Call for Input on Defining the Interaction tasks
John Finnigan
16 May 2003
Interaction Tasks: What are they for?
Interaction Tasks are a crucial element of the CSS program structure. Interaction
Tasks are the glue that should convert a set of independent CSS projects in Divisions
and in the Core group into an integrated effort that advances our skill and knowledge
in CSS across the Program and CSIRO. Many of you will recall from the discussions
in Sydney last August that we see the Interaction Tasks as problems or activities that
are common to subsets of the Projects so that they would form a catalyst and
framework for interaction between researchers. In particular, we emphasized that as a
condition of funding, each project must nominate at least one scientist to become
actively involved in the Interaction Tasks. Active involvement covers activities from
email contact to secondments. To emphasize the importance we place on these
Interaction Tasks we have kept the funds to support these interactions separate from
the project funding.
Interaction Tasks: What do they look like?
Ideally, Interaction Tasks should consist of a small number of researchable questions
that are generic in the sense that they can be stated at a more general level than the
questions addressed in individual projects. To get the ball rolling, later in this
document I have suggested an example Interaction Task.
How will we work on Interaction Tasks?
Funds are available to organize informal workshops and also for visits and
secondments for individuals so that they can interact directly with their peers. On an
ongoing basis we hope to rely on telecollaboration from emails to teleconferencing.
Further, we propose that these Interaction Task questions should form the subject of
one or more workshops that will take place as discussions on the various Tasks reach
an appropriate stage of maturity. At these workshops we will attempt to make real
progress in answering these questions and aim to produce draft publications at the end
of the workshops detailing what we achieve.
Who can take part in the Interaction Tasks?
While participation in the Interaction Tasks is required of at least one worker in CSS
funded projects we do not wish to restrict interaction to this group. Hence,
participation in the Interaction Tasks is open to any interested parties in CSIRO,
Universities or other institutions. The only entry fee to working on the interaction
tasks will be the willingness to supply ideas and time. The key word is
“participation”. The Interaction Tasks will be run as Open Projects but we would like
a real commitment from those who choose to take part to invest some real time and
intellectual effort in the activity.
How will we define the Interaction Tasks?
We want three to five researchable questions that are capable of exciting your
imagination and to which the answers are important and not obvious. We want to
tackle tough questions not simply to have foci for talking shops. The best people to
define the tasks are you, the researchers in the Projects and others within and outside
CSIRO with ideas they want to explore. In the best traditions of Complexity theory,
the tasks should emerge from a process of interaction.
An example of a possible interaction task
To provide some input to this example, the table below gives some rough groupings
of funded projects from the first round, according to the CSS techniques they employ
and the areas of application they address. For details on the projects match the project
leader’s name with the project list on the original Complex System Science Web Site
http://www.csiro.au/complexsystems
CSS Techniques Principal Investigator
Dynamical Systems Theory Frederiksen
Gatehouse
McDonald
Schwartz
Rintoul
Sullivan
Raupach
Finnigan
Agent Based modelling McDonald
(Multi-Agent Systems) Gross
Syme
Little
Batten
Raupach
Statistical Mechanics Schwartz
Gatehouse
Griffith
Finnigan
Network Dynamics, Cellular McDonald
Automata Prokopenko
Winkler
Finnigan
Enting
Boschetti
Pattern Recognition Winkler
Artificial intelligence Borgas
Machine Learning Little
Batten
Gatehouse
Area of Application Principal Investigator
Natural Resource Mgt Gross
Little
Sullivan
Biophysical Systems Frederiksen
McDonald
Borgas
Griffiths
Rintoul
Sullivan
Finigan
Social and Economic Systems Batten
Gross
Syme
Little
Manufacturing/ man-made systems Winkler
Prokopenko
Schwartz
Griffiths
Interaction tasks might address areas of science or CSS techniques that span several
projects or might involve a comparison between different CSS approaches to
problems in similar areas of application. The example next is of the first kind.
An Example of a Possible Interaction Task
What are the optimum ways of analyzing an Agent Based Model of a
Complex Adaptive System to determine its resilience to external changes
and internal instability?
(I would expect such approaches to involve inter-alia, network dynamics,
evolutionary Game theory to determine evolutionary stable states and a range of other
approaches.)
Please e-mail your responses to the CSS Ideas List
css_ideas@arrc.csiro.au
To subscribe to the list, please visit
http://www.ned.dem.csiro.au/mailman/listinfo/css_ideas