Future of Research Communication Perspectives Workshop, Schloss Dagstuhl, 15-18 August 2011 http://bit.ly/p8pRFD

1. Future of Research Communication
Perspectives Workshop, Schloss Dagstuhl, 15-18 August 2011
http://bit.ly/p8pRFD
Net-Centric Scholarly Discourse?
Simon Buckingham Shum
Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
http://people.kmi.open.ac.uk/sbs
twitter @sbskmi
1

2. “We may some day click off arguments on
a machine with the same assurance that we
now enter sales on a cash register.”
Vannevar Bush, 1945
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/3881
2

3. Launch of ScholOnto project, 2001:
the big question...
20xx?...
§ In 2010, will we still be publishing scientific results
primarily as prose papers, or will a complementary
infrastructure emerge that exploits the power of the
social, semantic web to model the literature as a
network of claims and arguments?
3

4. Questions the next generation scientific
infrastructure should help answer
“What is the evidence for this claim?”
“Was this prediction accurate?”
“What are the conceptual foundations for this idea?”
“Who’s built on this idea?”
“Who’s challenged this idea, and using what kind of argument?”
“Are there distinctive perspectives on this problem?”
“Are there inconsistencies within this school of thought?”
4

5. so we want to
change the system
- so let’s think systems -
Longer version in a talk at PARC: http://olnet.org/node/582
5

6. 1665 throws a long shadow
Beyond richly expressive, but To network-native, computationally
passive, prose documents... tractable models and services…
Le Journal des Sçavans Philosophical Transactions Chaomei Chen, 2006:
January 1665 of the Royal Society of Citation network visualization
London, March 1665
Buckingham Shum, S. (2007). Digital Research Discourse? Computational Thinking Seminar Series, School of Informatics, 6
University of Edinburgh, 25 Apr. 2007. http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/hyperdiscourse/docs/Simon-Edin-CompThink.pdf

7. A community of enquiry – inc. but not
ltd to scientists – is a complex adaptive
system
7

8. A community of enquiry – inc. but not
ltd to scientists – is a complex adaptive
system
8

9. A community of enquiry – inc. but not
ltd to scientists – is a complex adaptive
system
9

10. How do we augment this system’s capacity to
sense, respond to, and shape its
environment?
§ Through the lens of complex
adaptive systems, resilience and
network science...
§ Through the lens of
sensemaking and HCI...
10

11. How do we augment this system’s capacity to
sense, respond to, and shape its
environment?
§ Through the lens of complex adaptive systems,
resilience and network science...
§ many interacting agents (human and software)
§ many weak signals that can build up unexpectedly
§ diversity and redundancy
§ feedback loops
§ visual analytics to reveal emergent patterns and
network properties
§ ability to withstand change and shock to the system
11

12. Resilience
§ Walker, et al. (2004) define resilience as
“the capacity of a system to absorb
disturbance and reorganize while
undergoing change, so as to still
retain essentially the same
function, structure, identity, and
feedbacks”
12

13. Resilience in knowledge-intensive
ecosystems
When knowledge and understanding are
key variables in the system, resilience
depends on the capacity for learning
e.g. awareness of discrepant evidence,
critical practice, reflection and dialogue
when confronted by challenges or shocks
to the system.
13

14. How do we augment this system’s capacity to
sense, respond to, and shape its
environment?
§ Through the lens of
sensemaking and HCI...
§ many plausible narratives: what
was, is, or might be going on?... • cri
tical t
§ many representational artifacts • arg hinkin
being shared and annotated ument g
• rhe ation
§ attention to the quality of torica
conversation: how well are • ass l mov
agents listening to each other umpti es
and what kinds of contributions
• ana ons
logica
do they make? • ca u l thin
§ informal interaction mixed with sality king
• jux
stronger public claims taposi
§ many connections being made, • “ki tions
nda r
both explicit/implicit, formal and elated
fuzzy ...” 14

15. Sensemaking: the search for plausible,
narrative connections
§ In their review of sensemaking, Klein, et al.
conclude:
§ “Sensemaking is a motivated, continuous
effort to understand connections (which
can be among people, places, and events)
in order to anticipate their trajectories and
act effectively.”
15

16. Sensemaking
Karl Weick:
§ “Sensemaking is about such things as
placement of items into frameworks,
comprehending, redressing surprise,
constructing meaning, interacting in pursuit
of mutual understanding, and
patterning.” (Weick, [23], p.6)
16

