patth@dasys1.UUCP (Patt Haring) (08/10/87)
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*UNITEX
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 electronic 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 microcomputer based gaming exercise.
PLAN OF IMPLEMENTATION
The Programme consists of an educational, microcomputer and satellite com-
munication-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 countries, relative to free ground
station (receiving/sending antenna) and ground line time. The Austrian PTT
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 administrative 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 sponsored 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 Community Lab area.
- -hjh@hpldola.HP.COM (Heather Hubbard) (08/27/87)
It would be interesting to hear some of the comments/lessons learned by participants in this simulation. For example, what were the advantages/disadvantages of having the electronic communication available to the Head Of State or the Citizen? Did it make a <big/med/small> difference to the Citizen to have access to the communications? Heather Hubbard