REPLY How to promote good work (SD6575)

[SDMAIL Bob Eberlein]

Posted by  Bob Eberlein <bob at vensim.com>

Mr. Stevenson is correct in saying that he has put forward some
suggestions for things it would be good to have - my apologies. I
thank him for bringing these together into one place. There are none of
that I would disagree with and I hope that people within the
community have the energy to begin creating such things. None of these,
as far as I can tell, are in any way in conflict with the current
activiites of the System Dynamics Society (in fact many have been talked
about within the Society) and I remain puzzled by the negative
statements made about the Society.

As far as this email list goes, I would like to clarify that a little.
This list is not sanctioned by any organization. About a decade ago a
group of people were meeting to discuss the formation of a System
Dynamics Institute. We laid out various ambitious plans and one idea
put forward was a discussion forum. Rick Karash, who was attending the
meeting soon went out and established the Learning Organization email
list. Not being shy about copying a good idea, I did the same for the 
System Dynamics mailing list. I started this list, and to this day
continue to manage it with no mandate from anyone. The Society's web
server is now being used as the address for this list, but that is in
the spirit of facilitating community activity, not because of any
mandate.

I do agree that the format of this list is outdated. There already
exists an alternative at

http://www.ventanasystems.co.uk/forum/

which is the same place searchable archives exist for this list. The
reason I have not simply moved everything to that forum is that
participation is less widespread there. On this list there are lots of
people who have been doing System Dynamics for decades (up to 50 years)
who get the messages, and sometimes respond. On anything web based many
of these people would likely never visit.

By the way, the fact that the System Dynamics Institute is again rearing
its head (concidentally under the same name) is a good thing. It means
the idea has merit and perhaps its time has come.

Bob Eberlein
Posted by  Bob Eberlein <bob at vensim.com>
posting date  Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:59:44 -0400