For some time now my friend (and encouraging mentor) Colin Rule has been a contributing blogger at ODR News Blog, part of the web site for the Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Recently Colin began publishing a blog of his own hosted at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. Colin’s blog offers perspective and commentary on conflict resolution, civil discourse, politics, international relations, and, yes, technology and the Internet. You can join Colin’s conversation by clicking here.

Speaking of conversation, conflict resolution of course is all about promoting dialogue. One of Colin’s recent posts led me to a happy discovery: ChangeThis, a web site born of a radical and hopeful idealism: to virally transmit ideas through a culture medium of community, respect, and dialogue.

Recognizing that “the best discussions in science, medicine, business and politics have always been the civil ones”, ChangeThis publishes what it calls manifestos—proposals for change which serve as “a reasoned, rational call to action, supported by logic and facts”. The goal is to provide a forum for “the rational and thoughtful arguments that help people change their minds to a more productive point of view.” In the egalitarian spirit with which ChangeThis was founded, anyone is welcome to submit ideas for a manifesto.

Among the manifestos you will find at ChangeThis are “The Life Cycle of the Creative Soul“, “How to speak a teen’s language, even if you’re not one“, “Community Greens: Green Infrastructure and Community Revitalization“, and “Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas“. And bloggers who are having trouble finding meaning in what they do should read “Going Home“, a manifesto which envisions bloggers as part of something revolutionary and global–as mediators of Internet conversation and connection:

At the center of conversation is the blog. At the heart of the blog is the authentic voice…Our voice is so strong that it can be heard around the entire globe. We are amazed to find others far away who can hear us and who have the same tone…Community begins to form…

(Looking for more connection through the medium of the web? Visit this post of mine from earlier this year.)

Warning: The following blog post has absolutely nothing to do with mediation, conflict resolution, or negotiation. I’m posting it because it’s funny, it’s seasonal, and it’s a great example of the capacity of the human imagination to transcend its bounds in pursuit of subversiveness.

While perusing the latest edition of the Boston Phoenix, I stumbled across an article with the irresistible title: “Hacking Santa“, about Tulsa, Oklahoma, resident Josh McCormick. Josh was shopping in his local Wal-Mart in search of something to hack for submission to “You Can’t Show That in Tulsa!”, an avant-garde art show, when he suddenly had an epiphany there in the aisle of Wal-Mart: “One item out of the entire store screamed ‘hack me’ more than anything else. The $49.84 animatronic Santa Claus.”

Josh purchased the five-foot-tall “Animated Singing Santa” (”this singin’ Santa’s head turns, and he swings his hips while moving his mouth to the words of the song”), took it home, and hacked it. Instead of singing “Jingle Bells”, Josh’s Santa now utters phrases like “I can give you free stuff because I skimp on elf health care. Ho, ho, ho!”

Why hack Santa? As Josh explains on his web site,

Aside from an interesting hack, I actually had an artistic statement for this piece. “Who controls Santa Claus?” was the question I had hoped that viewers would walk away with. Today, it is the corporations who mass produce items (such as this) and media companies who tell stories. They have the power to redefine ‘public characters’ such as Santa and add or change their mythology. They do not directly own, but they control our shared mythology. But what are their goals? What biases do they have? And what limits their behavior? These are questions this piece asks.

You can read about Josh’s act of corporate subversion here, which includes instructions on hacking your own Santa.

Blawg Review, the weekly carnival of law blogs creatively hosted each week by a different blogger, has announced its first annual Blawg Review Awards.

Congratulations to all those who were singled out for recognition for their unique contributions to the law blog world. (A high-five to my friend Bob Ambrogi for getting the nod for Best Legal Podcast, sharing the honor with his Coast-to-Coast cohost J. Craig Williams.)

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument is an exchange of ignorance.

~ Robert Quillen

Negotiators, economists, game theorists, and mediators alike are probably familiar with Pareto optimality, which envisions the reallocation of resources among individuals so that the outcome for at least one individual can be improved without leaving anyone else worse off.

