Fri, Sep 30, 2005
Negotiator Assistant - Online Research-based Tool for Assessing Flexibility in Negotiations
Reseacher Daniel Druckman from George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution has been studying the various aspects of negotiation for many years. One portion of his work involved a meta-analysis of features of negotiation that support or hinder flexibility among the parties and success in outcomes. An online tool developed by Druckman and several colleagues is known as the Negotiator Assistant. The tool seeks to apply these research-based findings to actual negotiation practice, with a special focus on international negotiations involving delegations rather than single negotiators. Interested parties can try out the online tool with their own scenarios in mind and can read more about the development of the tool in a paper (pdf) describing its origins and underlying assumptions.
Focusing on flexibility in negotiation, the program consists of questions divided into five categories: issues, parties, delegations, situation, and process. The questions track to variables shown in published studies to influence flexibility. The expectation is that professional negotiator can use the tool for planning and strategy development as well as for advice on breaking impasses. The analyst can use it to compare cases and alternative theories of negotiation. When the projections indicate an impasse, the program provides a help window that includes suggestions for addressing and possibly resolving it. The suggestions are based on actual experiences in historical cases as well as on findings from experiments. They are indexed in terms of the five sections, for example, tactics for resolving impasses on issues, advice for addressing problems within delegations, in the process, or caused by the situation. A negotiator can use the advice to change his or her tactics or to alter those aspects of the situation that may be responsible for the stalemate.
The development team for Negotiator Assistant consisted of Daniel Druckman, Richard Harris, David Melia and Bennett Ramberg. Negotiator Assistant is a collaborative effort of George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) and International Center for Applied Studies in Information Technology (ICASIT).
Thu, Sep 29, 2005
Classcaster Audiopodcast Service from CALI
The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (commonly known as CALI) has debuted a new service called Classcaster. It is designed to provide course-related blogs with integrated podcasting to law faculty at CALI member schools. Using a cell phone as a microphone, instructors can call in a lecture and it’s automatically posted to their blog and an enclosure is generated in the appropriate RSS feed. The creators note that “Classcaster is built out of open source parts and we intend on making the assemblage available to the educational world.” A whitepaper with more information is available, as is a demo site.
openDemocracy.net Conflicts Theme Page
The online news site openDemocracy.net, a global magazine of politics and culture, has various theme pages, including one focusing specifically on Conflict. As they explain, “Even when guns are silent, the ideas behind them threaten. Warfare and conflict resolution urgently need to be explained, their causes clarified, and creative solutions explored.” Lots of regularly updated international content keeps the site fresh. 
Roommate Match-up Service from the One-Card people
Many college and university campuses have turned to using mag-stripe cards assigned to students and staff to manage parking access, money for vending machines and more. A major vendor of these tools is the General Meters Corporation, makers of the One-Card system. General Meters’s newest module in their tool box is designed to help pair up university roommates and reduce campus conflict. The module is now in beta testing on several campuses. As described in this article Software Program Helps College Roommates Find Good Matches by Jim Bainbridge,
The University One-Card Housing System would serve as the 15th module, allowing students to check out room inventories, housing assignments and even start the process of finding a compatible roommate.
“Students go online to fill out a lifestyle profile,” Emery said, “indicating what time they get up in the morning, what time they go to bed, what kind of music they like, what kind of sports. How they feel about being paired with a smoker. Our questions are geared to develop a sense of someone’s attributes and what they do on a daily basis.”
After the student completes the series of questions and files it, the system culls the 20 best profile matches for the searching student to that of the searching student for him or her to review.
All of the survey participants remain anonymous through the entire process of questionnaire reviews. Even when a student chooses to contact a potential roommate, the e-mail goes through the General Meters system and the e-mail addresses are stripped away.
Identities are revealed only when both sides agree that they think there may a compatible match and they meet. If they decide to become roomies they go back online to formalize it.
“There are protections built into the system too,” Emery said, “so that no males can apply to be in a female dorm and no seniors end up in a freshman dorm. Every campus is basically a different entity unto itself. We create a tool for the campus and each campus adapts that tool for its needs.”
Tue, Sep 27, 2005
Flash-based Earth Browser - Flash Earth
Utilizing online satellite imagery provided by Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth, this easy to use Flash-based browser lets you zoom in on any part of the earth you might be interested in. With a click of a button the Flash Earth web app lets you switch between the images provided by the two sources to see which one is best for the region you are viewing.
Sat, Sep 24, 2005
Conflict Sensitive Journalism Handbook
The Canadian Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS) has posted a 22-page guidebook for journalists working in high conflict contexts. The Conflict Sensitive Journalism Handbook, April 2004 (PDF 248.1KB) was written by Ross Howard. Ross Howard is a Vancouver-based writer and former National Correspondent for The Globe and Mail newspaper, and concurrently Project Manager for IMPACS in the development of a Framework for Media and Peacebuilding. A keynote address he gave in 2002 is also available entitled MEDIAte the Conflict, February 2002 (PDF, 620KB)
Fri, Sep 23, 2005
Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents
The law and technology blog beSpacific called my attention to the publication of a new guide for cyberjournalists.
From Reporters Without Borders, a new resource: Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents (46 pages, PDF):
“Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest. Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation. It also explains how to set up and make the most of a blog, to publicise it (getting it picked up efficiently by search-engines) and to establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles.”
Thu, Sep 22, 2005
Fair Division Calculator
Mathematician Francis Su from Harvey Mudd College has developed and refined this java-based Fair Division Calculator to help you determine how to divide among a certain (n) number of people:
- a desirable object (such as a cake),
- an undesirable object (such as a set of chores),
- or a set of indivisible objects (rooms, desirable) with payments (rent, undesirable).
