Our Approach to Collaboration

We have plans for Climate Interactive to grow into an open platform for vigorous sharing of simulations. We envision such sharing at five levels: models as equations, model as web services, simulation interface code, simulation-related media, and simulator use.

1. Models as equations. CI will be gathering, documenting, posting, and promoting various climate models and sectors of climate models for use by other modelers or to interact with other software on the web. For example, another model builder could download a model of the carbon sector or of the carbon footprint of an electrical utility so that she may learn from it, adapt it, or build her own version.
2. Models as web services. CI will be posting the climate-related models as web services that other programs can call from the Forio Broadcast system. For example, programmers have extended Google Earth to include maps of sea level rise and other impacts of climate change. In the future, a programmer could use one of the models on Climate Interactive as a web service to link his user’s choice of a future for carbon dioxide emissions to mappable factors such as drought intensity, sea level rise, and temperature in different regions of the world. In this way, we would be connecting models and other visualization media.
3. Simulation interface code. We will post the code for the user interfaces and document the connection to the model that sits beneath it. The goal is to enable organizations, individuals, and others to customize their own simulations to reach their desired audiences while using our suite of simulation models. For example, CI is already in conversation with several ngos that would like to use its team of web developers to make a new interface for C-ROADS in order to reach their unique userbase. Similarly, simulations could be customized by others to reach corporate leaders, high school science classes, UN negotiators, or green investors. The simulations could also be translated into other languages or levels of scientific complexity. We hope to tap into the creativity and collective intelligence of many people in the world to see in what directions the simulation interfaces might evolve.
4. Simulation-related media. People using Climate Interactive simulations will be creating their own presentations, videos, podcasts, essays, and other media that explains climate dynamics and insights. Dr. Bill Moomaw, IPCC author and Professor at Tufts University has already incorporated graphs from our simulations into his PowerPoint presentations for the United Nations meetings in Germany and elsewhere. The CI web site will provide a space for community members to contribute their media and for others to get access to those resources.
5. Simulator use. CI will post user-friendly simulations for a wide range of people to play via Forio Broadcast. We aim to have simulations that focus on what approaches will deliver solutions to climate change most effectively to the greatest public good. The user experience will need to be entertaining, engaging, and empowering. The sharing components in this area will be what people at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence call “deliberation and argumentation”. We hope to work with this Center to have comment boards and forums connected to the simulations that are structured, civil, and effective. The team has already developed a prototype discussion space.