Andrew Hinton has published an excellent presentation entitled 'Architectures for Conversation'. It deals with the emerging importance of conversation systems in an information architecture and its relationship it has to existing formal structures. It has some excellent imagery to support the points raised (the M16 to AK47 comparison being one that sticks out). Where it becomes very interesting in relation to my thesis are the areas when it deals with the integration of conversational architectures with existing formal structure. This is emphasised most effectively in the following diagram taken from the presentation:
Slide 30 of 71 - Architectures for Conversation, Andrew Hinton