December, 2008
On Monday, December 17th, 2007, many of the IFs team gathered at the home of Barry and Janet to discuss progress with the modeling platform, as well as enjoy some good (and adequately spicy) Thai food. It was so spicy that one of the team members lodged a flake of red chili in his eye and the bathroom sink had to be turned into a makeshift eye-wash.
We began by listening to Julius talk about his trip to Africa. On this trip, he participated in a number of conferences that were dedicated to offering policy makers tools that could help them in planning for the future. He explained how the presentations proceeded and elaborated on the relative benefits of the IFs system.
We then discussed the Education Volume, which should be coming out in a rough form by the middle of next year. We heard from Mohamood and Janet about their struggles in forecasting secondary education numbers. Bethany explained the template that she used for gathering information to form a literature review.
The Health Volume was next on the agenda. We here heard from Cecilia and Kia about their progress regarding the creation of the health sub-model, as well as the difficulty involved in forecasting and comparing different health systems. Interestingly, there is little robust health forecasts available.
We then went around the table talking about different projects that are ongoing regarding IFs. Marc discussed his scenario mapping of peak oil. Ifran, who is studying computer science, explained how he was making the mapping GUI used by IFs more granulated. Finally, Edinson talked about gathering data for use in the project to make countries regionally accessible.
After this, we all gathered for food, drink and discussion.
