BRENDA REED Brenda Reed Mediation Services Online DR Articles

Social media: join the shift from monologue to dialogue (7/07/08)
Tammy Lenski
In Making Mediation Your Day Job, I discuss at length the way dialogue and conversation are replacing the old monologue marketing model and what mediators should do about it. Still not convinced it’s worth your while to network online and use social media to promote your business? Take a look at this excellent slideshow, filled with some pretty interesting data. For instance: 36% of consumers think more positively about companies that have blogs. Millenials spend 16 hours or more per ...

Mediating f2f Holographically (6/10/08)
Geoff Sharp
Ok, when you are truly a carbon neutral mediator in future years and refuse to travel big distances to your high stakes mediations, remember you saw world’s first live holographic video feed here on blah... blah...See these guys? They are on stage together, but the chap on the left is in Bangalore, India and the two on the right are in San Jose, CA. This is now!My guess is that, within a decade, many of us will insist on mediating with 3D holographic display technology beaming up the...

Resolucion de disputas en y por internet (4/12/08)
Nora Femenia, Ph.D
El desarrollo de los métodos alternos de resolución de conflictos ha llegado al medio electrónico, donde tiene un poderoso aliado. Dado el crecimiento vertiginoso de las transacciones online, urge desarrollar nuevos métodos de resolver conflictos adaptados al medio electrónico. El internet ofrece tanto seguridad como privacidad, rapidez y bajo costo al procesamiento masivo de quejas y disputas con clientes de comerciantes online. Aquí se describen sus principios, sus diferencias y algunas exitosas aplicaciones prácticas.

Online Mediation Moves to Second Life (4/07/08)
Keith Seat

Law students in a dispute resolution class at the University of Dayton Law School are honing their skills in mediations held in the online world of Second Life, where each participant is shown as an avatar or animated character who communicates through its user’s voice or by text messages. In addition to the general communication among the group, separate private Instant Messages can occur simultaneously. Compared to communicating through conference calls, personality can come through in how the avatars are dressed and move. Biases based on appearance or voice can be eliminated, but gestures and facial expressions that are important to communication are also lost.

Dayton Daily News (March 16, 2008)

Four Questions About International Online Dispute Resolution Part Three (4/07/08)
Gini Nelson
Today’s post continues a series co-authored by myself and international business attorney Vonda K. Vandaveer on the use of online dispute resolution to solve problems associated with traditional ADR. [Earlier posts: Part One, Part Two.] This post addresses the question: What Disputes Work Well for ODR? Online ADR works well for most business disputes, assuming the parties want to obtain a mutually-acceptable resolution to their problem as opposed to “winning.” ODR is amenable to the same...

Four Questions About International Online Dispute Resolution Part One (3/31/08)
Gini Nelson
Today’s post introduces a series co-authored by myself and international business attorney Vonda K. Vandaveer. For business leaders, alternative dispute resolution rather than litigation has no doubt become the preferred process for handling problems, thanks to its efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility. As businesses become more global, however, the traditional methods of face-to-face mediation, arbitration or other dispute resolution processes pose significant logistical...

Four Questions About International Online Dispute Resolution Part Two (3/31/08)
Gini Nelson
Today’s post continues a series co-authored by myself and international business attorney Vonda K. Vandaveer on the use of online dispute resolution to solve problems associated with traditional ADR. [Earlier posts: Part One.] This post addresses the question: How Does ODR Work? ODR takes advantage of technology that most everyone in business already uses, such as computers, internet, email, instant chat, video conferencing, telephone conferencing, and increasingly VoIP (e.g. Skype). ODR...

Skype Meeting Tips (3/31/08)
Tammy Lenski
As more and more of my business calls are international, I've found Skype an invaluable tool for keeping the phone bills reasonable and being able to see eye-to-eye with the person at the other end of the phone line. So I appreciated Chris Garrett's Tips for Better Skype Meetings. For example, Chris suggests, Add contacts as your first job - Rather than waiting 'til the last minute, it is best to swap and add contact information before. Also share landline or mobile numbers ...