Here’s an interesting reflection on the recent New York City transit workers strike, from blogger Mike Goelzer, who wonders whether strikers and the city could have achieved Pareto optimality — avoiding disruption to commuters and loss to New York businesses while enabling the city and union to continue negotiating.

Goelzer links to “A Better Way to Go on Strike,” an essay originally published in the Wall Street Journal back in ’97 which proposes a creative way to address labor disputes while reducing the costs and collateral damage which traditional strikes result in.

(Thanks to Amit Gupta’s blog for this link.)

Today’s Boston Globe, my hometown rag, features a story on behavioral economics, a field of study which seeks to understand the psychology of economics—why do people behave the way they do in the marketplace?

This article describes studies of primate behavior which seem to indicate we humans possess an evolutionary tendency to prefer avoiding loss over acquiring gain. In a study conducted by two Yale professors, Keith Chen, an economist (who also teaches a course on negotiating strategy), and Laurie Santos, a psychologist, capuchin monkeys were taught how to use money—in this case, metal tokens which could be used as a medium of exchange.

In one experiment, monkeys were given the option to buy one grape, with a 50/50 chance of receiving a second grape. For the same amount of money, monkeys were given another option of buying two grapes, but would face a 50/50 chance of losing one of them. The odds and cost were identical for each option, but most monkeys went with the first option, not the second, demonstrating that they were much more interested in avoiding loss than maximizing gain.

This perhaps bears out what mediators see often in their practice—that a powerful motivation to settle can be the strong desire to minimize or avoid loss. The certainty that a negotiated settlement affords is often far more attractive than the risk of litigation.

But mediation provides more than the opportunity to avoid loss. What is compelling about mediation is its potential to enable disputants to maximize gain as well. If we are hard-wired, as these studies suggest, to prefer loss avoidance over the maximization of returns, to what extent does this propensity blind disputants to opportunities to maximize mutual gain? And what can mediators do to help disputants overcome these deeply ingrained tendencies to ensure that not only do disputants successfully minimize risk but at the same time, too, pull out all the stops on achieving the greatest gain possible?

To learn more about Chen’s and Santos’s studies (which records what is probably the first scientifically documented case of monkey sex for hire), read this hilarious article from Freakonomics.com, which describes not only the research on risk aversion, but also an experiment on cooperation which reveals how monkeys deal with their uncooperative peers.

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man’s observation, not overturning it.

~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

It’s a winter wonderland at this week’s Blawg Review, the weekly review of the best in law blogging, hosted this time by Wired GC, the nom de keyboard of an attorney-blogger who keeps his true identity under wraps to protect himself in his work as general counsel for a company somewhere in the heartland of America. Click here to check it out.

A continuing fascination for me is the depiction of conflict and negotiation in popular culture. As I have discovered, while depictions of conflict are common, depictions of conflict resolution in the media are quite rare.

Back in March I reported here on “Families at War”, a British television series which exposes the dynamics and roots of family conflict and documents the efforts of specially selected families to resolve their differences under a mediator’s guidance.

Media-watching mediators may be interested to learn that plans are underway here in the U.S. to turn the camera’s lens on divorce mediation. Independent television producer Kate Hudec is working with Massachusetts mediator Diane Neumann to create a documentary which will explore the experience of divorce mediation.

Neumann is currently seeking a divorcing couple willing to participate in this first-of-its-kind project. Information and a contact form are available here.

I’ve posted several times on the relevance of culture and cultural awareness to effective negotiation and conflict resolution (here and here), as well as, more recently, on the importance of both cultural and geographic literacy in an increasingly connected, economically interdependent world.

George Lenard, who founded and co-authors one of my favorite blogs and online employment law resources, George’s Employment Blawg, recently published a great post on “Another Aspect of Diversity: Cross-Cultural Awareness” with a link to a web site on international business etiquette with pointers to help the business traveler (and international negotiator) avoid social and communication blunders while abroad.

Fasten your seat belts and get ready for a high-speed ride through the legal blogosphere at this week’s Blawg Review, hosted by AutoMuse, a blog that covers automotive consumer and legal issues.

One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears—by listening to them.

