NASSA library concept
Creating an open-source library for agent-based modelling of socio-ecological systems in archaeology has eluded NASSA for the entirety of 2020. As in many other instances, our meetings have been postponed repeatedly due to the COVID epidemic and its effects.
This year (2021), we were finally able to gather most of our members, even though only virtually, and openly discuss this and other topics.
It was a meeting crucial for defining what we want and can do regarding a future NASSA library. We used miro to populate a virtual whiteboard with the main points discussed to aid the brainstorming and document our ideas. With it, we consolidated a few skeletal concepts related to the library, still without committing to specific design decisions. These concepts include the library’s internal definitions (modules) and the practicalities of its future use (submission and review processes, target users). Here is a glimpse of this whiteboard:
Some relatively novel highlights of this discussion were the idea of differentiating modules as “algorithm” and “submodel” and the necessity of preparing hands-on tutorials, keeping in mind the three roles we foresee (author, reviewer, user).
by Andreas Angourakis
