SISO Signs Cooperation Agreement with the Simulation Arm of the Association of Computer Machinery (ACM)
Article by: Dell Lunceford  (dell@lunceford.com) Simulation as a technology and as a profession is still very immature. Even though simulation has been around since before the Roman Empire and computer based simulation has been around since the first computer saw the light of flashing electrons, by some estimates we are still 50 years away from anything close to maturity. In that light the value of SISO is not just the standards, reuse, interoperability and best practices that are the mainstay of its Vision Statement. The value is the synergy that comes from the diverse members of the community that come together to learn and to move the technology forward.   The challenge with simulation as a technology area is its diversity, making it impossible for a single organization to come anywhere close to representing the entire community. The combination of a young, growing community and the size of the community has led to some stovepiping. That is, practitioners in one sector often are not familiar with the technology, application, need and/or opportunities of another. The term stovepipe is generally considered to be negative, and I think everyone would agree that stovepiped communities have much less opportunity to grow professionally and provide much less opportunity for its practitioners to move around as different sectors wax and wane.   The elimination of stovepipes may be desirable, but it is not an overnight task. As much as SISO may want to be a leader in doing this, it has neither the depth nor the resources to take on the integration of this vast community. SISO does, however, have a unique position within the simulation community by which to start a process(s) that will allow these very different communities to begin to exchange ideas. With this comes the possibility of a more integrated community and practitioners that have a broader understanding of simulation technology. This will not only open the door for the migration of ideas, but potentially will open the door for people (and even companies) to move across these boundaries as well. When this happens, the potential for people to train as a simulationist, and to stay within the field throughout their career may be more readily achievable. At that point, simulation can begin to mature as a science, a technology and a profession.   With this goal of trying to bring broader awareness to the community in mind, SISO has been working on the establishment of cooperative agreements with other major leaders in the simulation community. The first of these was signed a few months back with the International Test and Evaluation Association (http://www.itea.org/) and the second was just signed with The Association of Computer Machinery Special Interest Group on Simulation (ACM SIGSim http://www.acm.org/sigsim/main/frame.html ). You might also want to try the top page of ACM to look for other activities or Special Interest Groups that may be of interest to you (such as SIGGRAPH http://www.siggraph.org/ ).   Both agreements can be found in the SISO Document Library.
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