The Weekly Pheromone Volume I -- Issue 7

[glen e. p. ropella]

                         The Weekly Pheromone
                          Volume 1, Issue 7
                          January 22, 1997


   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  The Pheromone is mailed out on Tuesday (or....
maybe Wednesday :-) if and only if there is information to be
disseminated.

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

   I.  User Community Page Additions
  II.  SwarmFest Announcement/Reminder
 III.  Swarm V1.0 Update

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

   I.  User Community Page Additions

   We've added some links to our User Community page.  Please check
it out and take a look at the type of people using Swarm (most of 
whom will be coming to SwarmFest '97).  Those of you to whom I've
linked, please check the wording.  And to anybody who's either 
using Swarm or coming to SwarmFest and would like their page listed,
please send a note to <address@hidden>.

  II.  SwarmFest Announcement/Reminder

   SwarmFest '97 is going to be a gathering of Swarm users to meet and
discuss all technical aspects of using Swarm to model ... well,
whatever you may want to simulate.  So far, we don't have an
itinerary; but, we have several users who have volunteered to give
presentations.  These presentations will cover users' efforts in using
Swarm to model all sorts of things, including artificial chemistries,
agent cognition, ecosystems, computational economics, recreational
boat traffic, socio-economic networks, manufacturing, and the use of
genetic algorithms and neural nets in artificial life.  I've attached
the SwarmFest '97 Announcement at the end of this message and you
can get a registration form from:

http://www.santafe.edu/projects/swarm/users/user-community.html

 III.  Swarm V1.0 Update

   We are planning to release V1.0 before the end of January.  We
hope that this version will be stable and will complete the Swarm
kernel to the extent that we can begin working on the larger issues
for which Swarm was intended.  Stay tuned to this station for more
details.

                              =========

The Swarm Bulletin is created by the members of the Swarm project at
the Santa Fe Institute.  Comments, corrections, and contributions
should be sent to address@hidden



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                                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...