Unleashing Argumentation Support Systems on the Web: The case of CoPe_it!

Abstract

Argumentation support systems have a long history. Generally speaking, they offer sophisticated support for sense- and/or decision-making, and have been proven effective in addressing a wide range of concerns in various domains, such as engineering, law and medicine. In the majority of cases, these systems have largely remained within the communities in which they originated, thus failing to reach a wider audience. When investigating how the advent of the World Wide Web affected them, the results are rather disappointing: only Web-based discussion forums, with rather primitive support when compared to argumentation support systems, have successfully migrated to the Web. One key factor contributing to the wide adoption of these forums is their emphasis on simplicity. On the other hand, the formal nature of sophisticated argumentation systems has been pointed out as an important barrier to their wide adoption, and as one factor that hinders them to make the step towards the World Wide Web. The new landscape of the Web, as shaped by the so called Web 2.0 move, is considered as a rather hostile environment for traditional argumentation systems. In this new environment, users are moving away from formal systems that prescribe their interactions, and favor applications that place the control of the formalization process in their hands. Nevertheless, attempts to bring advanced argumentation support systems into this new Web environment have already begun to appear [Buckingham Shum, 2008]. In this paper, we use the Walker’s concepts of ‘domesticated’ and ‘feral’ technology [Walker, 2005] to describe the current contradicting environments in which applications must operate, and present how CoPe_it!, an innovative tool that supports argumentative collaboration on the Web, attempts to bridge this gap in the context of argumentation support systems. We show among others how CoPe_it! exploits interlinked data and the Semantic Web in order to bring them into argumentative discourses in ways that are suitable for the user’s needs. The overall aim is to equip the Web with more powerful discussion tools, with which the complex problems of our society can be better addressed.