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Technology Tools For Mediators…
11 May 2007Technology Tools For Mediators (and other dispute resolution professionals). The following article was taken from a past edition of the Mediation Marketing Tips Newsletter.
Another excellent workshop at the recent NJAPM Advanced Civil Mediation Training that I attended (2/17/07) was entitled “Technology Tools For Mediators” presented by Michael Wolf.
As those of you know who have heard about or witnessed the recent advances in technology (e.g. this blog you’re reading, video, audio and other streaming internet services) technology can provide a wonderful tool not only to help mediators market their practices, but also to help mediators more efficiently do mediation and conflict resolution work.
Michael’s workshop was excellent and I have already begun using one of the resources he recommended. Michael has cleverly taken technology tools that weren’t necessarily designed for mediation or conflict resolution practices and morphed them for his purpose.
We didn’t get a chance to go through all of them, but here are two creative ideas we explored:
1) Wordpress Blog — this tool may surprise you. Like me you may be thinking that a blog can only be used to blog. Well, Michael uses a wordpress blog for each of his mediations. You can see the sample blog he set up for the workshop here. He sets up a new blog and then creates a static page for each party. Then he inputs three “posts” with introductory questions for the parties to answer. The parties’ answers come as a “comment” to the post. Each static page is password protected and he assigns the parties a username and password. He also has the agreement to mediate on-line and has each party sign the agreement electronically. It’s quite clever.
Michael has used this system for EEOC mediations and other flat fee mediations. In this context, having the parties do much of the work ahead of time, allows him to spend less time at the actual mediation doing preparatory work thereby increasing the profitability of this type of work. An interesting tool, don’t you think?
I have not tried this tool for managing mediation yet, but may give it a whirl in the appropriate case.
2) Central Desktop – Central Desktop is a project management web based program. They have no cost and cost systems. The complementary program allows you to add up to five users and centrally track notes, send out “discussion” emails, and have multiple parties edit on-line documents and track projects. You can assign tasks to team members and they can then update the task list when they are done.
This is a great tool. I have not yet used it in mediation but it could easily be used for parties and counsel to jointly contribute to the drafting of a settlement agreement and share documents etc. Since the workshop, I have used this free tool to manage a fundraising project that I am leading for a nonprofit organization and I am thrilled with the streamlining and functionality of the system.
Time did not permit further exploration of some of the other tools but Michael provides a list for you to peruse:
• Eroom
• Box.net
• Webex
• Gotomeeting
• Polycom
• Zoomerang
• GroupSystems.com – like central desktop you can have online brainstorming, decision making and collaboration
• Facilitate.com
• Storm
• Survey Monkey – I have used this free service to gather up to 50 answers to survey questions you create.
Michael predicts that the wave of ODR (On-Line Dispute Resolution) services is going to continue to explode over the next ten years. He surmises that those mediators and conflict resolutionists who have the ability to leverage technology to benefit their practice and boost their on-line presence will be able to compete and those who don’t won’t.
I personally don’t think that face-to-face mediation is facing death anytime soon, just as on-line services in other professional fields have not made these services obsolete (e.g. legal, medical etc.). Nevertheless, as mediators we can use these great low-cost tools to really enhance our competitive advantage at the mediation table (virtual or otherwise). Examples of on-line dispute resolution services are those used by eBay and Square Trade. On-line dispute resolution would seem to be appropriate for relatively low dollar value contract or other business disputes. For the emotionally charged, high dollar value cases, I think in person mediation will be necessary.
Another presenter at the NJAPM advanced training, Evan Slavitt, presented on using risk analysis (or decision tree analysis) in mediation. He uses a low cost program to actually run all the computations for him! He uses www.treeage.com. I really love this use of technology. I plan on implementing this tool in my mediation practice ASAP, I’ll let you know more resources as I research them. I have signed up for a free 21 day trial of the treeage software. There are other suppliers out there, just google “risk analysis software” and you will see many options. A one year treeage license is around $300. Then, for those of you who are more wordsmiths than math geniuses you can have the program do all the work for you. You can either display the results on a projector or otherwise figure out how to transfer the analysis from your laptop to the parties.
At a recent divorce mediation conference in Saratoga Springs, New York, a presenter demonstrated software for divorce mediators that automatically computes the value of marital assets and assists in property division. I will post more information about this at a later date.
In sum, there are many on-line resources available that can be used to manage your mediation cases, facilitate communication among the parties and counsel and the sharing of information. Check them out. Have you used any of these tools? Be sure to let me know, so I can share the information with others.
NEVER GIVE UP!
Kristina Haymes