Daniel Rainey

PeaceTones Concert

Last night at Montserrat House in DC, JayArr (on the left with his hand raised) and Carolyn Malachi (on the right in mid-song) did a benefit performance for PeaceTones.  Although I was a bit disappointed at the turnout, I was not at all disappointed in the spirit in the room and the commitment to the PeaceTones goals of using music to encourage social change and to empower those who live in post conflict (and active conflict) environments.

I have a very close emotional connection to PeaceTones, not least because it was born of a conversation between Jeff Aresty and me while we were lost on Paradise Lane in Liverpool some years ago.  PeaceTones is intentionally run with a narrow margin for survival – 90% of any money raised goes to the artist and the social project of her or his choice.  That means that events like the one last night are crucial for PeaceTones’ sustainability.  If there’s one in your town, please support the artists by coming out for some good music and good company.  You can find info on the project and the artists at PeaceTones.

Sorry about the grainy photos – an iPhone in low light will only yield so much . . . .

ODR Theory and Practice

I just sent a copy of ODR Theory and Practice to the Gimnazium School of Pope John Paul II, in Leczycy, Poland.  The students wanted a copy for their library – they think it will be a good test of their English.  I’m not quite sure how to take that, but I was happy to supply a copy for them.

In September, at the ACR conference in New Orleans, I’ll be doing a stint at the “Author’s Corner” with copies and discount coupons from Eleven, the publisher.  Drop by if you are at the conference and have a few minutes – I’ll be there from 12:30 – 1:00 pm on Friday, Sept. 14.

Building Better Teams

One of my colleagues at Southern Methodist University (Bob Barner) has just published a handbook on the formation and management of teams – Building Better Teams.  I contributed a section on the use of technology to help work with teams virtually.  The book is available now from Wiley and Sons, through Amazon.com.

PeaceTones Concert

PeaceTones will hold its first benefit concert in Washington, DC, on Friday, July 27, at 8pm, in the Montserrat House (2016 9th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001).  The concert will feature Carolyn Malachi, a Washington-based Jazz vocalist, and JayArr, a Washington-based native of Sierra Leone.

The proceeds will go to the Sierra Leone Artists Fund (a PeaceTones project led by JayArr) and to PeaceTones for development of other artists.

For concert information and tickets, click on the link below.

Carolyn and JayArr

Community Mediation ODR Course

On Monday, July 16, NVMS will offer its first online course – and it’s appropriate that the first online course will be Online Dispute Resolution.  Basically, the NVMS course will be a four week version of the seven week course that I offer through Creighton’s Werner Institute, and a much cut down version of the 40 hour course that I offer through SMU’s Dispute Resolution program.  Many of the comments at the ODR Forum in Prague were wrapped around the assertion that this year seems to be a watershed moment for ODR, in many venues and for many users who in the past have not been involved in the use of technology – the success of the NVMS course (at least in terms of numbers enrolled) may be a further demonstration of ODR’s coming of age.

ODR Forum

Friday was the last day of the ODR Forum in Prague – and the day the SMU student team presented their take on “Getting Past eCommerce.”  Patrick Keller, Elizabeth Norton, Rosie Almas, and Ramel Nasseri made the trek from Plano to Prague, and received a very positive response from the ODR group.

The Forum this year has been interesting in a number of ways.  First, and most noticeable to the participants, was the unusual heat wave that hit the city.  A week ago it was cold here, but this week it is sweltering.  The Forum was held in an 800 year old palace where air conditioning consists of opening the windows, which we could not do because of the street noise below the windows.  But everyone survived, and in fact enjoyed the interaction.  The other obvious difference this year was the inclusion of some group discussion and dialogue to augment the usual panel presentations.  The exchanges were lively, and the results can be found posted on this blog – later this month we’ll transfer all of the discussion material to the conference web site and www.odr.info.

P This year was described by more than one participant as a watershed year for ODR, with UNCITRAL, the EU, Latin America, Italy, the UK, Japan, Korea, and China all involved in significant ODR efforts.  erhaps the most significant “take away” from the conference will be the effort to use the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution as a vehicle for input to the European Union ODR statute, and to the UNCITRAL ODR standards discussions.

Thursday at the Forum

This is the Zofin Palace, site of the ICANN reception last night.  Not bad – lots of food and music, and fireworks on the river late in the evening.

Today the conference began with a speech by Mike Dennis from the U.S. State Department on the work being done by the UNCITRAL group and others around the world – essentially a primer on the role of government in the creation and regulation of ODR schemes.

We had a report out from the working groups, but not enough time to re-engage the discussions – we will do that tomorrow.  All of the material generated so far is posted at the following discussion forum:

https://hsi.centraldesktop.com/odrforumdiscussion/

ODR Survey Discussion

The discussion at the Old Jewish Town Hall in Prague today went, I think, pretty well.  The group started off with four of the general areas identified through the survey responses (the largest four items on the Wordle that I posted with the last blog entry), and quickly generated a number of comments and observations about those challenges.  The conversation was extended when we asked the groups to vote with their feet by rallying around six discussion leaders who were interested in one particular topic, and more specifically, what the ODR Forum group could do in those six areas.  The six areas are:

1.  Should there be standards for ODR development, and if so what should those standards look like?

2.  How do we enhance the interface between ODR developers and ADR parties and neutrals?

3.  How do we enhance disputant outreach – build user-driven products?

4.  How do we develop and publicize best practices for  complex, high value disputes?

5.  How do we effectively address the differing development needs between developed and developing countries?

6.  How do we coordinate training and education about ODR?

Tomorrow (Thursday) the six groups will report on their initial discussions and we will find a way to extend the work groups past this week.  The goal, I think all agree is to get past talk and get to some actions from the ODR Forum group.  I’ll post more as the discussion develops.

** The URL for the continuing online discussion is:

https://hsi.centraldesktop.com/odrforumdiscussion/

ODR Forum – “Challenges” Discussion

 As I get ready to leave for the ODR Forum, I have gone through the responses to the online survey about the perceived challenges to the further development of ODR.  The wordle above presents the major categories into which the responses were quickly sorted.  I’ll post all of the responses after the Forum, along with whatever responses to these challenges we discuss during the opening session and the online discussion that will follow from the F2F session.

Planning for CyberWeek 2012

Today we held the first planning session for CyberWeek 2012, and it looks like this is going to be an interesting and pretty expansive CyberWeek.  Once again, Creighton’s Werner Institute will host the event, with participation from around the world.  The dates have been tentatively identified:  October 29 – November 2, 2012.  Although the agenda is far from set, it looks like we will do a webinar to follow up on the opening discussion at the ODR Forum in Prague, and it looks like we will do one session surrounding at least part of the content of the ODR Theory and Practice book.  One big change for this year is is the likelihood that we will involve a number of new, international participants, drawing them from the groups involved in the UNCITRAL and EU initiatives.  I’ll post more as the agenda begins to firm up.