There are so many interesting ways to apply simulations to inform policy and make positive changes. One way i had the opportunity to try was the Uber Game ( https://ig.ft.com/uber-game/). First i tried the Easier version, my goal was to meet the $1000 goal for the week. There were really unique elements designed into it, you could chose the car to rent, the things you needed including a gym pass, (which only option given was to shower in it, i was never given the choice to work out.) This game was a great simulation of what being an actual uber driver would be. I think more of these game scenarios should be created for career planning for High school students. It gives a person a good taste of what a day in the life would be like. Although this game isn’t very high tech it gave one the opportunity to make choices like how you would react to a customer in different scenarios, and how far you should drive, and when you should call it a day. Not surprisingly i didn’t call it a day often and ended up working many hours, thus reaching more then the goal amount. I had to try again in the harder version as well, and just as before i made choices that had me working lots of hours, i think 80 to be exact, so i made the bonus and reached the goal income. Uber is a new advancement and an example of the “Sharing Economy”. There are companies utilizing this theory in different ways such as peer to peer sharing. There are a few businesses also developed on this premise. Tradebank is another example, a business performs the work and then is paid in tradebank credits. The business then can use these credits to obtain services in something else available on tradebank.
Simulations are such a unique way to study policies, i would like to use simulations as a way to question Canadians about how they feel about climate change and use their choices as a way to inform upcoming policies. Young Canadians are more likely to complete such a questionnaire if able to do so by playing a game such as this. The kind of data you would need included in this questionnaire would be solutions people would be willing to try to improve the environment. Giving the user similar choices such as in the Uber game as to what time of car you would buy, what food you eat, what type of energy you use. All of these choices could be captured to help inform consumer where consumers are in their willingness to make such changes.
In class we tried a simulation tool called the Global Calculator which allowed people to make choices about how they were going to ensure the C02 emissions stayed under the 2% marker. Check it out as well as it is very information. http://tool.globalcalculator.org/globcalc.html?levers=22rfoe2e13be1111c2c2c1n31hfjdcef222hp233f211111fn2211111111/dashboard/en
The Many Facets of Public Admin 