About

Hypermedia Discourse was a research programme that began in 1995 at the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute. It explored the intersection of theory and technology in Hypermedia and Discourse, an area found to be both powerful and intriguing.

The programme combined conceptual exploration with practical application, focusing on the co-evolution of digital media to enhance dialogue and debate. Researchers sought to understand and develop new digital tools that could support more effective communication and knowledge-sharing.

Theory

The research explored the conceptual foundations of Hypermedia Discourse from multiple perspectives, investigating expressive requirements for formal representations, emerging document genres, and the literacy and artistry developed through expert use of such media.

  • Hypermedia Discourse: The project developed new tools, literacies, and conceptual frameworks to support digital discourse.
  • Cinematic Hypertext: Led by Clara Mancini, the research established theoretical and empirical foundations for viewing hypertext as a cinematic medium, where media fragments were connected through discourse relations based on Cognitive Coherence Relations theory. This work later continued with Donia Scott.
  • Aesthetics & Ethics of Participatory Hypermedia Construction: Doctoral research by Al Selvin examined high-performance literacy in real-time, team-based sensemaking using hypermedia tools like Compendium. The study framed hypermedia construction through the lenses of aesthetics, ethics, and improvisation.
  • Narrative Storybases: Joanna Kwiat led research on narrative theories as the foundation for a flexible story metadata scheme. This was evaluated in the Storymaking Project, which built a web-based story database for knowledge sharing and annotation among health professionals.
  • Scholarly Hypertext: The project questioned the assumption that serious writing must be linear. While traditional education emphasized linear prose, the research explored how scholarly hypertexts could use interactivity and non-linearity to enhance argumentation and thesis communication.

Overall, the work advanced understanding of hypermedia as a dynamic, expressive medium for discourse, storytelling, and scholarly communication.

Applications

The project focused on the practical applications of digital tools in managing complex connections between information, ideas, and arguments. Several key themes guided this work:

  • Design Rationale & Meeting Capture: The team led research in Argumentation-Based Design Rationale, modeling design deliberations as networks of issues, options, and arguments. This expanded to include the capture and indexing of audio-visual meeting records.
  • e-Learning & Open Educational Resources: The research supported the Open University’s mission to engage students across time and space. Work on hypermedia discourse representations helped create knowledge maps for reflection, with a focus on sensemaking and collaboration tools for self-organizing student and educator communities.
  • Emergency Search and Rescue: The Compendium tool enabled real-time mapping of team deliberations, aiding in managing information, competing interpretations, and decision-making, particularly in time-sensitive scenarios like emergency rescue. This work intersected with e-Science projects, such as NASA missions and disaster response efforts.
  • e-Science: The research contributed to infrastructures for publishing, interpreting, and debating research findings online, from web-based peer review in e-journals to collaborative argumentation tools.
  • International Development: The team collaborated with partners to explore the potential of technology in supporting development initiatives in diverse contexts.
  • Participatory Urban Planning: Research, led by Anna De Liddo, investigated tools for project memory to support participatory urban planning and stakeholder engagement.
  • Pragmatic Web: The work contributed to new tools and frameworks emphasizing context in web-mediated meaning negotiation, aligning with emerging conceptions of the “Pragmatic Web.”
  • Professional Knowledge-Sharing via Storybases: Research led by Joanna Kwiat explored narrative theories for structuring a flexible story metadata scheme, applied in a web story database for health professionals to share and annotate knowledge.
  • Public Discourse: The team applied research to improve the quality of public discussions on various topical issues.
  • Web Usability: Since the mid-1990s, the project addressed usability challenges in web design, bridging the gap between hypermedia usability research and web development.

Overall, the project advanced digital tools to enhance knowledge sharing, decision-making, and collaborative problem-solving across multiple domains.

Tools

The research explored several action research platforms and tools that integrated Web 2.0 principles with sensemaking, knowledge mapping, and digital discourse.

