Online Dispute Resolution: The State of the Art

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Online DisputeResolutionThe State of the Art
Online DisputeResolutionThe State of the Art
Colin RuleSMU in Legacy August 25-27, 2006
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Agenda

• Introductions
• Course description / goals
• Acronyms
• Online ADR
• - what is it- pros and cons
• Types of ODR

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Introductions / Who Am I?

• eBay and PayPals Director of Online Dispute
  Resolution
• Mediator and Facilitator
• Founded Online Resolution, one of the first ODR
  providers
• Co-Chair of the ODR Committee of the Dispute
  Resolution Section of the American Bar
  Association
• Professor and Fellow at the Center for
  Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at
  UMass-Amherst
• Author of Online Dispute Resolution for Business

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Course Description / Goals

• Introduce the world of ODR
• How it developed
• Where we are today
• Moving from ADR skills into ODR skills
• Demonstrate a wide variety of ODR tools and
  platforms
• Let you try out a variety of platforms
• Dive into the practice challenges of ODR
• Standards
• Ethical dilemmas
• Getting involved

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Acronyms

• Dispute Resolution
• ADR, AAA, ABA, ACR, CPR, etc.
• Technology
• ODR, UI, HTML, PHP, etc.
• International Organizations
• WIPO, ICANN, UNECE, BBB, etc.
• If you dont know what something is,
• please dont hesitate to ask!

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From ADR to ODR

• Cyberspace is generating disputes
• flame wars, e-commerce, privacy, domain names,
  etc.
• Online, courts dont work
• - too tied to geography, enforcement- no
  e-judges and e-jails
• Dispute Resolution is the best solution
• - avoids jurisdiction questions- international
  consensus building

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ODR Advantages

• Asynchonous interaction
• - cooling distance- you dont have to react
  immediately
• Pre-communication re-framing
• Concurrent caucusing
• Archived communication
• - re-usable language- text-based interaction
• Automated procedures (the fourth side)

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ODR Disadvantages

• ODR is a bad acronym (too late)
• Online, you lose important information
• - body language- non-verbal cues
• Its easy for people to drop out or stonewall
• People are more strategic online
• - more likely to lie- less trusting of
  information
• Privacy and confidentiality

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ODR Types

• The Basics
• Mediation
• Arbitration
• Expert Evaluation
• Facilitation
• Automated Negotiation
• Blind Bidding
• Assisted Decision Making