An open hypermedia-based issue-based information (HyperIBIS) architecture, with some very special properties, lies at the core of the CognitiveWeb. The HyperIBIS architecture extends the standard IBIS model to support inference about belief and expected utility within a formal argument model using an open hypertext architecture.

Traditional IBIS models provide a formal model of argument following the work of Toulmin for the United Nations in the 1950s. The HyperIBIS model extends this work by incorporating both an open hypermedia model, so that any addressable web resource may be interpreted as evidence in an argument, and by developing the notion of beliefs, assumptions, value judgements, and expected utility as an elaboration of the basic model developed by Toulmin.

Some background on Toulmin and IBIS is available from:

• The Toulmin Project Home Page, which is hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
• Resources for writers and teachers, which is hosted by Colorodo State University.
• Stephen Toulmin: An intellectual odessey by Marx W. Wartofsky (from Humanities, March/April 1997).
• The uses of argument by Toulmin, a reference on citeseer.
• Proposal for expressing IBIS graphs as RDF by Jack Park (not interoperable with the HyperIBIS model at this time).
• gIBIS: a hypertext tool for exploratory policy discussion by Jeff Conklin and Michael L. Begeman (a citation on the ACM portal).

Specification

The draft DTD for the REST-ful HyperIBIS architecture is located at:

http://www.cognitiveweb.org/xml/HyperIBIS.dtd.

The work on this specification is being performed in the CognitiveWeb Wiki at:

http://wiki.cognitiveweb.org/CognitiveWeb/AnnotatedHyperIbisDtd

A non-normative abstract model for the HyperIBIS architecture is available at:

http://www.cognitiveweb.org/technology/HyperIBIS/HyperIbisAbstractModel.pdf

Implementation

An open-source, REST-ful implementation is available for download as part of the CognitiveWeb services infrastructure.

License

The CognitiveWeb Open Source License.