Nobody Does It Better: An Interview with Diane Levin (3/10/08)
Gini Nelson
This is an interview by Gini Nelson of Diane Levin. Diane Levin publishes the award-winning blog, Mediation Channel, which explores conflict resolution, negotiation, and the law, together with the social and cultural influences that shape them. It also regularly features articles on mediation, in particular the training and credentialing of mediators, and examines the intersection of law, justice, and ADR. Mediation Channel has been designated a “Featured Blog” at Mediate.com and attracts regular readers from throughout the world.

Cybersettle Makes The Case For Resolving Disputes Online (2/27/08)
Diane J. Levin
Richard Susskind, digital technology expert and legal visionary, once said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” That’s exactly what Charles Brofman did. He invented the future. Brofman, a former trial lawyer, is the co-founder of Cybersettle, the world’s leading online claim settlement company. Cybersettle makes use of what is known as online dispute resolution (ODR), a kind of dispute resolution process that utilizes digital technology to settle...

Head of U.S. Office of ADR Services describes benefits of online dispute resolution (2/19/08)
Diane J. Levin
In an interview with Government Computer News, Daniel Rainey, Director of the Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution Services for the U.S. National Mediation Board, makes the case for online dispute resolution (ODR). Rainey, an internationally recognized authority on ODR, explains how collaborative technology can be used to resolve disputes successfully while saving time and money, as well as to promote online brainstorming and negotiation, streamline the intake process, and facilitate the...

Why InstantAssist Makes Sense (1/09/08)
James Melamed
InstantAssist at InstantAssist.com is Mediate.com’s new service that offers immediate online (phone, email or chat) negotiation and conflict resolution coaching. InstantAssist opens for business on March 1, 2008. InstantAssist is truly revolutionary. For the first time, we associate the need for services and the provision of services in real time. Our goal is to bring constructive negotiation and conflict resolution to every desktop, laptop and phone. InstantAssist is an on-ramp to people being smart about negotiation and conflict resolution and will surely lead to additional utilization of the mediation process.

Simplify How You Handle Email Inquiries (11/20/07)
Tammy Lenski
A side effect of a thriving mediation practice is an increase in email inquiries, especially when you have a healthy web presence as part of your marketing strategy. I’ve seen my email inquiries triple in the last year and the increase shows no sign of abating…nor do I want it to! But the increase made me realize that typing responses fresh each time was a monumental misuse of my time. So when I hired a VA in 2006, one of my first projects was getting her help in creating a series...

Using Email In Couples Counselling (11/20/07)
Colin Rule
Great new article from ADR pioneer David Hoffman on Mediate.com today. From the conclusion: "Because email is such a new medium {...}the techniques for successful communication via computer may be less intuitive and require more conscious attention... Experience suggests that there is considerable potential in email communications for both misunderstanding and enhanced understanding. As Collaborative Practitioners, we have the added benefit of working on cases with colleagues who join ...

Communicating Collaboratively in Cyberspace: What Couples Counselors Can Teach Dispute Resolvers About Email (11/19/07)
David A. Hoffman
Mediators and Collaborative Practice (“CP”) professionals receive training in communication skills, but that training typically involves in-person communications. In a world where email is beginning to replace much of our face-to-face and telephonic communication, there is a need for training that addresses email communications. The purpose of this article is to begin to fill that void in training by examining some of the ways in which e-mail communication differs from other types of communication. In addition, the article will explore the lessons we can learn from mental health professionals about how to communicate more effectively using electronic media.

Who searches the internet for information about mediation? (11/13/07)
John Windmueller
Microsoft has an intriguing tool in development that predicts the demographics of different search phrases. For example, what are the predicted demographics of folks searching for the term mediation? Here’s what the tool reports: And here’s how the demographics compare between those searching for “attorney” versus those searching for “mediator”: The data that fuels the prediction comes from MSN Search statistics. In addition to giving the predicted...

The Online Media Workshop Highlights, ACR Phoenix 2007 (11/06/07)
Gini Nelson
Here are my notes for the presentation I made last Thursday at the ACR conference — just notes; you’ll have to go to the links for more information. (Oh, and I must confess that I may not recall all that we talked about, because we had a very lively, interactive discussion!) October 2007 ACR/Phoenix Wikis and Podcasts and Blogs, Oh My! HIGHLIGHTS Gini Nelson, MA, JD This isn’t a “how to”, so much as an overview of some of what I have tried in the past 1 and 1/2 years (and I ...

