One of the great advances of the industrial age-- division of labor-- has only recently been gaining widespread adoption in the Internet world. This is in part due to the history of the web itself.

Early web pages consisted of static text and pictures, stored as HTML files on a server. Corporations put brochures online. Individuals shared travelogues, resumes and lots of silly lists. Research groups enlivened their collections of scientific papers with an occasional live camera pointed at a coffee pot.

Putting up a static web site was (and still is) quite simple. Create an HTML file ...

Many decisions must be made in creating a learning lab. These decisions include both big ones (what type of issues the simulation should address) and small ones (what type of computer equipment to use). Three critical factors that drive many of these design choices are the levels of detail complexity, dynamic complexity, and simulator interface sophistication included in the learning lab. These can be summarized on a three-dimensional axis.

from Designing Effective Learning Laboratories, published February 1998 in The Systems Thinker.< ?P>

Last week I returned from the ABSEL conference in sunny Pensacola, Florida. While I didn't see any Blue Angels, I had a great time talking with this lively and experienced group of management professors, most of whom have been using business simulations in their classroom for many years.

The mix of participants was unusual as it included both authors and users of simulations. The authors have typically developed sims for their classrooms and licensed them to other professors. The users were mainly other management professors, but also several business students. (In addition to ...

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There is a lot of confusion about what is and is not a simulation. If you use the word "simulation" in a discussion, some people might be thinking about a multi-million dollar airplane simulators, and others are thinking about The Sims Online, while you might mean a web-based business game. To make matters worse, sometimes people call things simulations that aren't simulations at all.

There are three attributes that every simulation has. If all three attributes exist, then you can legitimately call something a simulation. However, if even one attribute ...

Run the Price War Simulation

In September 2001, Hewlett-Packard acquired Compaq for around $25 billion in HP stock. Investors hated the idea. Both HP's and Compaq's stock fell about 25% in few days after the announcement, so the deal was quickly valued under $20 billion. The New York Times described the deal as bringing together two struggling computer companies into one giant with twice the problems.

During merger discussions, representatives from both HP and Compaq talked about the $2.5 billion dollar yearly cost savings that would result from the ...