3rd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web

"Innovating the Interactive Society"

29–30 Sept. 2008, Uppsala, Sweden
www.PragmaticWeb.info

In cooperation with ACM SIGWEB and the Scandinavian Chapter of the AIS (IRIS)

TRUST AND COMMITMENT: Whether we look at our geo-political and environmental context, work within and between organizations, or our local communities, there has never been a greater need for interaction and understanding across cultural, intellectual, and other boundaries. Whether the context is international policy, distributed teamwork, e-business, or community mobilization, fundamentally, people must build trust and commitment to common goals by talking and acting together.

What role does the Web have to play in these complex processes?

GET PRAGMATIC: The study of "pragmatics" is driven by an interest in action. It illuminates how it is that we manage to evolve mutual understanding and commitments in conversation. Central to this perspective is the understanding that the meaning of everything we say and do is contextual. When contexts change, meanings change in conversations, documents, and models of the world. This is something that we manage fluently in face-to-face conversation, but when working on the Web over space and time, tools must still support adaptation to new contexts. A focus on pragmatics draws attention to how communicative actions are performed via Web media.