Jim Melamed is 2007 Recipient of ACR John Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award: A Tribute and Lament on the Field of Mediation (10/23/07)
Robert Benjamin
Writing this tribute to Jim Melamed is an honor, even if a troubling one. On the one hand, there could not be a more fitting recipient for this particular award, named for John Haynes, than Jim Melamed, the CEO and co-founder with John Helie of Mediate.com. The work for which both the recipient and the namesake of this award are known highlights what has been most compelling and important about the field of conflict mediation. On the other hand, this award can also not help but highlight the ebbing of the energy that first gave rise to mediation practice and a falling away from some of the first principles. What John Haynes was, and Jim Melamed continues to be, is a tireless entrepreneur doing the critically important work of selling mediation in a culture that does not exactly welcome the idea of negotiating differences with open arms.

Telephonic Mediation Efficiently Resolving UK Personal Injury Claims (10/17/07)
Keith Seat

Seeking to mediate high volumes of personal injury claims by telephone, London’s InterResolve Group has completed a six-month pilot project with AXA Insurance. With mediations typically lasting less than an hour for both liability and damages issues, InterResolve reports an 88% settlement rate and an average cost of £175 per party. Matters were resolved in an average of seven weeks with mediation, compared to 18 months using existing claims processes.

Legal & Medical (October 8, 2007); InterResolve

Misinterpreting Email Communications (10/16/07)
Colin Rule
Daniel Goleman in the 10/7 NYT: "We were having an e-mail exchange about some crucial detail involving publishing rights, which I thought was being worked out well. Then she wrote: “It’s difficult to have this conversation by e-mail. I sound strident and you sound exasperated.” At first I was surprised to hear I had sounded exasperated. But once she identified this snag in our communications, I realized that something had really been off. So we had a phone call that cleared everything...

Disputes Growing In Virtual Worlds (10/16/07)
Colin Rule
The Business Shrink, October 10th, 2007: "With virtual world’s forming into the next big thing on the horizon, the real world is starting to play catch up. Traffic stats are increasing and the money pouring into virtual worlds is starting to translate into real world money that cannot be ignored. Just recently a report was released by Screencast.com, a business research and intelligence gathering company, that listed subscription sales for online virtual worlds rising to $526,000,000 in the US ...

Cyberweek 2007's Free Online Conference, October 15 to 19 (10/01/07)
Gini Nelson
The University of Massachusetts at Amhearst National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution (NCTDR) has announced Cyberweek 2007, a week-long, all online, free conference on all things online dispute resolution. Details and links for registration are at the end of this post. I’m especially excited about a panel I’m setting up right now for John DeBruyn, the “go to guy” up in Denver, CO on spreading the word on innovative use of online tools for dispute resolution, ...

Nuevas Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación aplicadas a la Resolución de Conflictos (9/24/07)
Alberto Elisavetsky
Nuestro siglo nos presenta permanentemente situaciones paradójicas. La Globalización puede lograr que los avatares económicos de Gambia tengan decidida influencia en Bolivia, pese a que crecen y se multiplican los medios de comunicación, cada vez las personas se sienten más solas. La fragmentación del saber llega hasta límites tan increíbles que el grado de sofisticación en las especialidades parece no tener fin y a veces se pierde la noción del todo por el imperio de las partes.

More on dispute resolution in Second Life (9/23/07)
Geoff Sharp
Continuing the series on DR in Second Life...The people behind Second Life, Linden Lab, have announced today that from hereon in a dispute resolution known as “binding non-appearance-based arbitration” is available for disputes of less than $10,000.00 between Linden Lab and the Residents in Second Life.They describe it as "... a legally binding procedure administered by a private organization. This means that the arbitrator’s opinion on liability and damages may be entered as...

Negotiation Tip: Negotiating with Email (9/23/07)
Joshua N. Weiss
Josh discusses some guidelines for negotiating with email and how to avoid the pitfalls that plague many of these virtual negotiations. MP3 File

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