  • Cohere was developed as an action research platform to investigate the intersection of Web 2.0 and sensemaking support through concept and argument mapping. It aimed to facilitate connections between ideas, evolving from tag clouds to idea webs. It descended from the Scholarly Ontologies project, which had previously created ClaiMaker, ClaimFinder, and ClaimSpotter.
  • Compendium emerged as the most advanced action research platform supporting the Hypermedia Discourse approach. It enabled real-time knowledge construction in meetings and served as a personal information management and reflection tool. Freely available, it developed a growing community of practice and developers. It was later integrated with the Moodle virtual learning environment as part of LabSpace.
  • Memetic extended Compendium’s meeting capture capabilities by integrating it with the Access Grid video conferencing system. This allowed for semantically indexed meeting replays, enabling users to jump directly to moments when a particular argument was made, a document was opened, or an agenda item was discussed.
  • Digital Document Discourse Environment (D3E) demonstrated the Hypermedia Discourse approach in a more traditional manner, applying it to static prose documents and threaded discussions rather than the semantic discourse networks of Compendium and ClaiMaker. D3E was a toolkit that transformed static HTML documents into interactive discussion documents with rich navigational hyperlinks and integrated discussion forums.
  • D3E had been in use since 1996 at the Open University, where it supported the award-winning Journal of Interactive Media in Education (JiME). JiME pioneered conversational peer review, enabling multi-disciplinary authors and reviewers to engage in non-anonymous debate, with the most insightful discussions being co-published alongside final multimedia articles.
  • D3E was eventually released as open-source software, though it was no longer supported. A web-based ‘lite’ version, Ubiquitous-D3E, was developed, with a specialised version, D3Eprints, integrated into the University of Southampton’s ePrints Archive Server.

Through these platforms, the research advanced digital discourse, knowledge mapping, and collaborative sensemaking, offering tools that supported academic, professional, and open educational contexts.

Projects

The research spanned multiple projects exploring digital collaboration, sensemaking, and argumentation, often leveraging internet-based tools for various domains:

  • Relocating Choreographic Process (2007-09) developed tools and theoretical approaches for choreographic design and performance over the internet. It utilized video replay and annotation tools from Memetic, funded by the UK AHRC-EPSRC-JISC Arts and Humanities e-Science Initiative.
  • Open Sensemaking Communities (2006-08) focused on creating sensemaking and collaboration tools for self-organizing student and educator communities. It supported the Open University’s OpenLearn initiative, which published thousands of hours of OU distance learning resources for free use and remixing, funded by the US Hewlett Foundation.
  • GlobalArgument.net (2005–present) was a pilot project that investigated internet experiments for comparing different computer-supported argumentation methods to facilitate contemporary debates.
  • Memetic (2005-06), standing for Meeting Memory Technology Informing Collaboration, integrated CoAKTinG tools to support the annotation and replay of Access Grid internet video conferences. This project was funded by the UK JISC.
  • ECOSENSUS (2005-06) explored the sociotechnical challenges of developing collaboration tools for participatory environmental decision-making among marginalized natural resource users in Guyana. It was funded by the UK ESRC e-Social Science Programme.
  • Co-OPR (2004-05), or Collaborative Operations for Personnel Recovery, integrated CoAKTinG tools to provide real-time decision support for planning non-military recovery operations of hostages and isolated personnel in conflict zones. It was funded by US DARPA.
  • CoAKTinG (2002-04), or Collaborative Advanced Knowledge Technologies in the Grid, focused on collaboration semantics for e-science by building on AKT tools and expanding their capabilities. It was funded by the UK EPSRC and eScience Programme and was tested in NASA field trials.
  • ScholOnto (2001-04) envisioned a future where scholarly knowledge would not be limited to prose publications but also supported by internet-native infrastructures that enhanced the dissemination, debate, and analysis of ideas. It was funded by the UK EPSRC Distributed Information Management Programme.
  • AKT (2000-07), or Advanced Knowledge Technologies, became one of the world’s leading research groups in defining the Semantic Web, funded by the UK EPSRC.
  • Towards Designing Scholarly Documents for the Web (1998-99) analyzed and designed next-generation publication and peer review environments for electronic scholarly journals. It was funded by the British Council Anglo-French Alliance Programme.

