Weekly Pheromone Volume I Issue 3

[glen e. p. ropella]

                         The Weekly Pheromone
                          Volume 1, Issue 3
                          December 10, 1996


   The Pheromone will stand to inform users of the activities and
goals of the hive and user community.  Contributions are accepted that
announce Swarm-related events or activities in any of the growing
Swarm colonies around the world.  To contribute, send e-mail to
address@hidden  In addition to our relaxation of the frequency of
Pheromone emissions, we've also decided that Tuesday is a much better
day to emit such.  So, henceforth, the Pheromone will be mailed out on
Tuesday if and only if there is information to be disseminated.

Table of Contents
-----------------

   I.  SwarmFest Update!  -- Chris Langton

========================================================================

   I.  SwarmFest Update

                                SwarmFest

                      The first Swarm users meeting

                           February 16-17 1997

                         The Santa Fe Institute


  We have set the dates for the first Swarm users meeting for February
16-17, 1997. We will be sending registration, travel, and lodging
information in a following message (it will also be available on the
Swarm web-site shortly).

  So far we have had about 20 people say that they will be coming,
many of whom will be making presentations of their work.

  We would like to ask anyone attending, expecially those making
presentations, to try to make a web-page available ASAP, even if it is
just your current home page, so that people can get to know other
users in advance of the meeting.

  If you have a web-page on your modelling efforts with Swarm, that
would be even better! We strongly encourage anyone who wants to make a
presentation at the meeting to make some sort of a web-page on their
modelling efforts available before the meeting.
 
  Besides presentations of models, we are planning discussions on
various issues facing Swarm and the user community, such as proper
evaluation of user-contributed code, the future of Swarm development
and maintainence, and so forth.

  So if you don't have anything to present, that's OK, there will be
plenty of opportunities to get involved in technical discussions, or
to express your opinion about various issues related to Swarm.

  We also intend to provide plenty of time for socializing by holding
a reception (followed by some bar-hopping etc.) on the evening of
Sat. the 15th, and a dinner Sunday evening.


  Participants voicing interest so far include:


Rick Riolo              University of Michigan          Complex Systems 
Modelling
Tim Kholer              Washington State Univ.          Anasazi Village 
Formation
Claudia Pahl            EWAG  Switzerland               Ecological Modelling
Melissa Savage          UCLA Ecology Dept.              Forest Dynamics
Benedikt Stefansson     UCLA Economics                  Economic Modelling
Ginger Booth            Yale University                 Ecological Modelling
Evelyn Brannon          Auburn University               Market Dynamics
  & Sven Thommesen
Vladan Babovic          Danish Hydraulic Inst.          Aquatic Ecosystems &
  & Thomas Gudmunsson                                     Adaptive Numerical 
Grids
Todd Allen              Johns Hopkins University        Economics
JJ Merelo               University of Granada           Market Dynamics
Matthew Hare            Macaulay Land Use Rsch Inst.    Grouse Population 
Dynamics
Charles Taylor          UCLA Biology                    Mosquito Breeding 
Dynamics
  & John Carnahan
Kerry Hanson            Texas Instruments               Industrial Applications

  Some of these people will be bringing several members of their
groups along...

  All in all, this is intended to be a mostly informal meeting
providing a chance for the Swarm user community to get together to
meet each other and the SFI Swarm Hive, and to present and discuss
models built with Swarm, modelling in general, Swarm particulars,
ideas/comments/suggestions/gripes to be addressed in future Swarm
development, and so forth.

  We will have released Swarm V1.0 in January, so we're sure there
will be plenty of things to talk about!

  So, if you are a Swarm user, old or new, or just interested in
finding out more about Swarm, please consider coming to the SwarmFest
- it should be fun and informative, and a good chance to meet other
people who are facing issues arising in their research involving
multi-agent modelling and simulation.

Cheers!

Chris Langton
  for the SFI Hive...



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