Origins of IBIS

In their 1970 paper Issues as Elements of Information Systems, Kunz and Rittel introduced Issue-Based Information Systems (IBIS) as a collaborative problem identification and solving tool. The concept is based on processes of argument. The system is particularly useful when at the outset a problem is either poorly defined, and/or preconceptions of the nature of the problem lead to participants in the discussion taking adversarial roles. To avoid the polarisation that is common in debates, IBIS follows a procedure involving a decomposition of the problem. The key to the system is the idea of an issue, which is in effect a question. As the procedure takes place, particular kinds of knowledge artifacts are generated and recorded. Although finding a good solution to any given problem is by no means guaranteed, the process can reveal answers on which a concensus can be reached, or discover aspects of the problem to which other reasoning techniques may be applied.

The system is described in the original paper in terms of a model and algorithms, although at the time of writing the procedures were implemented largely by hand. Subsequent exploration and development lead to the implementation of gIBIS, a sophisticated, hypertext-based graphical tool for using the IBIS techniques by Conklin & Begeman. Later this led to the development of the commercial QuestMap tool, which has since been superceded by the Compendium product.

RDF Schema

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" 
         xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"
         xmlns:owl="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#" xmlns="http://purl.org/ibis#"
         xml:base="http://purl.org/ibis#">

<owl:Ontology rdf:about="http://purl.org/ibis">
    <rdfs:label>IBIS</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:comment>IBIS Dialogue Vocabulary</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Ontology>r>

<!-- Classes -->

<rdfs:Class rdf:ID="Idea">
    <rdfs:label>Idea</rdfs:label> 
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Resource" /> 
    <rdfs:comment>An idea</rdfs:comment>
    <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ibis" />
</rdfs:Class>

<rdfs:Class rdf:ID="Argument"> 
   <rdfs:label>Argument</rdfs:label> 
   <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="#Idea" /> 
   <rdfs:comment>An argument</rdfs:comment> 
   <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ibis" /> 
</rdfs:Class>

<rdfs:Class rdf:ID="Question">
    <rdfs:label>Question</rdfs:label> 
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="#Idea" /> 
    <rdfs:comment>A question</rdfs:comment> 
    <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ibis" /> 
</rdfs:Class>

<rdfs:Class rdf:ID="Decision"> 
    <rdfs:label>Decision</rdfs:label> 
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="#Idea" /> 
    <rdfs:comment>A decision</rdfs:comment> 
    <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ibis" /> 
</rdfs:Class>

<rdfs:Class rdf:ID="Reference"> 
    <rdfs:label>Reference</rdfs:label> 
    <rdfs:comment>A reference</rdfs:comment> 
    <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ibis" /> 
</rdfs:Class>

<rdfs:Class rdf:ID="Note"> 
    <rdfs:label>Note</rdfs:label> 
    <rdfs:comment>An annotation</rdfs:comment> 
    <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ibis" /> 
</rdfs:Class>

<rdfs:Class rdf:ID="Map"> 
    <rdfs:label>Map</rdfs:label> 
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="#Idea" /> 
    <rdfs:comment>A collection of Ideas</rdfs:comment>
    <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ibis" /> 
</rdfs:Class>


<!-- Properties -->

<rdf:Property rdf:ID="refersTo"> 
    <rdfs:label>refersTo</rdfs:label> 
    <rdfs:comment>Used to denote that an argument refers to a particular proposition</rdfs:comment> 
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Resource"/> 
    <rdfs:range rdf:resource="#Argument"/> <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ibis" /> 
</rdf:Property>

<rdf:Property rdf:ID="pro"> <rdfs:label>pro</rdfs:label> 
    <rdfs:comment>Used to denote that an argument supports a proposition</rdfs:comment>
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="#refersTo" /> 
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Resource"/> 
    <rdfs:range rdf:resource="#Argument"/> 
    <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ibis" /> 
</rdf:Property>

<rdf:Property rdf:ID="con"> 
    <rdfs:label>con</rdfs:label> 
    <rdfs:comment>Used to denote that an argument counters a proposition</rdfs:comment>
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="#refersTo" /> 
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Resource"/> 
    <rdfs:range rdf:resource="#Argument"/> 
    <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ibis" /> 
</rdf:Property>

</rdf:RDF>