We’ve made a first cut at how we’ll spend the 2 weeks:
- days 1-3: with the computing department at the University of Yaounde
- 4-5: travel to village, meet people and set up base
- 6-12: run modelling sessions, offer computing classes (perhaps using Scratch), conduct interviews with key people including agricultural officers, shadow farmers to see what is involved in for instance coffee farming
- 12-14: travel back to airport with some stop-overs
(I am also hoping to visit a wild chimpanzee group in forest neighbouring the village at some stage).
Quick update from last time:
- We’ve received the essays on ‘being a good farmer’ (add link!)
- We’ve met SEI who have given us the following questions regarding our collaboration:
- Will there be any links to forested areas in the work being done in your site (e.g. agricultural strategies linked to forests) since the main difference is that our work is being done in a densely forested area in the TNS national park.
- What are the different crop choices available? Are there cash crops? (we will be focussing on crop choices that provide co-benefits for adaptation and conservation of forests e.g. those that can be planted within the forest rather than instead of the forest)
- What are the alternative livelihood options?
- Are there external forces nearby (mining/logging companies)
- Will you be looking at difference between choices of men and women – we may try and look at this in more detail
- What are the main stressors driving agricultural decisions in the area in which you are working?
- We will be using the KnETs approach to access the tacit knowledge which influences decision-making and this will feed an ABM. Can we look for ways to combine our methodologies in the second trip?
- We’ve found enough laptops around Oxford to take but it was useful finding out what the charities can offer and SEI have followed up on this with other partners
- We’ve made a first attempt at using modelling4all.org offline, and it works in a limited way. Ken is developing new functionality to allow models developed online to be easily moved to offline versions.
- We’ve located good voice recorders locally for the trip
- David and Howard will meet tomorrow to make a first stab at the design of the model/game
- David has completed the CUREC form (ethical clearance for the research).
- We’ve also go maps of the area (which we’ll use in the models) and some videos previously made about life in the village.
All this is making me realise we should make an itinerary!
We are found some similar projects on JASSS: http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/16/1/9.html and http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/16/1/2.html