Computational Models in Social Informatics

摘要

Computational models will be discussed with respect to a social informatics. The models may contribute to explore a new society in which information is commodity, time is currency, and in which preference is convenience. The social informatics can be characterized as an interdisciplinary study that discusses human behavior and social systems in an information network environment. An auto-genesis or self-genesis is proposed as a new paradigm for describing and modeling an emerging society, as is discussed in Ohta, Ishida, & Okada (2001b). The cyber commons must be a repository for a generation, an accumulation, and a distribution of information and knowledge, emerging in the Internet age. In the society, a mode of organizing reveals a shift from a traditional mode based on authority, due to virtual linkages among actors in the society based on the cyber commons. Virtual communities and virtual companies in production and logistic systems are emerging, and they take a critical function in a society. For example, electronic manufacturing systems (EMS) and third party logistics (3PL) gradually take an important role in a society. The principle of organizing seems to shift to a new mode that consists of clustered entities and their networks. Information and knowledge sharing systems bring about a new type of boundary formation and a viability of the cyber commons. The implications for the systems design and for the theories of social informatics, and the contribution for our every day life will be discussed, employing our computational models and results of simulation.