references touting relative ease of swarm modeling

[Paul Box]

Hello Group

I have a special favor to ask this group.  I am now writing a proposal 
to fund future development of the gis object that I presented at
swarmfest.  The RFP to which I am responding is asking for
applications that are applicable to a wide audience, and can be used
with a relatively small amount of training for managers and
technicians with a background in their profession (fire ecology).

I found swarm to have a very easy learning curve after the initial
entry of learning objective-c (I'm not talking about what it took to
install the thing in 1996!).  I have also found that I could teach
technicians very quickly and have them be "productive" with just a
couple of weeks of training.  I have heard similar testimonials from
other swarm users at the various swarmfests.  

I am addressing this ability to work with complex questions in my
proposal, with the important caveat that the user must have a firm
grounding in the science behind their question.  My problem is that I
only have my "opinion" that the technicalities of creating agent-based
models in swarm is relatively easy, plus the "hearsay" of other swarm
users at conferences and email exchanges.

Is anyone aware of an article, or anything else "quotable" that I can
reference to bolster this point?  Have any of you discussed the
logistics of using swarm in writing?

Pardon if I seem lazy for asking this here: I'm trying to get this
proposal written as quickly as possible.

-- 
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Dr. Paul Box
// Dept of Geography and Earth Resources
// UMC 5240
// Utah State University      http://www.nr.usu.edu/~sanduku
// Logan, UT  84321           Phone: 435-797-2546
//////////////////////////////////////////////////

*  If Elvis was so great, why was he buried in the back yard like a
*  hamster?


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