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A use-case approach to the validation of social modeling and simulation

Published: 11 April 2010 Publication History

Abstract

The modeling and simulation (M&S) community is faced with the task of informing public policy decision makers, from both the defense community and from the civilian sector, of the impact of their decisions on the beliefs, values and interests (BVIs) of the populations in their areas of influence. The M&S techniques used for these types of analyses by necessity challenge the traditional boundaries and methods regarding validation efforts. Given that the analysis of populations is largely intractable via reductionist methodologies, we posit that insight must be garnered through experiment and iteration using simulated societies. Further, the designs of these simulation experiments must be based on the information needs of the community. We discuss the concept of developing social simulations by use case, the validation of data sources for model development, validation techniques guided by usefulness, and a case study approach to validation of social simulations.

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Cited By

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  • (2013)Behavior Selection Using Utility-Based Reinforcement Learning in Irregular Warfare Simulation ModelsInternational Journal of Operations Research and Information Systems10.4018/joris.20130701054:3(61-78)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2013
  • (2010)Representing dynamic social networks in discrete event social simulationProceedings of the Winter Simulation Conference10.5555/2433508.2433689(1478-1489)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2010
  • (2010)Representing dynamic social networks in discrete event social simulationProceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference10.1109/WSC.2010.5679046(1478-1489)Online publication date: Dec-2010

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cover image ACM Other conferences
SpringSim '10: Proceedings of the 2010 Spring Simulation Multiconference
April 2010
1726 pages
ISBN:9781450300698

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  • SCS: Society for Modeling and Simulation International

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Society for Computer Simulation International

San Diego, CA, United States

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Published: 11 April 2010

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Author Tags

  1. VV&A
  2. behavioral modeling
  3. ontology
  4. social simulation
  5. validation

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SpringSim '10
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SpringSim '10: 2010 Spring Simulation Conference
April 11 - 15, 2010
Florida, Orlando

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Cited By

View all
  • (2013)Behavior Selection Using Utility-Based Reinforcement Learning in Irregular Warfare Simulation ModelsInternational Journal of Operations Research and Information Systems10.4018/joris.20130701054:3(61-78)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2013
  • (2010)Representing dynamic social networks in discrete event social simulationProceedings of the Winter Simulation Conference10.5555/2433508.2433689(1478-1489)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2010
  • (2010)Representing dynamic social networks in discrete event social simulationProceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference10.1109/WSC.2010.5679046(1478-1489)Online publication date: Dec-2010

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