Do anyone know anything about the use of R for agent-based social simulation? It should be possible, and would be convenient for the simple reason that there are several nice packages containing useful stuff for SNA (Social Network Analysis). Information about packages, web sites, experienced persons in the field, etc. would be very welcome. Tom +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tom Backer Johnsen, Psychometrics Unit, Faculty of Psychology | | University of Bergen, Christies gt. 12, N-5015 Bergen, NORWAY | | Tel : +47-5558-9185 Fax : +47-5558-9879 | | Email : backer at psych.uib.no URL : http://www.galton.uib.no/ | +----------------------------------------------------------------+
Tom, I don't know if there are better ways, but this is the way I do: I use Python for building the AB model, and RPy as an interface to R for statistical analysis. One of the best package for SNA in R is igraph, which has a nice Python version. But if you prefere statnet (which is great too), you can simply handle it via RPy. I've learned this strategy from Pietro Terna - http://web.econ.unito.it/terna/ hope it helps, Simone Gabbriellini Il giorno 07/nov/08, alle ore 13:06, Tom Backer Johnsen ha scritto:> Do anyone know anything about the use of R for agent-based social > simulation? It should be possible, and would be convenient for the > simple reason that there are several nice packages containing useful > stuff for SNA (Social Network Analysis). Information about > packages, web sites, experienced persons in the field, etc. would be > very welcome. > > Tom > +----------------------------------------------------------------+ > | Tom Backer Johnsen, Psychometrics Unit, Faculty of Psychology | > | University of Bergen, Christies gt. 12, N-5015 Bergen, NORWAY | > | Tel : +47-5558-9185 Fax : +47-5558-9879 | > | Email : backer at psych.uib.no URL : http://www.galton.uib.no/ | > +----------------------------------------------------------------+ > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.dott. Simone Gabbriellini - PhD Student Department of Social Sciences University of Pisa simone.gabbriellini at sp.unipi.it
Martin Elff wrote:> Hi Tom, > > my package 'memisc' contains a sort of an infrastructure for doing > simulations. As a fun exercise I also used it to create a 'toy' agent based > simulation of Schelling's neighbourhood model. Although it is not a serious > application, at least it shows that agent based simulation is possible in R. > > Just run 'demo(schelling)' after loading 'memisc'.Interesting. I'll have to look trough the code. How far away do the agents see? Anything beyond their immidiate neighbors? Tom
Hi Tom, you may have a look at the CRAN package simecol, that has some examples how to implement different types of dynamic models in R (differential equations, grid models, individual based models). Individual-based models (IBMs) are a model family used in ecology, which are in its essence almost the same as ABMs in other areas. See http://simecol.r-forge.r-project.org for the package, examples, pdf's, and in particular the useR!2008 slides. Thomas Petzoldt Tom Backer Johnsen wrote:> Do anyone know anything about the use of R for agent-based social > simulation? It should be possible, and would be convenient for the > simple reason that there are several nice packages containing useful > stuff for SNA (Social Network Analysis). Information about packages, > web sites, experienced persons in the field, etc. would be very welcome. > > Tom > +----------------------------------------------------------------+ > | Tom Backer Johnsen, Psychometrics Unit, Faculty of Psychology | > | University of Bergen, Christies gt. 12, N-5015 Bergen, NORWAY | > | Tel : +47-5558-9185 Fax : +47-5558-9879 | > | Email : backer at psych.uib.no URL : http://www.galton.uib.no/ | > +----------------------------------------------------------------+ > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
Thomas Petzoldt wrote:> Hi Tom, > > you may have a look at the CRAN package simecol, that has some examples > how to implement different types of dynamic models in R (differential > equations, grid models, individual based models). > > Individual-based models (IBMs) are a model family used in ecology, which > are in its essence almost the same as ABMs in other areas. > > See http://simecol.r-forge.r-project.org for the package, examples, > pdf's, and in particular the useR!2008 slides.Thank you for the suggestions. I'll have a look at that alternative as well. For the time being the prime candidate in the R world seems to be the igraph package, which is oriented towards graph theory and SNA, something that would be convenient (less programming). Tom
Thomas Petzoldt wrote:> Hi Tom, > > you may have a look at the CRAN package simecol, that has some examples > how to implement different types of dynamic models in R (differential > equations, grid models, individual based models). > > Individual-based models (IBMs) are a model family used in ecology, which > are in its essence almost the same as ABMs in other areas. > > See http://simecol.r-forge.r-project.org for the package, examples, > pdf's, and in particular the useR!2008 slides. > > Thomas PetzoldtVery nice. My compliments. I wil have to seriously consider that tool. Thanks. Tom