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Software

Our software repository is hosted by SourceForge and can be freely used or adapted to perform experiments at your own institution; work is ongoing to customize the software for use in an educational or classroom setting.

There are currently two main areas of development:

  1. Experiments built on the csidex framework typically have real-time interaction requirements and are a typical client-server application with a custom Java experiment server deployed and executing on a well-known server and custom Java clients deployed via Java WebStart. For an example, please see Foraging Deployment. This branch of development is fairly stable.
  2. Experiments built on the vcweb framework are currently being developed as standard web applications in Drupal and JEE that range from simple form processing to Flash / Flex based rich internet applications.

We have developed three concrete experiments so far:

  • Foraging in a 2D environment [picture] This experiment mimics the traditional commons dilemma of a real-time spatially explicit dynamic resource with density-dependent regrowth. Highly customizable with various configuration parameters allowing participants to chat before a round begins, sanction each other via costly sanctioning or time-based sanctioning, etc.
  • Harvesting trees or purple pillars in a 3D environment [picture] Similar resource dynamics as the foraging experiment with the exception that a given resource on a cell can age in discrete intervals from young trees towards fully grown fruit bearing trees. Furthermore, the 3D visualization affects the information available for the participants.
  • Irrigation game [pictures] This experiment embeds the dilemmas in irrigation systems where the participants experience the asymmetric power situation of upstream versus downstream. In each round, participants invest in the creation of the infrastructure available for the next stage of the game using water for growing crops where participants upstream have easier access to water.