~ Dean Rusk

ADR has become increasingly popular with the construction industry here in the U.S., which more and more recognizes the benefits that ADR can bring—cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and the ability to preserve business relationships. Recognizing this developing demand, a sizeable number of mediators and arbitrators specialize in the resolution of construction-related disputes.

All of us in ADR, regardless of what kind of specialization we focus on, look for ways to stay on top of news and developments in our field. Construction mediators and arbitrators should check out the growing number of construction law blogs as a great source for the latest in news and information on the construction industry.

These blogs include (in no particular order):

The Construction Law Blog
(published by Don Hawbaker, who is an attorney and a mediator with a most impressive background)

Construction Owners & Builders Law Blog
(author Robert Williamson was kind enough to link to my blog recently—thanks, Robert!)

Real Estate and Construction Law Blog
(which also covers environmental and land use law)

Build on This
(focusing on the real estate, construction, and land use industry)

Attorney Charles R. Schrader’s Construction Labor Law Blog

One of my New Year’s resolutions (hey, it’s never too early to start thinking about them, especially creative ways to break them) is to do a far better job of plugging Blawg Review, the carnival of law blogs hosted at a different law blog each week.

You should make a resolution yourself to be a frequent visitor–Blawg Review not only brings you the best of the week in legal blogging, but it showcases the creative genius and literary talents of the weekly hosts. See for yourself—this week’s edition, hosted at Infamy or Praise, is sublimely inspired by the verse and imagery of Dante’s Inferno.

Links to past and future hosts are listed in Blawg Review’s sidebar on its main page. And Blawg Review isn’t just for lawyers–anyone with a passion for the law will find much there that will inform, enlighten, and, yes, even amuse.

(And, on February 6, Blawg Review will be hosted by yours truly–to my knowledge the first mediator to do so. The pressure is on, since the quality has been absolutely top-notch. I’ve got extremely tough acts to follow.)

I really miss my friend Ashok Panikkar, who left Boston earlier this year to return to his native Bangalore to launch Meta-Culture, an ambitiously innovative and rapidly growing conflict resolution center.

Besides being a very dear friend, Ashok was for me a kind of 21st century de Tocqueville, a keen but affectionate observer of American political institutions and social mores.

One aspect of American culture that Ashok found especially curious (me, too, for that matter) is the schizophrenic way in which Americans construe the notion of privacy. On the one hand, we Americans insist that privacy is paramount, particularly in the home (which is, as everyone here knows, a man’s castle).

We place great value on our right to be free from governmental intrusion, and we insist that our medical histories, our video rental habits, our reproductive choices, and our handgun purchases are no one’s business but our own.

Yet we think nothing of using our cellphones to describe in the most intimate details—in public and at top volume in the presence of total strangers—our digestive ailments, in-law problems, and sexual escapades. We are also desperately eager to bare our souls and personal failings on reality television programs and talk shows. (I hasten to reassure my readers that I have personally not done any of those things. Yet.) The distinction between the private and public self has grown increasingly blurred.

“Public” versus “private” matters a lot to mediators: Those words can be said to define the line that separates alternative dispute resolution on the one hand from litigation on the other.

Litigation is a fully public activity—which to some measure is what makes it such effective leverage for settlement, particularly for swaying defendants who may be eager to avoid the embarrassing revelations discovery and trial could yield.

Mediation, on the other hand, by definition is confidential, a process unfolding privately behind closed doors. Privacy is what makes mediation eminently suitable for fruitful settlement discussions. Arbitration as well provides a private adjudication and resolution of issues.

One would suppose that privacy is a universal constant which all of us, regardless of which corner of the globe we occupy, value—and value similarly. It might therefore be easy to presume that all of us, particularly here in the West, recognize the concept of privacy as a means of honoring personal dignity and the inviolability of the integrity of the self.

As it turns out, defining privacy is not so easy—even among culturally similar societies: an enormous gulf in fact exists between American and European understandings of privacy. European traditions regarding privacy focus primarily upon the protection of personal dignity and honor; while Americans, on the other hand, often understand privacy to mean the sanctity of the home against intrusion by the state.

