Open Analyzer

Many of our problems have no easy answers, indeed, any easy answer (and many people instinctively have easy answers to tough questions) is guaranteed to be wrong because it misses out on the many negative consequences of any single answer.

If we can define a network showing some of the conflicting inputs and outputs in such problems and see, live, how they interact, support and conflict, then maybe we can at least debate the issues with some intelligence and courtesy.

Many of the conflicts arise from different world views that prioretise different aspects of any problem. By comparing the outcomes that flow from these different world views we might better see how those world views deliver against their own criteria (often they are counter-productive) and against the criteria of others.

This version of the site has come a long way from its beginnings as "Wicked Networks" tackling "Wicked Problems". The Analyzer is far more capable than the early version and is now being applied to a wide range of problems, including Life Cycle Analysis Lite (LCA-Lite), a simpler but more transparent way to look at complex environmentla issues. Dr Lorie Hamelin of TBI/INSA, Toulouse, France is a world-class LCA expert and has been key to making Open Analyzer both more powerful and more user-friendly. Three of the examples are from our joint Keynote Lecture at the RRB-15 conference in Toulouse June 2019.

The aim is to ensure that anyone who can think clearly about a model can create or modify a model without the need for any coding skills. The only need is to be able to define Nodes with unique names with clear values and interconnections (Edges) connecting them. A simple Excel .csv format allows you to create these networks.