The Role of Pragmatics in the Web of Data

This Chapter is an introduction to the Semantic Web, the Web of Data, regulatory models, and the law. It does not take anything for granted. The first part of the Chapter describes the languages of the Semantic Web, and shows how the perspective of the Web of Services and Linked Data is related to the conditions under which services can be offered, managed and used. The Web has been massively populated with both data and services. Semantically structured data, the Linked Data Cloud, allows and fosters human-machine interaction. Linked Data aims at creating ecosystems to facilitate the browsing, discovery, exploitation and reuse of datasets for applications. Licensed Linked Data is offered along with information about the rights involved. Rights Expression Languages are able to regulate half-automatically the use and reuse of content. The second part of the Chapter shows that the nature of law is experiencing a deep transformation in the cloud. What links the information flow, social intelligence, rights management, and modelling in the Web of Data is the pragmatic approach — what we call the pragmatic turn. I.e. the representation of users' needs and contexts to facilitate the automated interactive and collective management of knowledge. Both ontology building and knowledge acquisition share this perspective. The Web of Data brings about new challenges on agency, knowledge, communication, and the coordination of actions. Institutions can regulate both human and machine behaviours within these new environments. Licensed Linked Data, Licensed Linguistic Linked Data, Right Expression Languages, Semantic Web Regulatory Models, Electronic Institutions, Artificial Socio-cognitive Systems are examples of regulatory and institutional design (Regulations by Design). In the cloud, regulatory systems become more complex, in order to be simpler.