patth@dasys1.UUCP (Patt Haring) (07/29/87)
United Nations Information Transfer and Exchange
(Access free of charge exept for dial up charges.)
(212-764-5912)
Accessing the Global Village is demonstrated through UNITEX,
an electronic Bulletin Board System. UNITEX provides an elec-
tronic meeting place for U.N. staff, technical experts, and
the global community at large.
UNITEX is a spin off of the microcomputer based intractive
program the "Simulated World 2001" developed by Dr. M. Whithed,
Ms. D. Nicklus, and Robert Osband.
In the "Simulated World 2001", student participants role
play, in teams, the Head of State, Finiancial Minister, Citizen
etc. Students learn to make decisions on managing their country's
activities (such as resource allocations) which are interactively
exercised until the year 2001. Participants learn the cause and
effect reactions, based on their decisions, can effect future
developments in the Simulated World.
Skills in telecommunications, word processing, and data
base management are developed through working with this micro-
computer based gaming exercise.
PLAN OF IMPLEMENTATION
The Programme consists of an educational, microcomputer and
satellite communication-based environment, utilizing an
instructional simulation-gaming context to structure the
participants' learning activities and to direct them to
particularistic instructional modules, mainly provided through
CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction) approaches.
Simulated World 2001 Programme Implementation Procedure Contexts:
A: the Simulation-Game
B: the data communications environment
C: the CAI modules
A. The Simulation-Game: Simulated World 2001:
Simulated World 2001 is a mixed man-machine instructional
simulation-gaming exercise, based on SW-3, the microcomputer
adaption of a family of international resources allocation
simulation models developed by Professors Marshall H. Whithed and
Clifford N. Smith. The original models derive from the Guetzkow
Inter-Nation Simulation tradition.
Student role-players occupy one of three generic roles in each
nation-state modeled: HS for Head of State, ED for Enterprise or
Business Director, and CZ for Citizen or Society as a whole (with
more players, each of these three roles may be further
subdivided; i.e., Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of
External Affairs, under HS, etc), but the irreducable number of
generic roles is three in each country. In the PTP, 10-12 young
players will act as a regional team.
Seven to twelve countries are operated in the PTP simulation
session. These countries may be modeled on specific real world
(referent world) countries, or based on hypothetical data and
countries. These countries will be run by the PTP regional teams.
Participants are given scenario data on their particular
countries and roles, along with specific financial and resource
level data.
Based on their understandings of their role environments, and
that of their countries and the international environment, role-
players develop strategies to achieve their goals and attempt
through negotiation and alliance-building to build outsider
support to these ends.
In the Simulated World 2001 environment, their negotiations will
not be face-to-face as has been the case in earlier simulation-
gaming, but rather, through the medium of electronic mail based
on microcomputers (direct keyboarding, and more preferably, off-
line composition of messages in wordprocessing program mode, and
then uploading/downloading of message traffic to other
participants through a central operations site store and forward
message switching mode microcomputer).
Textual Message Traffic will be continuous throughout the
operation of the exercise. Budgetary allocation determination
data will be uploaded by the participants at the end of each
simulation year (approximately two days of calender clock time)
to the Programme's Central Operations site. This will be in the
form of screen formatted data, with the present choice being
dBASE. Specialized spreadsheet programming may alternatively be
utilized. The resultant files will be transmitted to Central
Operations and run into the simulation programs. The resultant
output, in tabular form, ASCII text files, will be returned via
the microcomputer and satellite network to the remote sites, to
constitute the basis of the teams' decision-making for the
succeeding year.
The third form of transmission will be the remote data access
of international data banks; this exercise will be encouraged to
enhance the participants simulation planning.
B. The Data Communications Environment
The data, both textual and budgetary, will be prepared by student
participants at the remote sites, uploaded via the satellite
communications network to the Programme's Central Operations Site
in Vienna, Austria, reviewed and interpreted by the simulation
computer programming, and the resulting new material forwarded to
the recepient teams at the various regional sites.
Transmissions
The data will be in ASCII text format, and/or data in such
standardized formats as DIF (Data Interchange Format), or the
dBASE II SDF (Standard Delimited Fields) form. Programme team
personnel have experimented with transmission of dBASE II files
over electronic mail systems such as the New Jersey Institute of
Technology Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES).
