QUERY Open Source Simulation Software for SD (SD6780)

[SDMAIL Stefano Armenia - Ateneo]

Posted by  Stefano Armenia - Ateneo <stefano.armenia at uniroma2.it>

Dear all,

it's quite a long time since i'm looking out for some software for 
System Dynamics Modelling which may be Open Source in a strict sens of 
the word. I do not know if anyone has ever had the chance to cover this 
issue or at least if this is an issue to the community. Actually, in my 
work, I also deal with open Source software, especially connected to 
Public Administration, and so I'm quite into the issue of open 
standards, open formats and open source software. I know this issue 
might be not so popular among the SD software producers, but I think 
that, referring also the discussion on the quality of models which was 
going on on this mailing list, the free availability of software for 
research reasons might be an issue, especially for institutions which 
cannot allow themselves even the low cost of an academic version (and i 
can ensure you that it happens in many countries - italy first) or for 
young researchers who do research on their own or who are not connected 
or affiliated to some research institutions. I believe that the 
unavailability of a free software for SD might also be a reason for the 
scarce submission of models or for the submission of poorly documented 
models to the ISDC. How many times we have found ourselves complaining 
about having a demo version of a certain software or for the fact of 
being unable to import a different software model file in our licensed 
modelling software environment? In this sense, the availability at least 
of open formats for models (XML may help in this, and also the 
experience of opening file formats, like the Microsoft Office one may be 
of some interest also for the various existing simulation software) 
could be in my opinion a first step for an "opening" of the SD 
simulation techniques towards other simulation communities, thus also 
allowing to disseminate the SD methodology itself.

Regards, Stefano Armenia
Stefano Armenia, Eng, MBA, PhD
@ "Tor Vergata" University of Rome, Italy
Posted by  Stefano Armenia - Ateneo <stefano.armenia at uniroma2.it>
posting date  Tue, 4 Mar 2008 19:26:29 +0100