Submissions are invited to the 7th International Workshop on
Computational Models of Natural Argument, to be held as part of the IJCAI 2007
workshop programme.
Important Dates
26 September 2006
Deadline long papers
10 October 2006
Deadline short papers and demos
23 October 2006
Notification
15 November 2006
Deadline camera ready versions
The series of workshops on Computational Models of Natural Argument is
continuing to attract high quality submissions from researchers around
the world. CMNA 1 was
held at ICCS in San Francisco in 2001, CMNA 2 was
held at ECAI in Lyon in 2002, CMNA
3 was held at IJCAI in Acapulco in 2003, CMNA 4 was
held at ECAI in Valencia in 2004, CMNA 5 was
held at IJCAI in Edinburgh in 2005, and CMNA 6 was
held at ECAI in Riva del Garda in 2006.
Like the past editions, CMNA-7 intends to recognise and consolidate
the critical mass that research in the field overlapping Argumentation
Theory and Artificial Intelligence has developed in recent years.
Potential for exploitation of research in the philosophical theory of
argumentation, in informal logic, and in dialectics, have been
recognised relatively recently by researchers in artificial
intelligence, but already fruits of such cross fertilisation are
beginning to ripen. Recent successes include agent system negotiation
protocols that demonstrate higher levels of sophistication and
robustness; argumentation-based models of evidential relations and
legal processes that are more expressive; models of language
generation that use rhetorical structures to produce effective
arguments; groupwork tools that use argument to structure interaction
and debate; computer-based learning tools that exploit monological and
dialogical argument structures in designing pedagogic environments;
decision support systems that build upon argumentation theoretic
models of deliberation to better integrate with human reasoning; and
models of knowledge engineering structured around core concepts of
argument to simplify knowledge elicitation and representation
problems. Furthermore, benefits have not been unilateral for AI, as
demonstrated by the increasing presence of AI scholars in classical
argumentation theory events and journals, and AI implementations of
argument finding application in both research and pedagogic practice
within philosophy and argumentation theory.
Areas of Interest The workshop focuses on the
issue of modelling "natural" argumentation. Naturalness may
involve the use of means which are more immediate than language to
illustrate a point, such as graphics or multimedia. Naturalness can
also relate to the preference for one particular style of reasoning as
opposed to another to structure complex arguments. Or to the use of
more sophisticated rhetorical devices, interacting at various layers
of abstraction. Or the exploitation of "extra-rational"
characteristics of the audience, taking into account emotions and
affective factors. In particular, contributions will be solicited
addressing, but not limited to, the following areas of interest:
- The characteristics of "natural" arguments: ontological aspects
and cognitive issues.
- The use of models from informal logic and argumentation theory,
and in particular, approaches to specific schools of thought
developed in informal logic and argumentation.
- Rhetoric and affect: the role of emotions, personalities,
etc. in models of argumentation.
- The roles of licentiousness and deceit and the ethical
implications of implemented systems demonstrating such features.
- The linguistic characteristics of natural argumentation,
including discourse markers, sentence format, referring
expressions, and style. Persuasive discourse processing
(discourse goals and structure, speaker/hearer models, content
selection, etc.). Language dependence and multilingual
approaches. Empirical work based on corpora looking at these
topics would be especially welcomed.
- Non-monotonic, defeasible and uncertain argumentation.
- Natural argumentation and media: visual arguments, multi-modal
arguments, spoken arguments.
- Models of argumentation in multi-agent systems inspired by or based
upon theories of human argument.
- Empirically driven models of argument in AI and Law.
- Evaluative arguments and their application in AI systems (such
as decision support and advice giving).
- Issues of domain specificity, and in particular, the
independence of argumentation techniques from the domain of
application.
- Applications of computer supported collaborative argumentation,
in realistic domains in which argument plays a key role, including
pedagogy, e-democracy and public debate.
- Applications of argumentation based systems, including, for
example, the pedagogical, health-related, political, and
promotional.
- Methods to better convey the structure of complex argument,
including representation and summarisation.
- Tools for interacting with structures of argument, including
visualisation tools and interfaces supporting natural, stylised
or formal dialogue.
- The building of computational resources such as online corpora
related to argumentation.
- early results from applications and
implementations of the ideas from earlier CMNA workshops.
Submission instructions
The workshop encourages submissions in three categories:
- Long papers, either reporting on completed work or offering a
polemic discussion on a burning issue (up to 6000 words)
- Short papers describing work in progress (up to 3000 words)
- Demonstration of implemented systems: submissions should be
accompanied by written reports (up to 3000 words). Authors should
contact the organisers to ensure suitable equipment is available.
Electronic submissions should be received by ALL of the organisers no later than 26 September 2006 for
long papers, and 10 October 2006 for short papers and
demonstration reports. Extended versions of selected papers
accepted to CMNA 1, CMNA 2 and CMNA 3 are to appear in a special
issue of the International Journal of Intelligent Systems. Similar
avenues will be explored for CMNA 4 and CMNA 5 and CMNA 6 and CMNA7.
Programme Committee (tbc)
Leila Amgoud, IRIT, France
Katie Atkinson, University of Liverpool, UK
Trevor Bench-Capon, University of Liverpool, UK
Ulises Cortes, UPC, Spain
Fiorella de Rosis, University of Bari, Italy
Tom Gordon, Fraunhofer FOKUS, Berlin, Germany
Nancy Green, University of North Carolina Greensboro, US
Helmut Horacek, University of the Saarland, Saarbrücken Germany
Anthony Hunter, University College London, UK
Peter McBurney, University of Liverpool, UK
David Moore, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK
Ephraim Nissan, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
Paul Piwek, Open University, UK
Henry Prakken, University of Utrecht and University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Oliviero Stock, ITC-IRST, Italy
Doug Walton, University of Winnipeg, Canada
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