Vienna, Austria (location of the Central Operations site), and
the locations of the regional sites world-wide have similar
requirements, therefore most data communications will probably be
to CCITT standards. We presently are analyzing CCITT V.22bis
standards, as a possible alternative to earlier planning to
utilize as appropriate for each location 1200 and/or 300 baud
CCITT standards.
Computer Utilization
The computer communications network will be of a star design,
with all communications from the regional sites transmitted
through the Central Operations Site in Vienna for analysis and
association by the Programme staff, and then forwarded to the
target recepient team. This implies a store and forward computer
at the Vienna Operations Site to receive incoming traffic, route
to designated electronic mailboxes, etc. Preferably this facility
could accomodate multiple incoming calls simultaneously.
This computer would not be required to also handle the simulation
computer programming; that could, if necessary, be done on a
separate machine which would link into the store and forward
machine.
The Regional Site computers must have requisite communications
capabilities, and also be able to operate standard available,
special adaptions of standard-available and specially designed
(by Programme personnel) stand-alone CAI packages. For the most
part, this dictates MS-DOS capabilities.
LAN (local area networking) at the Regional Sites is planned.
This will enable a full differentation, technically, of the three
major generic roles of the simulation model in each country
(HS/ED/CZ), as well as illustrating LAN at the Regional Sites.
This nested Star network -- Regional Site Star, with central node
from Regional Site will be feeding in to the Central Operations
Site in Vienna, Austria.
Special arrangements with INTELSAT, have provided free satellite
communications time. We are also working closely with the heads
of the communications ministries (PTTS) in the participant coun-
tries, relative to free ground station (receiving/sending anten-
na) and ground line time. The Austrian PTT in is providing the
main link at the Vinenna International Center where the United
Nations is providing the central site location.
The "standard" problems of approval and clearances, licensing
fees, importation problems, and long lead times for administra-
tive approvals, will not constrain our Programme. These issues
have been addressed by the PTP team.
It should be noted that while we originally planned to utilize
CCITT standards (and in a few instances, American modem standards
for US communications), at 300 and 1200 baud depending upon coms
line quality, it is now our tentative plan, pending further
testing on-site, to utilize the new CCITT v.22 bis standards, at
2400 baud. If so, the hardware in the communications loop should
be able to put out a 2400 baud signal either to a built-in modem
able to handle those standards, OR to the RS 232 port, to drive
an external modem.
C. CAI Instructional Modules:
The Simulation experience is a structuring, agenda-setting
facilitator for participant interactions. A significant aspect of
the simulation instructional experience is that it taps peer
group learning initiatives, and leads participants to perceive
the necessities for further instruction in structured areas. This
leads, in our Programme, the participants into a battery of CAI
(Computer Assisted Instruction) learning modules.
These will consist of:
a) Off-the-shelf CAI packages
b) Special modification of off-the-shelf CAI
c) New programming of CAI by Programme staff
Most of these will be in PC/MS-DOS format, and for single user
environments.
The hardware for instruction at the Vienna Training Center for
Tier One, and the training hardware for the Regional sites in
Tier Two, will thus be required to run PC /MS-DOS software.
Ability to run most IBM PC programs (PC-DOS 2.0 and above) is
important. Ability to run other operating systems opens up
additional flexibility.
UNITEX, Suite 600, 22 West 38th St., New York, New York, 10018
(300/1200 baud, 24 hours: 212-764-5912).
*UNITEX is a trademark of the Pilot Training Programme for
Computer Literacy and Management Skills (PTP), "Simulated World
2001". It is sponsered by the International Federation of
Business and Professional Women, a UN Class Nongovernmental
Organization [NGO].
This page is available in machine readable form via UNITEX. It is
UNITEX.TXT in File Area 2, the Global Communitty Lab area.
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Patt Haring UUCP: ..cmcl2!phri!dasys1!patth
Big Electric Cat Compu$erve: 76566,2510
New York, NY, USA MCI Mail: 306-1255; GEnie: PATTHkent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) (08/02/87)
Patt, Lots of success in your Global Village simulation. Sadly, a recent FCC rules proposal bids fair to exclude all but the affluent in the United States from the Global Network community, by doubling the cost of cheap telecommunications in one stroke. All interested persons should join the discussion in USENet's comp.dcom.modems. The time to complain is short; responses are due by 24 August. If interested in responding, send me an email note, and I'll return a copy of a posting detailing response format and addressees. Kent, the man from xanth.