How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

How to Do Things With Words

We will review some of the major results in random graphs and some of the more challenging open problems. We will cover algorithmic and structural questions. We will touch on newer models, including those related to the WWW.

Random graphs

An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems.

European Resuscitation Council Guidelines for Resuscitation.

Simulating the dynamics of occupant behaviour for power management in residential buildings

The objective of this paper is to analyse some of the conceptual and methodological contributions that complexity theory can make to the study of socio-technical cooperative systems The theory of complex systems has developed along two complementary, but nevertheless distinct, axes Chronologically, the first unifying concepts of the complexity paradigm resulted from the study of non-linear systems Later, the study of distributed self organising systems made it possible to widen this initial approach to the analysis and modelling of social cognitive systems The first school (non-linear systems) brought many conceptual and methodological contributions, however, these contributions are not directly applicable to the study of complex socio-technical systems, which are precisely the systems of interest to ergonomists and sociologists On the contrary, the distributed approach, being interested in local interactions rather than structure and hierarchy, has found many applications fields ranging from the study of animal micro societies (ethology) to the study of human organisations on a social or cognitive level Using examples from our analysis of human work activities, we will show how the concept of complexity can improve the methods of modelling and the design complex socio-technical systems This paper concludes by trying to find an intermediate position between the analytical and complexity approaches which would allow us to understand real situations in better way

The Contribution Of Complexity Theory To The Study Of Socio-Technical Cooperative Systems

In this paper we describe a multi-agent based approach for modeling and simulating the dynamics of large scale crisis situations. Our aim is to show how agent-based approach can benefit modeling-simulating a complex socio-technical collaborative complex system. The development of the model and simulator is based on data obtained from field studies of quasi-realistic non-computer based simulations and from official French rescue plans. Using our agentbased simulator we conduct samples of tests of various combinations of heuristics, both real and hypothetical in order to assess various potential rescue plans. To illustrate this, we focus on two organizational strategies combined with two communication modes to assess how they affect rescue process efficiency in terms of the global evacuation time and the rescue rate. Seven selected configurations have been simulated for each of the four typical scenarios ((centralized or distributed strategy) and (traditional paper or new electronic forms)). These first simulations show that: (1) electronic communication reduces delays and victims losses; (2) although distribution strategy improves rescue in general, centralized rescue process remains the most efficient in case of having many victims and few rescuers.

Assessing large scale emergency rescue plans: an agent based Approach

In cases where it is unfeasible to experiment in a real life setting, computer simulation is a valuable tool in the design and understanding of cooperative systems. This paper describes the development of a computer based simulation of an emergency call centre. The centre, which is a perfect example of a complex cooperative system, is currently undergoing a physical reorganisation. The aim of the simulator is to help in the redesign process by allowing the user to test the effects of new physical organisations. Whilst grounded in a solid theoretical framework, the simulator was developed using a bottom-up approach. We are particularly interested in modelling and analysing how environmental factors, such as the level of noise, affect mutual awareness, overhearing, interruption, cooperation and communication. A methodology is employed which is strongly participative and which, we believe, is well suited for the development of a computer based simulation of complex real world settings. We explain our methodology and show how the environmental and cognitive factors have been analysed, translated into a design and subsequently implemented using an object-oriented approach. Finally, we demonstrate the computer based simulator by running an experiment using data obtained from our observations of the real world setting.

A Pragmatic Development of a Computer Simulation of an Emergency Call Centre.

Inhabitants' behaviour is a significant factor that influences energy consumption and has been previously incorporated as static activity profiles within simulation for energy control & management. In this paper an agent-based approach to simulate reactive/deliberative group behaviour has been proposed and implemented. It takes into account perceptual, psychological (cognitive), social behavioural elements and domestic context to generate reactive/deliberative behavioural profiles. The Brahms language is used toimplement the proposed approach to learn behavioural patterns for energy control and management strategies.

Julie Dugdale

Papers

Simulating the dynamics of occupant behaviour for power management in residential buildings

The Contribution Of Complexity Theory To The Study Of Socio-Technical Cooperative Systems

Assessing large scale emergency rescue plans: an agent based Approach

A Pragmatic Development of a Computer Simulation of an Emergency Call Centre.

Agent based framework to simulate inhabitants’ behaviour in domestic settings for energy management