Argumentation Markup

Argumentation Community Group,
Math Working Group,
Semantic Web Interest Group,

Hello. I would like to share some new ideas for discussion.

HTML and MathML content could be wrapped in new markup elements (e.g. <fact> or <claim>) or could be adorned with new attributes (e.g. meta) to provide the means for automated reasoning technologies and/or users to traverse to metadata, provenance, mathematical proof, or argumentation about the contained HTML and MathML content.

These preliminary ideas are available online (https://www.w3.org/community/argumentation/wiki/Argumentation_Markup) and are also indicated below.

URI-addressable Facts and Claims

Some preliminary ideas for representing URI-addressable facts or claims in HTML documents include:
1.    new markup elements (e.g. <fact id="..."> or <claim id="...">)
2.    text fragments (https://wicg.github.io/scroll-to-text-fragment/)
3.    standardized class<https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#classes> names (e.g. <span id="..." class="w3c-fact">)
4.    the role<https://www.w3.org/TR/role-attribute/> attribute (e.g. <span id="..." role="fact">)
5.    custom elements (e.g. <fact-span id="...">)
6.    Web schema (see: http://schema.org<http://schema.org/>)
7.    RDFa or similar technologies
8.    embedding semantics in HTML documents via <script> elements to indicate which URI-addressable document elements are facts or claims
New Markup Elements

With new markup for facts or claims (e.g. <fact id="..."> or <claim id="...">), an “argument Web” could be composed where URI-addressable facts and claims in HTML documents could each reference their supporting and/or opposing argumentation, such argumentation referencing other facts or claims by URI.

<fact id="..." href="...">HTML and MathML content</fact>

<claim id="..." href="...">HTML and MathML content</claim>

In the above example, the href attribute is for referencing a resource which could include metadata, provenance data, mathematical proof, or argumentation supporting and/or opposing the fact or claim. The referenced resource could be text, XML, HTML, RDF, AIF, or another format.

Scenario: Inline Argumentation

For scenarios where it is desired to include metadata, provenance data, mathematical proof, or argumentation in the same HTML document which contains a fact or claim, one can use <script> elements with ID’s to provide inline resources.

<html>

  <head>

    <script id="inline-proof-123" type="...">...</script>

  </head>

  <body>

    <fact id="fact-123" href="#inline-proof-123">HTML and MathML content</fact>

  </body>

</html>

The content in such <script> elements can refer to URI-addressable facts or claims in containing documents as well as in other documents or resources.

A New Attribute

Understanding the meaning of the href attribute on a <fact> or <claim> element, we could rename that href attribute to, for example, meta which would mean that it could adorn existing HTML elements.

<html>

  <head>

    <script id="inline-proof-123" type="...">...</script>

    <script id="inline-proof-124" type="...">...</script>

  </head>

  <body>

    <span id="fact-123" role="fact" meta="#inline-proof-123">HTML and MathML content</span>

    <div id="fact-124" role="fact" meta="#inline-proof-124">HTML and MathML content</div>

  </body>

</html>

A New Format for Metadata, Provenance, Mathematical Proof, and Argumentation

A new format, model, or ontology could be of use for the machine-utilizable resources referenced by URI-addressable facts or claims, resources containing metadata, provenance, mathematical proof, or argumentation.

<html>

  <head>

    <script id="inline-proof-123" type="application/new-format">...</script>

    <script id="inline-proof-124" type="application/new-format">...</script>

  </head>

  <body>

    <span id="fact-123" role="fact" meta="#inline-proof-123">HTML and MathML content</span>

    <div id="fact-124" role="fact" meta="#inline-proof-124">HTML and MathML content</div>

    <span id="fact-125" role="fact" meta="https://www.example.org/automated-reasoning.php?fact=125">HTML and MathML content</span>

  </body>

</html>

Embedding Metadata, Provenance, Mathematical Proof, and Argumentation in HTML Documents

Alternatively, resources could be (X)HTML and contain structured data for metadata, provenance, mathematical proof, or argumentation about a fact or claim. In this scenario, in addition to being machine-utilizable, resources would be human-readable.

<html>

  <body>

    <span id="fact-123" role="fact" meta="https://www.example.org/automated-reasoning/123.xhtml">HTML and MathML content</span>

    <div id="fact-124" role="fact" meta="https://www.example.org/automated-reasoning/124.xhtml">HTML and MathML content</div>

    <span id="fact-125" role="fact" meta="https://www.example.org/automated-reasoning/125.xhtml">HTML and MathML content</span>

  </body>

</html>

The Link Element

For (X)HTML documents which are about a URI-addressable fact or claim, e.g. containing metadata, provenance, mathematical proof, or argumentation, we could use the <link> element, resembling:

<html>

  <head>

    <link rel="about" href="http://www.example.org/document.xhtml#fact-123" />

  </head>

  <body>

    ...

  </body>

</html>



Best regards,
Adam Sobieski
http://www.phoster.com/

Received on Wednesday, 13 January 2021 02:35:12 UTC