RE: [SwarmFest2004] keynote speakers

[Burkhart Roger M]

In response to Rick's message:

> I think my current top candidate is Leigh T.
> She has done a lot to promote ABM/computational
> approaches to the social sciences (econ in particular),
> she has started classes, etc, so she has a good
> perspective on the "bottom up" approach and
> the opportunities/challenges involved.

I've never met her or heard her talk, but I've heard about
her and the associated group at Iowa State for a long time
so I'd personally welcome this choice.

> Note that the names below are mostly people active
> in the ABM world.  We could reach out to other types
> of people, eg, try to get a "complex systems approach populizers"
> like Kevin Kelly (Out of Control), Johnson (Emergence),
> Malcolm (The Tipping Point), etc.   I have no idea
> if any of these folks would come, or what it would cost.

If you already some contacts or reasons they might be
coming to UMich anyway it would be OK to piggyback, but
I'd worry about paying a lot for a popularizer type who
might not provide much technical weight for our audience.

> I don't think there are any biologists below, either.
> Maybe there is someone Steve Railsback could suggest...
> 
> But I would like to decide this in the next
> few days, maybe get a priority list of a few names,
> and then i can start asking them in order
> from the top.

> Bob Axelrod (can't do it in 2004)
> Scott Page (did 1999 or 2000)
> Mark Newman  (does social networks)

All these are fine with me.

> USA:
> Rob Axtell
> Josh Epstein
> Leigh Testfasion
> Eric Bonabeau

Eric could also be a good choice if he's interested.
He seems to be as much work as anyone these days on
commercial use of ABM.

> Europe:
> Nigel Gilbert
> Alan Kirman
> Klaus G. Troitzsch
> Cristiano Castelfranchi
> Rosaria Conte
> Domenico Parisi

Unless we could ride on other reasons for them to coming
to UMich, I'd worry about imposing too much on someone
just to come give a casual keynote at a Swarm event, or
else costing too much.  Usually our keynotes have just been
dinner talks or someone who was at SwarmFest anyway.  I
don't know most of these names but if someone has a
specific recommendation we could consider it.

Since it may take some time to lock in arrangements for any
keynote it would be fine to announce the dates and issue the
CFP without having finalized anyone.  I suppose that a keynote
with some level of star power might attract some attendees by
registration time, which could be a useful but not necessary
part of an event.  Maybe we can use the speaker to help
broaden the appeal to larger communities of agent-based
modelers, or whoever you and CSCS would like to attract.

--Roger