As new users begin to slowly experiment with iSimulate, we would like to emphasize some of the collaborative aspects of the system.

By default, all iSimulate users are subscribed to an open community called “Public”. The idea of this Public group is to have a community that represents the collaborative intelligence of all iSimulate users. We hope that the Public group grows into a rich repository of economic intelligence and the latest data.

So if you are an economist using some of the data for your own experiments, please remember to give something back to the community. It could be small things like minor data corrections or a blog post about your work.

Or if you are a statistician with access to data releases, it would help if you would incorporate the data updates into iSimulate so as to reach out globally in an innovative manner.

Or if you are just an everyday economist at heart, email us your comments on improving iSimulate – be it suggestions for newer models or ideas for new system functionality. We’d also love to hear if you would like to assist with this initiative in any way.

So as a user on iSimulate, feel free to experiment with the data in the Public group – run simulations (Solve) and aggregations (Update) – and share your expertise with others.

And remember, it is important to run aggregations not only to keep the global models consistent, but also because it makes your contributions more visible. This in turn helps users build on each other’s individual expertise and makes iSimulate into a first-of-its-kind free collection of economic intelligence.

Gauresh Rajadhyaksha is the Project Coordinator for iSimulate @ World Bank