(1) As I made clear earlier, I would not dare to assume expertise over Wittgenstein’s full extent of work and I am not intending to do so. In this paper, I am not suggesting a full theory or interpretation of Wittgenstein’s work. Instead, I am specifically looking for individual fitting pieces in his work to successfully assemble the puzzle we are facing. (2) Modern scholarly communication is technology-driven and the Web 2.0 has deeply changed the nature of human communication. The era in which Wittgenstein lived and wrote is a fundamentally different than the one we are facing now. (3) Open Knowledge Maps is an academic search engine but also believes in the open dissemination of knowledge by providing an interface that overcomes the traditional barriers of academia. Considering today’s grand challenges in politics and society, the challenge of uniting theory and practice is one of the most important ones to overcome if the humanities truly wish to go beyond the academy.

Accordingly, I am attempting to lay out a Wittgensteinian application of his ideas to build and understand technology, that goes beyond pure formalization and theorizing. Furthermore, and most importantly, Read emphasises the importance of seeking ‘the same kind of thing’ that Wittgenstein tried to do with his work, namely “in puncturing delusions that we are prone to, and helping us to attain peace with regard to our words” (Read, 2007,p.134). Applying Wittgenstein to the challenges of modern scholarly communication accordingly means to create technology that resolves the delusions and misunderstandings of communication.

As often, applying Wittgenstein and other ideas in the puzzle called “theory” tell us about the whats and whys but often struggle to deliver hows. At this point, we want to keep Read’s successful application Wittgenstein in mind and think about how we might connect Wittgenstein to the practice.