Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Organize a Meeting on the Field
Extract of interview:
“
In a particular situation we try to go into the field and escort the water users to
find a result. This leads to new solutions not considered in more formal
meetings.”
Fig. 4.
Field meeting
When the boundary worker notes a disagreement on a topic he organized a meeting
on the field. New ideas can emerge after discussions that have hatched in the new
space. Situations that seemed blocked at the meeting can reach a favorable outcome.
These are moments in the informal water management that can be characterized as a
kind of black box [19]. Different users will feel freer to speak, the context is different
and will facilitate exchanges between the actors. The work of the boundary workers is
easier, this informal meeting is a time of dialogue and negotiation can lead to
beneficial adjustments.
As stated earlier the “recipes” have emerged as a result of interviews with a sample
of boundary workers. These recipes represent different tools at their hand to set up
different formats of interaction. Depending on the context and purpose he chose in his
library of recipes the one suited better a given situation. The combination of recipes is
a key element in the successful implementation of a process of interaction.
4
Structure of the Model
We describe in this section the structure of the agent based model following the field
work investigation. With this model we aim at understanding the possible paths taken
by a socio-hydrosystem with a boundary worker.
4.1
Agents Description
In this initial prototype, we designed the model with two types of agents: water users
and boundary worker. All agents know each other and can interact. Each class is
composed of several attributes (figure 5). For example, every user has a confidence
index towards the other users and the boundary workers. This index will change
