and society.
And here I go on my soapbox (with apologies to those of you who've heard me
rant about this before): what's disturbing is the number of people in
government (go figure) who are touting agent based models and complexity as
predictive tool and theory, respectively, for making decisions about
wickedly complex quagmires in places like... oh, maybe Iraq...? I'm
spending the summer studying computational modeling and simulation
technologies in the DoD and the level of interest in complexity theory as
the holy grail of social theory is both remarkable and worrisome. This
being Washington, I've seen more than a few contractors grabbing at DoD
money to get that grail up and running, without considering the manifold
issues involved. My Sandia colleague, Tim Trucano, and I are gearing up to
write about this issue and will likely be at FRIAM quite a bit to toss ideas
around with y'all.
Lurking in the discourse about complexity, computational modeling, and
society is epistemological question, I think, that requires us to consider
how we use modeling and simulation tools to produce knowledge about the
world we live in. In academia, we have a great deal of latitude in the
purpose of knowledge-making activities; we're engaged in discovery over the
long run. Inside the Beltway, it's a different story entirely: they want
decision tools, and they want them yesterday.
Of course, this begs the question of why common sense is so utterly absent
in our nation's fine capitol...
Laura
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J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete."
-- Buckminster Fuller
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