AIFdb: Infrastructure for the Argument
WebJohn LAWRENCE, Floris BEX, Chris REED and Mark SNAITH
Argumentation Research Group, School of Computing, University of Dundee
Abstract. . . .
Keywords.

1. Introduction
The Argument Web [3] is a vision for a large-scale Web of inter-connected arguments posted by individuals on the World Wide Web in a structured manner.
As such it is necessary to provide a service which not only allows for the storage
and retrieval of this structured argument data, but is compatible with the widest
possible range of currently existing argumentation software and provides a stableand flexible platform around which future software can be developed.
AIFdb is a database implementation of AIF, allowing for the storage andretrieval of AIF compliant argument structures. AIFdb offers a wide range of web
service interfaces for interacting with stored argument data, as well as offering its
own search and argument visualisation features.

2. Interacting with AIFdb
At the lowest level, AIFdb’s web services allow for the insertion and queryingof the basic components of an AIF argument such as nodes, edges and schemes.
These components are represented by tables in the database as can be seen inFigure 1.
Building upon these lower level interactions, AIFdb also offers a ‘middle layer’of web services which group these simple queries to allow more complex interactions to be easily performed. For example it is possible, with a single query, todetermine all of the statements made by a particular person in support of a given
I-Node.
At the highest level of interaction, AIFdb supports modules handling theimport and export of numerous formats such as SVG, DOT, RDF-XML and theformats of the Carneades [1], Rationale [6] and Araucaria [4] tools.

Figure 1. AIFdb Diagram

3. Conclusion
By providing a database solution for the Argument Web, AIFdb makes it possible
to, for example, manipulate some of the 2,000 or so argument resources in theargument web in Carneades, and visualize the result in Rationale; it is possible
to ‘argublog’ [5] in response to arguments analysed in Araucaria, and computethe acceptability of the result using ASPIC+ [2]. The barriers between domainsof argumentation (legal and medical, for example) are being broken down aseffectively as the barrier between systems and theories of argumentation, and asthese barriers come down, a foundation is laid for realising the vision of an open,
integrated Argument Web.

References[1]F. Bex, T. Gordon, J. Lawrence, and C. Reed. Interchanging arguments between carneades
and aif – theory and practice. Submitted to COMMA 2012.
[2] F. Bex, S. Modgil, H. Prakken, and C. Reed. On logical reifications of the argument
interchange format. Journal of Logic and Computation, to appear 2012.
[3] I. Rahwan, F. Zablith, and C. Reed. Laying the foundations for a world wide argumentweb. Artificial Intelligence, 171(10-15):897–921, 2007.
[4] C. Reed and G. Rowe. Araucaria: Software for argument analysis, diagramming and representation. International Journal of AI Tools, 14(3-4):961–980, 2004.
[5] M. Snaith, F. Bex, J. Lawrence, and C. Reed. Implementing argublogging. Submitted toCOMMA 2012 demonstration track.
[6] T. Van Gelder. The rationale for rationale. Law, probability and risk, 6(1-4):23–42, 2007.