Argumentation in Computer Media - Pittsburgh Interest Group
Newsletter - 5 March 1999 (updated 20 March 1999)

Contents:
1. Summary of 4 March 1999 meeting 
2. Next meeting - Wed., March 24 - 430-6 pm - Room 4603 Wean Hall
3. Meeting date/time preference survey
4. Distribution of newsletter, announcements
5. To be added to the mailing list

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1. Summary of 4 March 1999 meeting 

There were 7 participants, affiliated (currently or in the recent
past) with Pitt/LRDC (Education, ISP) and CMU (Computer Science,
Design, English, GSIA, HCII, and Psychology).  Five people
sent word that they would like to have come but couldn't make it.

Informal presentations were made on the participants' perspectives on 
argumentation based on their own research, including

* a physics tutoring system (this prompted discussion as to whether
        the argument was what the system produces, or what the 
        student is intended to construct, or the interaction between
        the two)
* human-human negotiation (prompting discussion on the goals of
        argumentation -- in the narrow sense, the goals are to persuade
        the addressee -- in a broader sense, the goals are exchanging
        information and producing knowledge)
* a human (design students) produced interactive multimedia argument
        for urban policy (prompting discussion on the non-linear organization
        of arguments afforded by computer media)
* academic discourse -- teaching CMU students how to analyze and
        construct written arguments (based on the Toulmin model), and
* computer-generated multimedia (text and information graphics)
        arguments whose purpose is to justify the computer's advice
        rather than to persuade the audience to do something; the
        arguments are loosely based on the Toulmin model and are
        grounded in the user's data.

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2. Next meeting

Date: Wednesday, March 24, 1999
Time: 430-6 pm
Location: 4603 Wean Hall
Agenda: Continue informal 5 minute presentations on members' research
and begin discussions on what these approaches to argumentation have
in common, if anything.  Is there a common notion of argumentation?

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3.  Date/time/preferences:

[Thanks to those who have already responded to this!]

I will try to take your preferences into consideration when scheduling
future meetings.  Please help me cope with the amount of email this
may generate by standardizing your reply as follows.  Please detach
the following questionnaire and return it to me by email (ascii only)
with your answers or you can give me this information in person at the
next meeting.  Thanks!

   ------- detach survey here ----------------------------------------

   To indicate your preferences for meeting times,
   please please mark the cells of this matrix as:
   very good (++), good (+), ok (-), bad (--), or other (leave blank).
   The vertical axis indicates day of the week and month, e.g.,
   "Tue Mar" means Tuesdays in March.  The horizontal axis 
   shows meeting time (p.m.).

               4-530  430-6  5-630  530-7
   Tue Mar 
   Wed Mar 
   Thu Mar 
   Tue Apr
   Wed Apr
   Thu Apr
   Tue May
   Wed May
   Thu May
  
   Miscellaneous comments on date/time:

   At a future meeting, I would like to volunteer to give a longer 
   presentation on:

   ---------- end of survey ----------------------------------------

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4. Distribution of newsletter, announcements

Feel free to forward this to colleagues who may be interested.  I have
discontinued sending news of the group to general-purpose local mailing
lists because of complaints that I received.

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5. To be added to the mailing list: 

If someone forwarded this to you and you would like to be added to the
mailing list please send your email address to me:
nancy.green@cs.cmu.edu