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This site's lead simulation, the Vortex Simulation, is based on complexity theory and its applicability to business. This site is the work of a University of Pittsburgh doctoral candidate. It contains a host of references, papers on business applications, and links to other web sites. Autonomous Agents at Rock Island Arsenal (AARIA)Website This site reports on a research project funded by the Department of Defense that demonstrates the use of agents for factory scheduling and simulation. The vision that participants are working toward is a self-configuring manufacturing complex in which agents representing various manufacturing capabilities (e.g., people, machines, parts) buy and sell commitments with each other over a network (e.g., the Internet), the result being the creation of a manufacturing enterprise whose performance and functionality supersede that of current centrally controlled manufacturing systems. This is the web site of Bionomics, a non-profit educational organization devoted to helping people to understand the economy as a complex adaptive system. Resources from this institution's journal, conferences, and the writings of its founder, Michael Rothchild, are contained here. The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University Was founded in 1985 by Dr. Scott Kelso when he assumed the University's Chair in Science. Multidisciplinary since its inception, the Center involves the cooperative efforts of neuroscientists, psychologists, mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, and engineers. The overarching objective of the Center is to understand the mechanisms and principles underlying complex behavior on all levels, from molecules and cells to whole brain functioning. From 1989 the Center has housed the National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) National Training Program in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences which provides fellowship support for graduate students and postdoctoral research and training. This site is an ongoing resource for anyone interested in Chaos science and things fractal. This site is sponsored by Images of Chaos, an Artwork for Television and Industrial Street Productions as a service to the Chaos community. The site includes a wide array of general complexity and chaos offerings, from bibliographies to pictorial representations of the Mandelbrot set, to general educational offerings on chaos and complexity. The Complexity & Artificial Life Research Concept for Self-Organizing Systems This is the site of a non-profit organization, CALResCo, dedicated to promoting understanding of complex system sciences. It is full of useful information including a glossary, images, tutorials, introductions to related topics (i.e. genetic algorithms, self-organizing systems, artificial life, nonlinear science), links to other sites and papers. The welcome page contains this warning: "Take care - this site is conceptually demanding, once bitten you may never be quite the same again." Complexity and Organisational Learning Research The Complexity and Organisational Learning Research Programme at the London School of Economics, UK, focuses on organizations as complex social systems. The program works with industrial and academic partners on several research projects, runs seminars for the business community and study groups for academics. This is the archive of an e-mail based discussion group for people who are interested in topics of complexity science, management, sensemaking and the relations among them. There is a link on this page to join the dialogue. This Australian site includes many good online resources including an academic journal and interactive services like fractal analysis. This is a site maintained by Kevin Dooley. It includes a number of references to the area of quality management and assurance. A strong set of links and nice section on creativity are also included. Kevin is a member of the faculty supporting the VHA Complexity Science Leadership Network. Emergence: A Journal of Complexity Issues in Organizations and Management Emergence publishes articles of a qualitative nature relating complex systems, sensemaking, psychology, philosophy, semiotics, and cognitive science to the management of organizations both public and private. The readers of Emergence are managers, academics, consultants, and others interested in the possibility of applying the insights of the science of complex systems to day-to-day management and leadership problems. This award-winning Web site presents a comprehensive examination of evolution and animal behavior. Special features include a message board, foraging simulation, Web classroom, book reviews, biographies and interesting links. This Web site offers keynote presentations, seminars, workshops and consulting services by Gareth Morgan, author of Images of Organization, Riding the Waves of Change, Creative Organization Theory, and Imaginization: The Art of Creative Management. Gareth is a highly respected organizational researcher and teacher from York University, Toronto Canada and is a member of the VHA Complexity Science Leadership Network Faculty. Michael Lissack's Work on Complexity and Management Mr. Lissack is currently pursuing a doctorate in business administration from Henley Management College in the United Kingdom. His doctoral dissertation is on the use of complexity theory metaphors in the management of knowledge related businesses such as the Internet. A number of papers on the implications of complexity for knowledge development and management are found on this site. Discusses how the New Sciences are beginning to revolutionize our understanding of social phenomena. The sciences of Complex Adaptives, Complexity, Self-organization, Chaos and Fractals are shedding light on and helping us confront problems and challenges facing organizations, management and individuals as we enter the Knowledge Era. The New Sciences are helping us create organizations that will be more sustainable in a turbulent world of increasing complexity and uncertainty. The New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) NECSI was established as a joint effort of faculty of New England academic institutions for the advancement of communication and collaboration outside of institutional and departmental boundaries. It is an independent educational and research institution dedicated to advancing the study of complex systems. They also offer a web guide to complex systems, at http://necsi.org/guide/, that provides an introduction to complex systems thinking and its applications, originating from efforts to understand physicial, biological and social systems. It explains basic concepts and describes a variety of examples and applications, including health care. This website contains Tom's Complexity Reading List, a link to The Petzinger Report ("An irregular and irreverant free newsletter on economics, entrepreneurs, and management"), and a wonderful "cache" of the day. Tom's essay on the collapse of the mechanical metaphor and information on his latest book, The New Pioneers, are also posted here. Physionet is a public service of the Research Resource for Complex Physiologic Signals, funded by the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health. It offers free access via the web to large collections of recorded physiologic signals and related open-source software. Paul Plsek's Homepage - DirectedCreativity.com Paul is member of the faculty supporting the VHA Complexity Science Leadership Network. Be sure to check out the article: Working paper: "Some emerging Principles for Managers of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)" by Paul Plsek Rey Laboratory for Nonlinear Dynamics in Medicine This is the only laboratory in the world devoted to exploring complex, nonlinear behavior in human physiological systems. It is led by Ary Goldberger, M.D., a cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center and Havard Medical School who has devoted his career to seeking to new understandings of the nonlinear mechanisms and patterns of health and disease. In 1986 Craig Reynolds created a computer model of coordinated animal motion such a bird flocks and fish schools. He called the software boids. This simulation has become well-known in complexity for its graphic illustration of the principle that complex behavior emerges from simple rules. Boids is an example of individual-based model, a class of simulation used to capture the global behavior of la large number of interacting autonomous agents. This is the site maintained by The Santa Fe Institute, the acknowledged center of the science of complexity. You can access the scientific work, educational offerings, and background on SFI, its faculty and Business Network. The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences. This site offers educational material, information on Society and other conferences, membership details, and links to other sites. The Society has wide interest in complexity, nonlinear dynamics, self-organization, chaos theory and has membership from many disciplines, including management, biology, psychology, philosophy. This web site by Clint Sprott includes many great references and resources to support complexity work. Be sure to check-out Popular Lectures by J. C. Sprott, which includes a PowerPoint presentation which was delivered to the VHA Leadership Network at its gathering on December 3, 1997. |