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I bumped into a paper titled "Internet Resources on Conflict Management, Prevention and Resolution" <http://www.dec.org/pdf_docs/PNACH194.pdf> from 1998. For those interested in this topic, it still looks useful. This report mentions four online mediation projects. I found the updated links: 2. Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution - http://www.ombuds.org/center/index.html - They have a book on the topic: http://www.jbp.com/Corporate/Website/Objects/Products/0,9049,222797,00 .html - And they have links to a number of articles from: http://www.ombuds.org/cyberweek2002/library.html Including: Isabelle Manevy's article and bibliography - "Online Dispute Resolution: What Future?" Mireze Philippe, "Where Is Everyone Going With Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)" Cara Cherry Lisco, "Case Study in Online Mediation: Resolution Across Borders" Todd Barker, "Information Technology and the Evolution of Multi-Party Dispute Resolution Processes" 2. Seeds of Peace http://www.seedsofpeace.org http://www.seedsofpeace.org/newclubhouse/ (For Arab and Israeli youth) 3. Technlogy for Peace - Cyprus http://www.tech4peace.org The article (clips below) about the use of ICTs (information and communication technologies) in Cyprus looks quite interesting. - http://www.tech4peace.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=719 What about local disputes and online dialogue? I do have concerns about the nature and capacity of online communication when attempting to forge consensus, make decisions, and solve public problems overall. When people are gathered locally online in the "common interest" I do see the generation of respect and understanding, but I sense that the technology tends to accent disagreements and often over inflates the sense of opposition and discontent. Why? Folks in the middle or in general agreement don't express themselves much. I suppose that how most people engage in political discussion in-person as well. While I continue to focus my Minnesota activities on building a base of active "e-citizens" with simple e-list technology, I wonder if approaches, tools, and technologies developed for online mediation and dispute resolution be leveraged for local civic engagement and direct citizen involvement in addressing public challenges? Or in reverse, can tools and techniques for local online community conversations be adapted for international conflict resolution and efforts to bring the people of countries/groups at war together to build peace? Your thoughts? Post here: http://slashdemocracy.org/cgi- bin/forum/gforum.cgi?forum=15 Steven Clift Democracies Online Technology For Peace: Innovation used towards the Cyprus Problem http://www.tech4peace.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=719 ... clip ... It began its operations in 1996, with two activities that were mostly funded by their participants. In this task, a bi-communal virtual organization was set up on the Internet to discuss matters of general interest and attempt to inform and recruit Cypriots, both Turkish and Greek, who live abroad. ... fast forward to their web site today - http://www.tech4peace.org ... Complimenting the need for a structured, organized and lasting communication As already discussed, the design and development of the Technology For Peace project – www.tech4peace.org, was conceptualized in the framework of complimenting the need for a structured, organized and lasting communication between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in Cyprus. In this context, the project aimed to design and develop a comprehensive virtual infrastructure for peace promoting individuals and groups and indirectly support their activities by introducing an Information Technology dimension to their work. This would ensure continuity and sustainability, while at the same time create a permanently accessible and continuously updated record of the work, activities and end products of each active individual or peace- promoting group. Furthermore, the project aimed to become the central reference, information and meeting point, which would provide different types of support, information, ideas and inspiration to the various peace building initiatives. In order to be able to establish a culture where people/users have incentives to use the Tech4Peace portal, we tried to make sure that its design and construction as well as future evolution/development encompass flexible technological solutions, which would essentially guarantee its information access, short-term sustainability, long-term evolution and consistent user-friendliness. In this venture, the feedback, support, criticism and participation of our users is absolutely essential. The purpose of all these is to establish a sense of community to the user, and to help make the users feel comfortable about using the Tech4Peace portal for beginning their journey for “Peace” from there as opposed to the time- consuming procedure of wondering all over the Internet. Within the context described above, more precisely the project's goals are: · to render all peace promoting groups in Cyprus computer literate and Internet users, so as to introduce an Information Technology dimension to their work, thus ensuring continuity and sustainability, while at the same time creating a permanently accessible and ever updated record of the work, activities and end products of each group. · Create a central reference, information and meeting point, which will be providing different types of support to the various peace building initiatives. · Facilitate information sharing and establish itself as a platform for ideas and debates. · Track and evaluate the importance of new information and communication technologies as they transform international relations and raise the level of public awareness about the new possibilities emerging for the prevention, management and settlement of conflicts in a speedy manner. · Provide timely access to the content as well as context underpinning the bi-communal projects in Cyprus, monitor their results and disseminate their potentials to a wider audience both in Cyprus and overseas. · Define, promote and intensify new peace pathways as they pertain to Cyprus by determining the conditions by which these can be achieved. · Promote cross-cultural, international interaction, potential cooperation and involvement between individuals and organized groups and improve their response times. · Push forward the idea and principles of Peace, frame the leads and potentials for Cyprus peace and tackle the challenges facing us. · Provide an active interface to access all information and incorporate TFP content with content available outside the project. · Extract valuable lessons and insights for future training of Peace builders, whether in government, international organizations or the private sector. ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. 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