What's New
Mediator Needed To Change Ground Zero Mosque Dialogue (8/30/10)
Lee Jay Berman What this issue needs is a real dialogue, facilitated (mediated) by a professional who is expert at managing the emotions, the values and the discussion between representatives of the two groups. Give me Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and some of his leaders, along with some of the most vocal opponents, preferably from families of those who died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and I will guarantee you a dialogue where each walks away having heard the other and having had their eyes opened to things that they had not realized before this discussion. Televise it, put it on the internet, and broadcast it over the radio, and we will educate hundreds of thousands with one discussion.
Overcoming The Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) Syndrome (8/23/10)
Larry Susskind National Public Radio featured a story this week about growing opposition to renewable energy facilities, particularly wind power. Wind advocates were asked how they might overcome such local opposition -- dubbed the NIMBY syndrome -- in the future. The spokesperson said, "We've got to get in there earlier and educate people." Wrong! How arrogant! You think people are opposed because they don't understand?
We All Have A Part To Play In Coalition’s Success . . . Or Failure (8/09/10)
John Sturrock We all know something really interesting happened in British politics with the agreement of
the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to work in coalition. What is interesting is the reaction. People don't quite know how to deal with it. We are
accustomed to an adversarial approach in politics. So, the observations now tend to focus
on the differences and potential areas of disagreement – and where it might go wrong.
Can Government Solve Big Problems Collaboratively? (7/12/10)
John Folk-Williams The Open Government Initiative of the Obama Administration has given high priority to increasing the use of collaboration in the federal government. Yet many federal offices have not in the past encouraged the sort of collaborative mindset that is necessary for meaningful efforts in this direction.
(7/12/10)
Keith Seat
As widely reported, Kenneth Feinberg has been appointed the independent claims administrator for the $20 billion BP compensation fund for the extensive damages caused by its ongoing oil spill. BP has established more than 400 claim centers across the Gulf Coast and is also accepting claims through its website and by telephone. Feinberg will be paid by BP, although the amount is still being negotiated.
Business week.com (May 26, 2010); Daily Finance.com(June 20, 2010); USA Today (June 28, 2010)
(7/12/10)
Keith Seat
An editorial in the Washington Post entitled “Congress needs a mediation tool to dissolve gridlock” emphasizes the need to build consensus in Congress to avoid stalemates and the dysfunction that has resulted in approval ratings for Congress falling below 25 percent. The editorial emphasizes the importance of good process, and suggests establishing a politically neutral service to provide legislative mediation organized along the lines of the Congressional Budget Office. A legislative mediation service could enrich the policy debate by highlighting information in a nonpartisan manner. And when requested by legislators, mediation techniques could be used to help the parties understand their interests, generate possible solutions and help find common ground.
Washington Post (June 18, 2010)
BP Looking To Shut Down Ombuds Office! (7/05/10)
Jeff Thompson BP has been trying to shut down an internal safety watchdog agency it set up under congressional pressure four years ago, according to sources close to the office and a leading congressman.
Mediation and Negotiation Are Designated As Criminal Acts: Maybe It’s For the Better (6/22/10)
r.d. benjamin Should you be a private consultant or working for an NGO, e.g., Mediators Without Borders, Mercy Corps, or the Red Cross, who might dare to meet with, provide training in mediation, or suggest negotiation strategies that might encourage a nonviolent approach to any “designated” foreign “terrorist” organization, you can now be charged with the crime of “material support” in violation of the Federal Patriot Act of 2001.
Who Will Guarantee The Safety Of Off-Shore Oil And Gas Facilities? (5/31/10)
Larry Susskind In 1979, following the accident at Three Mile Island a special commission appointed by President Jimmy Carter recommended that the nuclear power industry take responsibility for setting industry-wide safety standards and ensuring safe operations at all nuclear facilities in the United States.
How Voluntary Is Public Policy Consensus Building? (5/10/10)
John Folk-Williams Voluntary participation is an essential dimension of mediation, consensus-building and the many other forms of collaborative public policy – at least in theory. But even with so basic a part of the concept of collaboration as its voluntary nature, the realities of practice can depart sharply from the ideal.
(4/20/10)
Keith Seat
Legislation is moving forward in Washington state to extend to 2015 the agricultural mediation program which began in 1987. The bill authorizes $7.5 million per year, but less than $4.5 million has been appropriated for the current fiscal year. Washington is one of 32 states which participates in the Certified State Agricultural Mediation Program, administered by the Farm Service Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which helps farmers resolve disputes with lenders and others in order to avoid litigation, appeals, bankruptcy and foreclosure, and may occasionally deal with rural housing, development and even civil rights.
AgWeek.com (March 8, 2010); USDA Agricultural Mediation Program
(4/20/10)
Keith Seat
Marin County, California may lose its only agency providing general civil mediation services due to budget cutbacks. The agency currently handles 3,000 calls and 800 mediations a year with a small staff and volunteer mediators, receiving about half its expenses from the county and the other half from fees. The agency would like to raise fees and cut staff in order to keep its doors open, noting that it saves significant court resources as well as making the county a more peaceful and mentally healthy place to live. The County Administrator is skeptical whether agency action could replace the $180,000 the county provides, but is willing to listen to cost cutting options.
Marin IJ.com (March 20, 2010)
WORP Outreach Reflections (4/19/10)
Carie Fox The attached PDF is a case study of an “outside mediation boundaries” project in Oregon, the 2.7 million acre Western Oregon Plan Revisions. This graphic-rich report is less a “we did this, and then we did that” than a reflection on what happens when one tries to design approaches that are more empowering than traditional pubic policy outreach.
Why Certify Public Policy Mediators? (4/19/10)
John Folk-Williams In his keynote address at the 2009 conference of the Association for Conflict Resolution, Wallace Warfield discussed the difficulty of attempting to certify mediators when the role itself has become a moving target. Pinning down a set of qualifications and certifying competence based on a single definition of practice could have the effect of stifling innovation in a dynamic field.
Public Data For Collaborative Governance (4/12/10)
John Folk-Williams Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, has become one of the primary advocates for access to public data and its conversion to useful forms through innovative software applications. In this video, he showcases a number of examples developed by public and private agencies.
A Tribute To Rob Williams (3/22/10)
Dena Marshall This is a tribute to Rob Williams and my contemporaries in the field, the next generation of pillars of dispute resolution professionalism.
Cognitive Surplus" And Participation In Government (3/22/10)
John Folk-Williams Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, presented his idea of cognitive surplus a couple of years ago, but it seems especially relevant to the current push toward open government, most notably by the Obama Administration but also by public agencies at all levels. Like other interpreters of internet technology, he describes the impact of new platforms for participation primarily on business, media and popular culture rather than government and public policy. His idea of cognitive surplus, though, as a source of public inventiveness and action that applies to every sector, public or private.
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