17. Sensemaking
Karl Weick:
§ “The point we want to make here is that
sensemaking is about plausibility,
coherence, and reasonableness.
Sensemaking is about accounts that are
socially acceptable and credible” ([23] p.61)
17

18. (contested) collective intelligence...
discourse is how we construct meaning
there is no master worldview
we need CI infrastructures to pool
awareness of how people are reading the
signals, and amplify important
connections
18

19. Where our tools fit… Given a wealth of
documents…
19

20. ...and tools to detect and render potentially
significant patterns…
20

21. ...and tools to detect and render potentially
significant patterns…
21

22. ...we need ways to make meaningful
connections between information
elements…
22

23. ...we need ways to make meaningful
connections between information
elements…
interpretation
interpretation
interpretation
interpretation
23

24. ...we need ways to make meaningful
connections between information
elements…
interpretation
interpretation interpretation
(a hunch – no
grounding
evidence yet)
interpretation interpretation
interpretation
24

25. ...we need ways to make meaningful
connections between information
elements…
interpretation
Is pre-requisite for
interpretation interpretation
(a hunch – no
grounding
evidence yet)
causes predicts
interpretation interpretation
interpretation
25

26. ...we need ways to make meaningful
connections between information
elements…
interpretation
Is pre-requisite for
prevents
interpretation interpretation
(a hunch – no
grounding Is inconsistent with
evidence yet)
causes predicts
challenges
interpretation interpretation
interpretation
26

27. ...we need ways to make meaningful
connections between information
elements… Question
responds to
motivates
Answer
Assumption
supports challenges
Supporting Challenging
Argument…
Argument…
27

28. ...we need ways to make meaningful
connections between information
elements… Question
responds to
motivates
Answer
Hunch
supports challenges
Supporting Challenging
Argument…
Argument…
28

29. ...we need ways to make meaningful
connections between information
elements… Question
responds to
motivates
Answer
Data
supports challenges
Supporting Challenging
Argument…
Argument…
29

30. empirical studies
of users motivate
user interface
concepts
30

31. Interaction design for literature
visualization: pilot study: paper-based literature modelling
Buckingham Shum, S.J., Uren, V., Li, G., Sereno, B. and Mancini, C. (2007). Modelling Naturalistic Argumentation in Research
Literatures: Representation and Interaction Design Issues. International Journal of Intelligent Systems, (Special Issue on 31
Computational Models of Natural Argument, Eds: C. Reed and F. Grasso, 22, (1), pp.17-47. ePrint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/6463

32. Interaction design for lit. visualization
From paper prototype to semiformal mapping tool
§ The ClaiMapper tool
Starting from paper-based modelling,
move from literature sketches…
…to formal argument maps
Buckingham Shum, S.J., Uren, V., Li, G., Sereno, B. and Mancini, C. (2007). Modelling Naturalistic Argumentation in Research
Literatures: Representation and Interaction Design Issues. International Journal of Intelligent Systems, (Special Issue on 32
Computational Models of Natural Argument, Eds: C. Reed and F. Grasso, 22, (1), pp.17-47. ePrint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/6463

33. Interaction design for doc. annotation
Pilot study: paper-based annotation
Pilot study reported in: B. Sereno, S. Buckingham Shum, and E. Motta. (2005). ClaimSpotter: an Environment to Support 33
Sensemaking with Knowledge Triples. Proc. Int. Conf. Intelligent User Interfaces, pages 199–206, ACM

34. The ClaimSpotter annotation tool
§ Web 2.0-style tagging with optional community/system tag
recommendations
Sereno, B., Buckingham Shum, S. and Motta, E. (2007). Formalization, User Strategy and Interaction Design:
Users’ Behaviour with Discourse Tagging Semantics. Workshop on Social and Collaborative Construction 34
of
Structured Knowledge, 16th Int. World Wide Web Conference, Banff, Canada; 8-12 May 2007.

