PrintThe USIP Open Simulation Platform (USIP OSP)
Participating Organizations
Project Chairs
The field of "war-fighting" games is well advanced. The field of "peacebuilding" games is just beginning. To help leverage technology better, and to make simulation training easily accessible to all educators and trainers, USIP has created the Open Simulation Platform (OSP).
The USIP OSP guides teachers and trainers through a process to develop realistic and meaningful simulations. The experience is enhanced when people who have been in conflicts, or worked in conflict environments contribute. Participants understand and "experience" drivers of conflict and conflict conditions. They can then work constructively and creatively towards true solutions.
The USIP OSP has been used to deliver the powerful capstone exercise in the USIP Academy course 'Leading Adaptive Teams in Conflict Environment' since May 2009. Students are placed in a field office in Afghanistan where they feel tensions between their headquarters and local demands. Online education simulations using the USIP OSP are currently being developed by the The Bishop's School, and Prison Fellowship International. Students at George Washington University are creating and conducting simulations with their classmates in their Theory of Peacebuilding course. USIP is also developing its own internal library of simulations to marry more content with the USIP OSP tool.
The USIP OSP is the fruit of a multi-year, multi-department effort. Project funding has been received from both the International and Domestic sides of the Education and Training Center (ETC/I and ETC/D) and the Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations (PPSO), and additional support for design and development was provided by the USIP's Center of Innovation in Science, Technology and Peacebuilding. Due to its nature as an open source project, it also leverages an enormous amount of free software contributed by open source programmers from around the globe. The publicly available software itself is kept on Google's Open Source repository.
It is clear that open source software is not just a fad, and that open standards pave the way for progress. The USIP OSP, while already a powerful tool, will be further developed to add value to strategic simulation experiences. Plug-in development, reality module plugins, and artificial intelligence are all being considered for incorporation. As the USIP OSP community grows, all are welcome to help contribute to its design, development and documentation.
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