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        2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web
                "Building Common Ground on the Web"

             22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg, The Netherlands

Keynote Speaker:
Wolfgang Prinz, Fraunhofer FIT and Aachen University, Germany

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 understanding across
cultural, intellectual, and other boundaries.

Whether the context is international policy, distributed teamwork, e-
business, or community mobilisation, 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.

Conference chairs:
Simon Buckingham Shum, The Open University, UK
Mikael Lind, University College of Borås, Sweden
Hans Weigand, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Registration is now open via the website, www.pragmaticweb.info