Ventana software support forum

>Is SD a Software ? No. But SD software makes it a lot easier to build and use most types of feedback models. >Could SD be taught/mastered in a 5 days course? No. Its possible to take someone whos already proficient with a related discipline like control theory and make them technically competent in...

At 01:00 PM 4/12/98 -0400, you wrote: >I have a question on choosing a modeling technique. I need to build a m= odel >describing effects of marketing effort on the market-- in a small sector= . ... > My model needs to look like a marketing flight simulator. ... > The question is whether on not SD is...

The group decision support systems (GDSS) literature has a lot of general work on how people, especially groups, interact with and react to computers. Youll find this in a corner of the IT literature. The various proceedings of Groupware 9x and the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Wo...

John - Great question you passed along. >QUOTE >I have seen some significant critiques of SD as THE answer from some of the >Complexity and Chaos texts. Id be really interested to know WHICH Complexity and Chaos texts were talking about. I think its incredibly important to think about the limitation...

I liked Jay Forrests comments on risk, but found one item puzzling: >3) System dynamics is more appropriate for understanding patterns of >behavior and less appropriate for precise modeling. This is not much different from the statement, "differential equations are more appropriate for understa...

By pure bad luck, Liz Krahmers guide to model critiques moved yesterday. Ill update the link on my web pages soon, but in the meantime you can get to it directly by: http://jdmacomber.mit.edu/www/howto.htm Thanks to Mike Barongo for noticing. (Desert Island Dynamics is still in the same place) - Tom...

There are some useful links to papers on model validity, including robustness, in Liz Krahmers guide, "How to Conduct a Model Critique," which I highly recommend. Theres a link to the article on my web pages at: http://home1.gte.net/tomfid/sdbookmarks.html#Pubs You might also look over Des...

Appendix E (Smoothing of Information) of Industrial Dynamics (Jay W. Forrester, 1961, Productivity Press) is a good reference on exponential smoothing as a model of expectation formation. It doesnt really work through a single example, but gives a comprehensive explanation. There are many examples o...

Bernd, I hope these notes on the construction of multiple linked models are arriving in time to still be of some use to you. In any SD package, you can construct submodels separately, then cut & paste to integrate them into a single model. If you agree on the inputs and outputs for each sector i...

The Encyclopedia of the Futures full listing of top futurists actually has 100 entries. Theres more interesting news in the top 20. I dont have a copy in front of me, but as I recall Dennis Meadows is at #13 (just ahead of Isaac Newton) and Donella Meadows is at #18 or #19. - Tom tomfid@premier1.net...