This project is not really a map. It is an agent based social network model that was built in 2000 for doctoral research conducted by Klaus Auer. There are spatial components to the model, nevertheless. The blue and red agents–trekking and adventure sports guides in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru–move about on the lattice view and “discover” the green and yellow tourist groups in need of services. Over the course of time tourist groups are discovered, resources in terms of donkeys and gear are bought or borrowed, and contracts are completed. How the “agents” choose to cooperate with other agents in terms of lending and borrowing gear or donkeys tends to determine wealth outcomes. In many model runs, positive cooperation led to greater wealth accumulation.

The model was built as an addition to the Brookings Institution java based framework called Ascape (now hosted at sourceforge), a general framework for agent based models. While the output above looks impressive (especially for 2000), the entire GUI for data visualization, the model settings, and the lattice view are all part of the Ascape framework.

If you are curious about this work, Auer and Norris published the peer reviewed article “ArrierosAlife” a Multi-Agent Approach Simulating the Evolution of a Social System: Modeling the Emergence of Social Networks with “Ascape” in JASSS and you can download the original model (it should still run on most systems).