The 8th International Working Conference on the

Language-Action Perspective
on Communication Modelling
LAP 2003

Tilburg, The Netherlands,

July 1-2, 2003

Preceded by a one-day SIKS Master Class on Communication Modelling on June 30

Objectives

Information technology has radically changed in the past two decades with systems supporting communication now playing a pivotal role in the organization. Communication is the key to effective coordination of business processes, and therefore should be a central issue in systems design.

Since the 80's a new paradigm has evolved in the field of information systems which recognizes the importance of communication in an organisational context: the Language-Action Perspective (LAP). Two theories of communication have traditionally formed the theoretical foundations of LAP: Searle's Theory of Speech Acts and Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action. After the pioneering work of Winograd and Flores, a second wave of frameworks, models and systems emerged in the 90s. As diverse as these applications of LAP are, they all have in common the fundamental agreement that language is not only used for exchanging information as in reports, statements etc. but also to perform actions, e.g. promises, orders, declarations. The conventional perspective on information systems stresses the contents of messages rather than the way they are exchanged and the effects they have. In contrast, the Language-Action Perspective emphasises what people do by communicating, how language is used to create a common basis for communication partners, and how their activities are coordinated through language.

So far, 7 successful annual workshops on the Language/Action Perspective have been held in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Canada. To reflect the level of maturity the field has achieved, it seems appropriate to go beyond workshops and organize working conferences from now on.

Important dates

Submission of regular papers	4 April 2003
Submission of short papers	18 April 2003
Notification of acceptance	9 May 2003
Submission of final version	13 June 2003

Call for papers

We encourage submissions concerning all topics related to the Language-Action Perspective and communication modelling, including (but not limited to) the following:

E-Commerce
Communication diagnosis
Organisational Semiotics
Formal aspects
Theoretical underpinnings of LAP
Comparisons of LAP with other theories and approaches
Systems architectures, Enterprise Application Integration
Intelligent agents
Document Management
Process Modelling
Context Modelling
Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Negotiation Support
Practical experiences with LAP
Reassessment of LAP

Submissions can have the following form:

Full research papers should describe innovative and original research in any of the above or related topics. Submissions are limited to 15 pages, single-spaced.
Short papers should address academic or industrial approaches, including work in progress, related to the conference theme. Submissions are limited to 5 pages, single-spaced.

Submissions should be sent electronically in RTF or PDF format to weigand@uvt.nl.

Technical enquiries can be addressed to Hans Weigand (weigand@uvt.nl) or Aldo de Moor (ademoor@uvt.nl>, organizational questions to Alice Kloosterhuis (A.M.Kloosterhuis@uvt.nl)

For more information on previous LAP events, see: LAP2001

Organization

General chair: Aldo de Moor (Tilburg University)
Program chairs: Hans Weigand (Tilburg University), Goran Goldkuhl (Linkoping University)
Local organization: Alice Kloosterhuis (Tilburg University)

Program Committee

Jens Allwood - Sweden
Peter Boegh Andersen - Denmark
Jan Dietz - The Netherlands
Joaquim Filipe - Portugal
Goran Goldkuhl - Sweden
Steven Kimbrough - USA
Heinz Klein - USA
Mikael Lind - Sweden
Jan Ljungberg - Sweden
Kalle Lyytinen - Finland
Aldo de Moor - The Netherlands
Wolfgang Prinz - Germany
Erik Proper - The Netherlands
Victor van Reijswoud - Uganda
Mareike Schoop - Germany
Carla Simone - Italy
Ronald Stamper - UK
Yao-Hua Tan - The Netherlands
James Taylor - Canada
Dov Te'eni - Israel
Hans Weigand - The Netherlands
Guy Widdershoven - The Netherlands
Carson Woo - Canada