The constant reshaping of the Web is lately driven by the inherent need of humans to express themselves, participate in discussions on any conceivable topic, respond, agree and socialize. The exchange of arguments in blogs, social media, commercial websites or wikis is transforming the Web into a modern agora, a virtual place where all types of debates can take place.

This wealth of information remains unexploited: the purely textual form of online arguments leaves limited room for automated processing and the available methodologies of computational argumentation focus on logical arguments, failing to properly model the types of debates that appear on the Web (and everyday life). Such realistic debates may contain unsound reasoning (e.g., proof-by-example), arguments that are not formally structured, and non-logical argumentation methods (e.g., appeal to expertise or emotions). In this talk, we present a new activity of the ISL, whose aim is to study the conceptual, theoretical and technological considerations that shape the emerging characteristics of this new interdisciplinary Web paradigm that goes beyond the strict realm of information systems, and to provide the foundations that will drive its materialization.