These projects significantly contributed to digital collaboration, knowledge management, and scholarly communication, integrating cutting-edge technologies to enhance various academic and professional domains.

Team

Anna De Liddo

Rebecca Ferguson

Al Selvin

Jack Park

Michelle Bachler

Clara Mancini

Bertrand Sereno

Ale Okada

Neil Benn

Gangmin Li

Joanna Kwiat

Victoria Uren

Jeff Conklin

David Price

Tim van Gelder

Maarten Sierhuis

Ivana Quinto

Chuck Severance

Ágnes Sándor

Publications

Mancini, C., Scott, D. & Buckingham Shum, S., (2006) Visualising Discourse Coherence in Non-Linear Documents. Traitement Automatique des Langues, Vol.47, 1. [https://research-archive.stem.open.ac.uk/stemra-data/uploads/sites/90/2025/02/kmi-06-19.pdf]


Mancini, C. & Buckingham Shum, S., (2006) Modelling Discourse in Contested Domains: A Semiotic and Cognitive Framework. International Journal of Human Computer Studies, Vol.64, 11, (1154-1171). [https://research-archive.stem.open.ac.uk/stemra-data/uploads/sites/90/2025/02/kmi-06-14.pdf]


Mancini, C. & Buckingham Shum, S., (2004) Towards Cinematic Hypertext. 15th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia, Santa Cruz, CA, US.


Buckingham Shum, S., (2006) Hypermedia Support for Argumentation-Based Rationale: 15 Years on from gIBIS and QOC. In: (Eds.) A. Dutoit, et al. Rationale Management in Software Engineering, (pp.111-132), Springer-Verlag: Berlin.


Buckingham Shum, S., Slack, R., Daw, M., Juby, B., Rowley, A., Bachler, M., Mancini, C., Michaelides, D., Procter, R., Roure, D., D., Chown, T., Hewitt, a., T., (2006) Memetic: An Infrastructure for Meeting Memory. Proc. 7th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems, Carry-le-Rouet, France, 9-12 May. [https://research-archive.stem.open.ac.uk/stemra-data/uploads/sites/90/2025/02/KMI-TR-06-02.pdf]


Buckingham Shum, S., Daw, M., Slack, R., Juby, B., Rowley, A., Bachler, M., Mancini, C., Michaelides, D., Procter, R., De Roure, D., Chown, T., Hewitt, T., (2006) Memetic: From Meeting Memory to Virtual Ethnography & Distributed Video Analysis. 2nd International Conference on e-Social Science, Manchester (June 2006).


Hypermedia Support for Argumentation-Based Rationale: 15 Years on from gIBIS and QOC. HCI Group, Univ. York; Informatics Research Institute, Univ. Newcastle; UCL Interaction Centre, Nov/Dec. 2005.


The AKT e-Response Team (2007). The Application of Advanced Knowledge Technologies for Emergency Response. Proceedings of the 4th International ISCRAM Conference: Intelligent Human Computer Systems for Crisis Response and Management. (Ed: B. Van de Walle), Delft, The Netherlands, May 13-16 2007 [www.iscram.org]


Tate, A., Buckingham Shum, S., Dalton, J., Mancini, C. and Selvin, A. (2006) Co-OPR: Design and Evaluation of Collaborative Sensemaking and Planning Tools for Personnel Recovery, Technical Report KMI-06-07, Knowledge Media Institute, Open University, UK.


Okada, A. (2008, in press). Scaffolding School Pupils’ Scientific Argumentation with Evidence-Based Dialogue Maps. In: Okada, A., Buckingham Shum, S. & Sherborne, T. Knowledge Cartography: Software Tools and Mapping Techniques, London: Springer.


