ICONS User Manual: Implementation Issues

Communication Procedures

Country-Team Roles
Team Organization
Decision-Making Procedures
Scenario
Position Papers
Communication
Foreign Language
Umpiring
Grade
Facilitation

A separate discussion of the procedures for using the ICONSnet system is available on-line at http://www.icons.umd.edu/help/. In this section, some of the general features of this system will be discussed, and some common problems examined.

All country-teams perform two main communication functions, reading new messages and sending messages. Students should choose "Read New Messages" to retrieve all messages and communiques that have accumulated for the country-team since the last time a team member signed on. This should be done by a designated team member on a regular basis, although all team members should be encouraged to log in and read messages at convenient times. Incoming messages are generally in English (from English speaking country-teams), although they may be in other languages, depending on the particular simulation. (Translations of foreign language messages are provided by language teams. See the Foreign Language section below for more information on translation procedures.)

Using the "Send" function, country-teams can send messages and communiques. The sender can specify the recipients, and must classify the message under at least one of the simulation issue areas. Several types of messages are sent by country-teams during the course of the simulation. These can roughly be classified as inter-country exchanges, communiques, and conferences.

Inter-country Exchanges: Inter-country exchanges are messages sent from one team to another, dealing with a topic of mutual interest. Such messages may be addressed to a single country (bilateral), to a number of countries (multilateral), or indeed to the entire set of countries in the exercise. Along with the normal diplomatic exchanges among the nations, draft treaties, international agreements, and the statements of positions can also be transmitted in this mode.

To illustrate this mode of communication, a recent ICONS simulation involving fourteen universities generated about 2,500 inter-country communications during a five-week period. Among the issues dealt with were global warming, the AIDS crisis, nuclear proliferation, and LDC development.

Communiques: Communiques are intended to serve as statements of official positions on the range of issues facing individual country-teams, and are sent to all participants. They can also be used by countries to publicize information they feel should be available to all countries for any number of reasons. Each country-team should issue at least two of these per week during the exercise.

Conferences: Face-to-face conferences are not possible in an ICONS simulation owing to the geographical constraints imposed by the variety of institutions participating. However, the ICONS system does facilitate real-time computer conferences to assure that each issue is thoroughly explored.

The system can support a real-time conference involving a number of participants from diverse locations. All will be signed on simultaneously, with messages (in English) immediately transmitted to all other members of the conference. Usually several conferences of a general nature are established before the start of an exercise and are listed in the scenario. In the past these conferences have included arms control, international trade, and human rights, among others. Other, more narrowly focused, conferences can be established as the exercise progresses and participants feel that there is a need for one. Such requests are submitted to SIMCON for approval. Such requests should specifically address why communications cannot be accomplished through the normal message flow. One such conference in a past simulation was a bilateral conference between Japan and Mexico to finalize the details of a trade agreement. The groundwork for such a conference would have been prepared through inter-country exchanges. Over the normal message system, discussion of the details of a trade agreement would have taken a great deal more time and was greatly facilitated by these simulated face-to-face negotiations.

Given the number of conferences in a simulation and the fact that these will usually not fall during your class time, it is probably not advisable to require students to attend all of the conferences. In general, it makes sense to require students to attend conferences on issues in which they are the team specialists, and maybe one or two others to foster sub-group communication. If a specialist cannot be present for a conference for which he or she has been conducting "regular mail" negotiations, he or she should be responsible for finding and briefing someone else on the team to adequately cover the conference.

Experience has shown that conference agendas are an integral part of the success of conferences. Without agendas for discussion in conferences, most sessions move very slowly and accomplish little. SIMCON provides detailed agendas for each pre-established conference at the beginning of the simulation. Additional topics and proposals will be added to the conference agendas as the simulation unfolds.