the study of computational sociology to be effective, there has to be valuable innovations. These innovation can be of the form of new data analytics tools, better models and algorithms. The advent of such innovation will be a boom for the scientific community in large. Impact on society One of the major challenges of computational sociology is the modelling of social processes . Various law and policy makers would be able to see efficient and effective paths to issue new guidelines and the mass in general would be able to evaluate and gain fair understanding of the options presented in front of them enabling an open and well balanced decision process. . See also Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation Artificial society Simulated reality Social simulation Agent-based social simulation Social complexity Computational economics Computational epidemiology Cliodynamics Predictive analytics References External links On-line book "Simulation for the Social Scientist" by Nigel Gilbert and Klaus G. Troitzsch, 1999, second edition 2005 Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation Agent based models for social networks, interactive java applets Sociology and Complexity Science Website Journals and academic publications Complexity Research Journal List, from UIUC, IL Related Research Groups, from UIUC, IL Associations, conferences and workshops North American Association for Computational Social and Organization Sciences ESSA: European Social Simulation Association Academic programs, departments and degrees University of Bristol "Mediapatterns" project Carnegie Mellon University, PhD program in Computation, Organizations and Society (COS) University of Chicago Certificate and MA in Computational Social Science George Mason University PhD program in CSS (Computational Social Sciences) MA program in Master's of Interdisciplinary Studies, CSS emphasis Portland State, PhD program in Systems Science Portland State, MS program in Systems Science University College Dublin, PhD Program in Complex Systems and Computational Social Science MSc in Social Data Analytics BSc in Computational Social Science UCLA, Minor in Human Complex Systems UCLA, Major in Computational & Systems Biology (including behavioral sciences) Univ. of Michigan, Minor in Complex Systems Systems Sciences Programs List, Portland State. List of other worldwide related programs. Centers and institutes North America Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. Center for Complex Systems Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA. Center for Social Complexity, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA. Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA. Center of the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,