UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN

1. UNIVERSITY OFLINCOLN Systems and the Information Society Network Spring Seminar series Purple group

2. Barnaby David Members of the PURPLE group Critics of the PURPLE group

3. Original ASI • Modelling is the effort by the Here and Now to understand itself: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) immensely increase the scope and detail of formal modelling and provide the tools to widen the Here and Now.

4. Hypothesis for exploration • ICT May Enrich the Modelling Process by Expanding the Boundaries of Agreement.

5. Body-Action Create Requisite Variety Representatives Pre-view C O M M U N I T Y R E G U L A T O R S Modelling Policy Generation Application Scenarios ADS MM MM System in Focus ME Values ? Validation Representative stakeholders of System in Focus ? • ADS - Abstract design model • ME - Model of environment • MM - Model of the modelling Diagram Coding The model proposed

6. The Case Study The Planning process of the Local Energy System in Göteborg (Sweden)

7. A Local Energy System -LES-

8. Main characteristics of a LES They consist of highly interconnected subsystems such as District Heating, electricity generation, Co-generation plants, utilities, conservation in municipal buildings, incineration of municipal waste, etc. Energy system planning interacts with strategic planning in other fields (e.g., urban planning or transport system planning may affect the energy system).

9. Main characteristics of a LES Changes in the energy system may affect residents, local industries and the environment and thus may have a large impact on the urban environment. Local interest groups usually have different conflicting goals.

10. LEP in Göteborg • Four main plans: 1977, 1987, 1995, 1998 The role of modelling in LEP in Göteborg acts as the background for this seminar.

11. Hypothesis for exploration • ICT May Enrich the Modelling Process by Expanding the Boundaries of Agreement.

12. Modelling as a process to make comprehensive representations A model is a representation, thus The Map is NOT the territory. The main actors involved are decision makers and ‘experts’.

13. What types of questions are asked? • When the model is accurate enough, it is used to answer questions about optimisation. • For instance, for a LES, a general question is: what is the optimal allocation of resources in compliance with existing and superimposed technical, social, economic and environmental constraints ?

14. What is the ‘status’ of a model for actors’ interactions? • Usually the mere existence of a model, as an abstract ‘thing’, coordinates people’s actions. People trust the model. • One illustrative story. • Another illustrative story from a LES.

15. What is the relation with ICT? • The computational capacity of IT is mainly used. • E.g., Special packages for economic and environmental calculations. • There is a poor, if any, use of ICT.

16. Modelling as a process of sharing descriptions A model is an ‘epistemological device’, thus The territory IS the Map. The main actors involved are decision makers and stakeholders.

17. What types of questions are asked? • Given a model, participants asks questions like: What if ? or How? • Understanding is more important than optimising. • For instance, in a LES, building scenarios is common. E.g., How will restrictions on emissions of sulphur, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide influence the development of the energy sector?

18. What is the ‘status’ of a model for actors’ interactions? • The model ‘guides’ people coordination of actions. Again, people trust the model. Building trust in the model is achieved when: • All future alternatives can be expressed with the model (e.g., ? Is biomass a realistic alternative for Göteborg?). • All questions/concerns by actors can be expressed with the model (e.g., What role will natural gas play in the energy system?) • The goals set by actors can be expressed with the model (e.g., Increase energy conservation )

19. What is the relation with ICT? • Packages for scenario building (e.g., MARKAL). • The development of interfaces becomes an important issue. • ICT may be used to facilitate the communication among stakeholders to share and ground the model in their experiences (e.g., bulletin boards, discussion groups).

20. Modelling as a process to build a common descriptive ‘language’. A model is an emergent epistemological device. The maping of the maps is the territory. Here, actors become an issue: Who ought to be the actors involved? ‘Boundary judgements’

21. What types of questions are asked? • Given a group of actors with their own models (i.e., viewpoints), the question guiding the process is: What are the ‘systemic’ issues ? (i.e., those issues that cannot be expressed or understood by any particular viewpoint alone). • Co-creation (or ‘co-inspiration’) is crucial for developing a systems’ understanding. For instance, the development of co-generation plants and the supply-conservation relations in LES.

22. What is the ‘status’ of a model for actors’ interactions? • The building of the model guides actors’ coordination of actions. People trust the modelling ‘language’. Building trust is achieved when: The modelling language has ‘requisite variety’, in other words, if any viewpoint’s model and any systemic issue can be expressed in this language.

23. How is ICT used? What for? • Model building languages are required (e.g., more user-friendly versions of “I think”-like languages). • Groupware (an instance of ICT) to facilitate the expression of viewpoint’s models. • The development of transducers (e.g., contextual interfaces) regarding specific ‘systemic’ issues becomes crucial.

24. Some issues regarding transducers • A fundamental transducerbetween the analogue (i.e., a human being) and the digital (an ICT) is required. • The specification of ‘checking points’for transducers during the modelling process seems important.

25. Hypothesis revisited • ICT May Enrich the Modelling Process by Expanding the Boundaries of Agreement.

26. The End

27. A fundamental transducer • The measuring of emotions (e.g.,eudemony). • The communication of emotions (e.g.,emoticons). • The development of user-driven automatic navegation interfaces for ICTs.

28. A short story [G. Morgan, “Imaginization”, pp. 16] “This is a story related by Karl Weick about a group of people who got lost in a severe snowstorm in the Swiss Alps. They were stranded and on the verge of giving up hope, when one of the party found a map in one of his pockets. Mobilised by the new possibilities, they mustered their energy and eventually found their way back to civilisation. Imagine their surprise, when, after their return home, it was pointed out that it was a map of the Pyrenees, not the Alps!”.

29. The adventure illustrates how a new image and new understanding of a situation can create space in which new initiatives and new actions can emerge. Without the map, the group would have probably perished. But it was not the map, so much as the image that THEY HAD A MAP, that enabled them to create the self-organising initiative that allowed a new outcome.

30. Stakeholders of the LES ·  Political decision-makers at the local level; ·  Representatives from utilities; · Representatives from the municipal or regional administration; ·  Industrial energy consumers; ·  Chambers of commerce; ·  Environmental groups; · Representatives from the Manufacturing industry.

31. Eudemony (1)

32. Eudemony (2)

33. :-) Smile ;-) Wink :-( Frown :~( Crying :-D Big grin :-* Kiss :-P Sticking out tongue :P~~~ Drooling Emoticons .

34. Body-Action Create Requisite Variety Representatives Pre-view C O M M U N I T Y R E G U L A T O R S Modelling Policy Generation Application Scenarios ADS MM MM System in Focus ME Values ? Validation Representative stakeholders of System in Focus ? • ADS - Abstract design model • ME - Model of environment • MM - Model of the modelling Diagram Coding The model proposed