Buckingham Shum, S. (2005), From Open Content Repositories to Open Sensemaking CommunitiesConference on Open Educational Resources, Logan, Utah (Sept. 2005).  


Buckingham Shum, S. (2007). Digital Research Discourse? Computational Thinking Seminar Series, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, 25 Apr. 2007.


Buckingham Shum, S.J., Uren, V., Li, G., Sereno, B. and Mancini, C. (2007). Modelling Naturalistic Argumentation in Research Literatures: Representation and Interaction Design Issues. International Journal of Intelligent Systems, (Special Issue on Computational Models of Natural Argument, Eds: C. Reed and F. Grasso, 22, (1), pp.17-47. [PrePrint: https://research-archive.stem.open.ac.uk/stemra-data/uploads/sites/90/2025/02/kmi-04-28.pdf]


Sereno, B., Buckingham Shum, S. and Motta, E. (2007). Formalization, User Strategy and Interaction Design: Users’ Behaviour with Discourse Tagging Semantics. Workshop on Social and Collaborative Construction of Structured Knowledge, 16th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2007), Banff, AB, Canada; 8-12 May 2007.


Mancini, C. and Buckingham Shum, S.J. (2006). Modelling Discourse in Contested Domains: A Semiotic and Cognitive Framework. International Journal of Human Computer Studies, 64, (11), pp.1154-1171. [PrePrint: https://research-archive.stem.open.ac.uk/stemra-data/uploads/sites/90/2025/02/KMI-TR-06-14.pdf]


Uren, V., Buckingham Shum, S.J., Li, G. and Bachler, M. (2006) Sensemaking Tools for Understanding Research Literatures: Design, Implementation and User Evaluation. Int. Jnl. Human Computer Studies, 64, (5), pp.420-445.


Sereno, B., Buckingham Shum, S. and Motta, E. (2005) ClaimSpotter: an Environment to Support Sensemaking with Knowledge Triples. Proc. ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2005), San Diego, CA, USA. 9-12 January 2005, ACM Press: NY [PrePrint: https://research-archive.stem.open.ac.uk/stemra-data/uploads/sites/90/2025/02/kmi-04-29.pdf]


Benn, N., Buckingham Shum, S. and Domingue, J. (2005). Integrating Scholarly Argumentation, Texts and Community: Towards an Ontology and Services5th Workshop on Computational Models of Natural Argument, Nineteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 30 July 2005, Edinburgh [https://research-archive.stem.open.ac.uk/stemra-data/uploads/sites/90/2025/02/kmi-05-5.pdf]


Selvin, A.and Buckingham Shum, S.(2004). Facilitating Remote Science Teams, Mars Society Conference, Chicago, IL, August 2004


Uren, V., Buckingham Shum, S.J., , Li, G., Domingue, J., and Motta, E. (2003). Scholarly Publishing and Argument in Hyperspace. Proceedings 12th International Conference on the World Wide Web. Budapest, Hungary, pp: 244-250. [PrePrint: https://research-archive.stem.open.ac.uk/stemra-data/uploads/sites/90/2025/02/kmi-03-3.pdf]


15th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia, Santa Cruz, CA, USA, 2004. Short Paper introduction: pp. 26-27. ACM Press: NY [http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1012807.1012817]


15th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia, Santa Cruz, CA, USA, 2004. Short Paper introduction: pp. 114-115. ACM Press: NY [http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1012807.1012842]


Buckingham Shum, S. (2005), (Ed.): Scholarly Hypermedia: Special Issue, New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 11, (1), pp. 1-89.