This article entitled Splitting the Rent, Keeping the Peace from the online magazine Science Now explains the origins of the tool. Essentially, the tool provides a mathematical envy-free answer to the problem “Four friends move into a house that has four rooms of different sizes. It doesn’t seem fair for them all to pay the same rent. Is there some way to divvy up the rent so that nobody feels short-changed?”
Wed, Sep 14, 2005
Large Group Intervention Methods website
The Large Group Intervention Methods website provides a starting place to explore a variety of group intervention approaches. As the site developers explain, “A large group intervention is a large scale collaborative meeting or event taking place over one, two or three days. It enables members of diverse stakeholder groups to get together, often in large numbers (12 to 1000 or more participants) and with widely-differing needs and interests, to discuss issues of heartfelt concern, share ideas, pool their knowledge and develop plans for concerted action. LGIs are particularly effective when complex or conflict-ridden issues must be resolved very quickly, and when people need to work together as equals to decide how they will bring something new into being or bring about a mutually-desired change.” The website was developed and is sponsored by Martin Leith and the VISTA Consulting Team.
With the resources at this site you can learn more about using:
The Conference Model
Future Search
Open Space Technology
Participative Design
Real Time Strategic Change
Search Conferences
SimuReal
How to Be a Leader in Your Field - Guide for Students in Professional Schools
Philip Agre from the Department of Information Studies at UCLA has put together a very thoughtful and thought-provoking set of ideas for students looking to stand out in their field. The “six step recipe” found in his essay How to Be a Leader in Your Field: A Guide for Students in Professional Schools provides a framework for becoming a leader using information gathering and networking approaches.
Thu, Sep 08, 2005
Peace Videos Lesson Plan from Apple
This Peace Video Lesson Plan developed by Glenda Stewart-Smith, an elementary teacher from British Columbia, is posted at the Apple Learning Exchange site. In this project, students work in small groups to create an iMovie HD project that demonstrates their interpretation of peace and how it can be achieved either through personal or social action.The iMovie HD project combines original artwork, digital footage or photographs, and narration and a soundtrack created in GarageBand. A sample video is provided for inspiration.
Mon, Sep 05, 2005
QuestGarden Online WebQuest authoring site (Plus listing of some newer WebQuest links)
Bernie Dodge is the developer of the WebQuest model for building learning modules utilizing web-based content. After a considerable period of development, he has now released for public use his new online tool suite entitled QuestGarden. As explained in the overview, “QuestGarden is an online authoring tool, community and hosting service that is designed to make it easier and quicker to create a high quality WebQuest. No knowledge of web editing or uploading is required. Prompts, guides and examples are provided for each step of the process. Images, worksheets and other documents can easily be attached or embedded in the WebQuest, and users have complete control over the appearance of the final lesson.” QuestGarden is free for all until September 1, 2006, after which time there will be a small annual fee.
As I have noted in the past, conflict is an excellent topic for webquest development, and many interesting ones have already been created for different age levels. This new tool should help more people take advantage of the flexibility of WebQuests as learning opportunities. By way of example, a few more recently discovered WebQuests related to conflict (none of which used the QuestGarden tool, by the way) include:
TnT - Terror ‘N Thailand: A WebQuest for Grades 9-12
(Designed by Cathy Arreguin, Steve Roberts and Chris Pfrang)
Constructing a Lasting Peace in India and Pakistan: A WebQuest for 10th Grade World History
(Designed by Dan McDowell)
Stand and Be Heard: A Lesson in Civil Disobedience: A WebQuest for Secondary Social Studies
(Designed by Tracy Hamner and Carolyn Constantakis)
Bringing the Parties to the Table: Simulating a Middle East Peace Summit
(Designed by Joyce Valenza and Veronika Sweeny)
What Color is Racism: A WebQuest About Making a Difference
(Developed by Vickie Duax, Patricia Hernandez and Mary Phoenix)
Outraged Citizen
(Developed by John Buchanan)
Fri, Sep 02, 2005
Interest-Based Bargaining Participant Training Manual and Powerpoint
The Montana State Board of Personnel Appeals offers training and facilitiation services related to interest based bargaining techniques, and they have posted their IBB training manual used in workshops on Interest-based Bargaining, as well as an introductory powerpoint explaining key concepts. Might be worth adding to your training collection…
Hague Appeal for Peace Teaching Resources
Some richly detailed materials for teaching and learning about peace are being developed and posted at the Hague Appeal for Peace site. Founded in 1999 at an international Civil Society conference, the Hague Appeal for Peace Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE), is an international organized network which promotes peace education among schools, families and communities to transform the culture of violence into a culture of peace. Over 140 organizations worldwide have endorsed the GCPE.
From the point of view of this group, peace education is a holistic, participatory process that includes teaching for and about human rights, nonviolent responses to conflict, social and economic justice, gender equity, environmental sustainability, disarmament, traditional peace practices and human security. The methodology of peace education encourages reflection, critical thinking, cooperation, and responsible action. It promotes multiculturalism, and is based on values of dignity, equality and respect. Peace education is intended to prepare students for democratic participation in schools and society.
The Global Campaign for Peace Education has two goals:
- To see peace education integrated into all curricula, community and family education worldwide to
become a part of life
- To promote the education of all teachers to teach for peace.
Resources at the site include these manuals:
Peace and Disarmament Education
Time to Abolish War: Youth Manual created by Youth for Youth
Learning to Abolish War (A set of 3 manuals available in English, Russian, Arabic, and Albanian)
Peace Lessons
Audio Clips: Bye Bye war. Select tracks from the HAP CD.
- Cora Weiss (President of Hague Appeal for Peace)
- Kofi Annan (US Secretary-General)
- Noeleen & Her Majesty Queen Noor (UN & Jordan)
- Kofi Annan: Don’t Give Up
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