Language/action perspective

Language/Action Perspective (LAP) is based upon the notion as proposed by Terry Winograd that "expert behavior requires an exquisite sensitivity to context" [" [http://acm.org/cacm/toc/2006/may_toc.html Two Decades of the Language-Action Perspective] ", Communications of the ACM, May 2006] and that such sensitivity is more in the realm of the human than in that of the artificial. ["The Language/Action Perspective" [http://hci.stanford.edu/winograd/action/language-action-conf.html International Workshop on Communication Modeling (LAP'96)] Tilburg, The Netherlands, JULY 1-2 1996]

Insights from related work have been applied over the past two decades. At the LAP 2004 - Conference, Kalle Lyytinen discussed the academic/theoretic success of LAP. ["The Struggle with the Language in the IT - Why is LAP not in the Mainstream?" [http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~aakhus/lap/Lyytinen.htm LAP 2004 - Conference] ] Yet, these LAP successes have not found entry into the wider stream of applications. In a sense, LAP is now peripheral to computer science, however there may be a need for a deeper look at this viewpoint.

Research on LAP was done in the Advanced Technology Group (ATG) at Apple Computer in the late 1980s. Winograd was invited to present the basic concepts in a seminar at Apple in the winter of 1988. Some Apple ATG researchers, notably Tom Pittard and Brad Heartfield, saw potential for enhancing the user experience of network based computer interactions if LAP was included in the mix of basic design considerations [Language, Action, and Computer Network Interaction, Apple Technical Report No:14, PITTARD, February 1989, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, M1007] .

Research on the application of LAP to business process modelling was done in the System Modelling Research Group, Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, University of the West of England in the early 2000s. ["Using A Language Action Framework To Extend Organizational Process Modelling", Beeson, I., and Green, S., [http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~sjgreen/UKAIS2003.pdf UK Academy for Information Systems (UKAIS) Conference 2003, University of Warwick, April 9th - 11th, 2003] ] .

LAP did play a role in the AI Winter. It rests strongly on the work of John Searle.

References

ee also

*Information science
*End-user computing
*AI Winter
*Strong AI

External links

* [http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2006/08/08/648/ Project Theory Gravitates towards the Language Action Perspective]
* [http://hci.stanford.edu/~winograd/papers/language-action.html A Language/Action Perspective on the Design of Cooperative Work]
* [http://www.vits.org/?pageId=220 LAP 2005 - Conference]
* [http://www.istheory.yorku.ca/languageactionperspective.htm Language/Action Perspective summary in the Association for Information Systems (AIS) theory repository]