Selvin, A., Buckingham Shum, S., (2005) Hypermedia as a Productivity Tool for Doctoral Research. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, Vol.11, 1, (91-101). [https://research-archive.stem.open.ac.uk/stemra-data/uploads/sites/90/2025/02/kmi-tr-05-8.pdf]


Buckingham Shum, S. (2007). Mapping Dialogue and Argumentation in International Development: The Case of Compendium and OpenLearn LabSpace. Workshop on User Centered Design and International Development, ACM Computer-Human Interaction Conference, (April 28, 2007, San Jose).


Knowledge/Argument/Dialogue Mapping and Social Software. Knowledge Management for Development (KM4Dev) Workshop, International Labour Organisation, Geneva, June 2005.


Kwiat, J. (2006). Realisation of the Resource Potential of Narrative and Narrative Collections via Multi-Perspective MarkupMedical Humanities Conference, Kings College London, UK (August 2006).


Selvin, A. (2005) Aesthetic and Ethical Implications of Participatory Hypermedia PracticeTechnical Report KMI-05-17, Knowledge Media Institute, Open University, UK.


Al Selvin (2004) Building Collaborative Knowledge Representations in Real Time: An Analysis of Facilitative Micro-ActionsWebcast Seminar, Knowledge Media Institute, Open University, UK, 5 October 2004.


De Liddo , A. and Buckingham Shum, S. (2010). Cohere: A Prototype for Contested Collective Intelligence. Workshop on Collective Intelligence in Organisations: Toward a Research AgendaACM Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2010), February 6-10, 2010, Savannah, Georgia, USA. Available as ePrint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/19554.


De Liddo, A. (2008). A Process Memory Platform to Support Participatory Planning and Deliberation. Doctoral Dissertation, Polytechnic of Bari, 19 September 2008. Technical Report KMI-08-07, Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, UK.


De Liddo A. (2008). A Collaborative-Project Memory for Participatory Planning, The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) and the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) 2008 Fourth Joint Congress, July 6 -11, Chicago, US.


De Liddo, A. and Buckingham Shum, S. (2008). Knowledge Media Tools for Capturing Deliberation in Participatory Spatial Planning. (DIAC-2008/OD2008) – Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing: Conference on Online Deliberation. June 26-29, 2008, University of California, Berkeley, CA.


De Liddo A., Concilio G. and Buckingham Shum S. (2007). Advancing Knowledge Management and Exchange between Collaborative Environments: A Tool Integration PerspectiveEC-TEL07 at the 2nd International Workshop on Building Technology Enhanced Learning solutions for Communities of Practice (TEL-CoPs), September 17, Crete, Greece.


De Liddo A. (2007). Capturing, Mapping and Integrating Argumentation as Project Memory in Participatory Urban Planning, Open University, Knowledge Media Institute, Internal Seminar: (21/03/07).


De Liddo, A. and Buckingham Shum, S. (2007). Capturing, Mapping and Integrating Argumentation as Project Memory in Participatory Urban PlanningWorkshop on Argumentation Support Systems for eParticipation, EU-IST DEMO-net Network of Excellence, March 5, 2007.


Buckingham Shum, S. (2007). Hypermedia Discourse: Contesting Networks of Ideas and Arguments. Keynote Address, 15th International Conference on Conceptual Structures, Sheffield, July 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 4604/2007, pp.29-44. Springer: Berlin.


Buckingham Shum, S. (2007). Hypermedia Discourse: Theory and Technology for the Pragmatic Web? Artificial Intelligence Centre Seminar, SRI International, Menlo Park, 5 May, 2007.


Buckingham Shum, S.J. (2006). Sensemaking on the Pragmatic Web: A Hypermedia Discourse PerspectiveProc. 1st International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, Stuttgart, 21-23 Sept.


Buckingham Shum, S. (2007). Undermining Mimetic Contagion on the Net: Argumentation Tools as Critical VoicesCOV&R 2007: Colloquium on Violence & Religion, Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit July, 4-8 2007.


Buckingham Shum, S. and McKnight, C. (1997). (Eds.) World Wide Web Usability: Special Issue, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 47, (1) 1-222. [Web Edition] [Elsevier]