35. baby examples
35

36. A scholarly hypertext wins Best Paper
Award at ACM Hypertext 2004!
36

37. Mapping a nuclear power debate on a blog

38. Mapping a nuclear power debate on a blog

39. Mapping a nuclear power debate on a blog

40. from small single-user
hypertext maps
to collaborative web
infrastructure?
40

41. Growing number of tools for structured
deliberation and mapping arguments
Online Deliberation: Emerging Tools Workshop
Online Deliberation 2010, Leeds UK
www.olnet.org/odet2010
ESSENCE: E-Science, Sensemaking & Climate Change
ESSENCE 2009 workshop, KMI, Open University
http://events.kmi.open.ac.uk/essence
41

42. example services
demos later...
42

43. Cohere visualization of semantic annotations on publications
‘Learner autonomy emerging as a hub node in the literature analysis...
“‘Learner autonomy’ represents a
variety of overlapping and
effective learning practices, and
implies the learner can give
meaning to learning and create
new learning tools”
Webcast and Cohere demo: Mapping the Deeper Learning Literature with Cohere: Helen Jelfs, Simon Buckingham Shum, Anna
De Liddo, Open University Seminar: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5618 43

44. ClaiMaker: a concept demonstrator (2004)
Modelling the philosophy of AI Turing debate
Buckingham Shum, S.J., Uren, V., Li, G., Sereno, B. and Mancini, C.
(2007). Modelling Naturalistic Argumentation in Research
Literatures: Representation and Interaction Design Issues.
International Journal of Intelligent Systems, (Special Issue on
8.15
Computational Models of Natural Argument, Eds: C. Reed and F.
Grasso, 22, (1), pp.17-47. ePrint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/6463

45. New forms of “Impact Analytics”?
Tracking the kinds of contributions a researcher
makes, e.g. acting as a broker, connecting the
ideas of peers or separate communities
De Liddo, A., Buckingham Shum, S., Quinto, I., Bachler, M. and Cannavacciuolo, L.(2011). Discourse-Centric Learning
Analytics. Proc. 1st Int. Conf. Learning Analytics & Knowledge. Feb. 27-Mar 1, 2011, Banff. http://oro.open.ac.uk/25829

46. “What is the lineage of this idea?”
Buckingham Shum, S.J., Uren, V., Li, G., Sereno, B. and Mancini, C.
(2007). Modelling Naturalistic Argumentation in Research
Literatures: Representation and Interaction Design Issues.
International Journal of Intelligent Systems, (Special Issue on
Computational Models of Natural Argument, Eds: C. Reed and F.
46
Grasso, 22, (1), pp.17-47. ePrint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/6463

47. OpenEd Evidence Hub: ci.olnet.org
47

48. OpenEd Evidence Hub: ci.olnet.org
48

49. Phone alert: the weight of challenging
evidence on Issue X has grown...
http://debategraph.org/details.aspx?nid=113433&lan=EN&nf=1
49

50. — web annotation of OER (Firefox
extension)

51. Human+machine discourse annotation
(work with Ágnes Sándor, Xerox)
Ágnes Sándor & OLnet Project:
51
http://olnet.org/node/512

52. Discourse analysis with Xerox Incremental Parser
Detection of salient sentences based on rhetorical markers:
BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE: NOVELTY: OPEN QUESTION:
Recent studies indicate … ... new insights provide direct … little is known …
evidence ... … role … has been elusive
… the previously proposed …
... we suggest a new ... approach ...Current data is insufficient …
… is universally accepted ...
... results define a novel role ...
CONRASTING IDEAS: SIGNIFICANCE: SUMMARIZING:
… unorthodox view resolves … studies ... have provided The goal of this study ...
paradoxes … important advances Here, we show ...
In contrast with previous Knowledge ... is crucial for ... Altogether, our results ...
hypotheses ... understanding indicate
... inconsistent with past valuable information ... from
findings ... studies
GENERALIZING: SURPRISE:
... emerging as a promising We have recently observed ...
approach surprisingly
Our understanding ... has grown We have identified ... unusual Ágnes Sándor & OLnet Project:
http://olnet.org/node/512
exponentially ... The recent discovery ... suggests
... growing recognition of the intriguing roles
importance ...

53. Distributed annotation platforms
(Cohere+Utopia PDF demo: thanks to Steve Pettifer, U. Manchester)
53

54. A community of enquiry – inc. but not
ltd to scientists – is a complex adaptive
system
54

55. Envisioning the shifts that will take
place...
55

56. http://projects.kmi.open.ac.uk/hyperdiscourse
Compendium Institute
56