Yale Law School Professor James Q. Whitman illuminates and explores these differences, along with the legal, political and social traditions which explain and gave rise to them, in “The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity versus Liberty” (downloadable here in PDF).

Simultaneously serious scholarship and entertaining romp, this article takes readers from the public latrines of Ephesus (a phrase I never thought I’d ever find myself typing) to the scandals of the 19th century Parisian art scene to modern-day Washington and Monica Lewinsky. This is a fun and highly stimulating read.

It is now axiomatic that the world has become in many ways a smaller place. Technological advances, the Internet, the ease of intercontinental travel, the rapid dissemination of information and culture through media, and global economic interdependence have all worked to bind us more closely together.

Cultural awareness is critical—whether we are international negotiators or simply tourists. But it’s not just cultural literacy that matters in a multicultural world. To become responsible global citizens, we need to be geographically literate.

Geography is the starting point for our understanding of the world around us. Through geography we can make sense of the impact of current events that affect the international community. Geography, too, helps us map the landscape of conflict. Disputes over resources and borders, political instability, terrorism, climate change, natural disasters—these have international repercussions. Whether it’s violence in the Middle East or the latest outbreak of avian flu, geographic literacy matters.

Speaking of geography, there’s ample evidence that here in the U.S., Americans may be geographically challenged. There’s the infamous 2002 National Geographic survey revealing how lamentably little young Americans know of world geography: 11 percent of American responding to the survey couldn’t even place the U.S. on a world map, and fewer than 15 percent could locate Iraq or Israel.

(However, just to put this all in perspective, the survey revealed that geographic illiteracy is a worldwide phenomenon. Although Americans scored second from the bottom in final survey scores, respondents struggled overall with many of the survey questions.) To take the test yourself, click here.

Although Americans’ grasp of geography may be shaky, there’s always the chance for us to redeem ourselves by testing ourselves on our knowledge of U.S. geography. Click here for a drop-and-drag test on your knowledge of the geographical location of the 50 states on a map of the U.S. (Thanks to sharp-eyed Bob Kraft and his law blog P.I.S.S.D. [Personal Injury, Social Security Disability] for that link.)

Looking beyond to the world at large, visit NationMaster.com, an incredible resource for statistical comparisons of data compiled on the nations of the world. You can take a look at top statistics (which nations are the richest? most corrupt? most trigger-happy?) or search categories ranging from agriculture to energy to lifestyle to education.

You can also broaden your horizons with GeographyIQ.com, which provides facts and figures on every country on the planet through an interactive world map. It even has a currency converter for those of you making international travel plans.

Curious to know what time it is anywhere in the world? Before you pick up the phone in Vancouver to call your old college roommate in Nairobi, visit WorldTimeServer.com.

Finally, if you want to test your cultural literacy instead of your geographic literacy, try your hand at these cultural awareness tests (answers here—but no peeking). And Bill Warters at Campus-ADR Tech Blog has a cool link to this quiz on cross-cultural negotiation.

Readers who exulted to learn here last month that Harry Potter is at last the focus of legal scholarship will have more to celebrate.

A conference held this past summer on The Power of Stories: Intersections of Law, Culture & Literature has yielded, among other things, a collection of essays exploring the themes of the conference against the backdrop of Harry’s world.

This collection, available now at the Social Science Research Network web site, includes the Aaron Schwabach article, as well as essays exploring such topics as “How Rowling’s Law of Families is not Family Law,” “Status, Rules and the Enslavement of the House-Elves,” and “Magic and Contract: The Role of Intent”. Click here for the abstract and to download in PDF.

The underpopulated world of ADR blogs has suddenly become a less lonely place.

Divorce Resolutions, LLC, Colorado Center for Divorce Mediation, has announced the official launch of two blogs: FamilyCraft: The Private Practice of Family and Divorce Mediation, sharing reflections on the rewards and challenges of divorce mediation practice, and Colorado DivorcePoint!, which offers visitors the latest news on Colorado family and divorce law, divorce mediation, and co-parenting.

Besides checking out these blogs, definitely pay a visit to Colorado Center for Divorce Mediation’s award-winning web site—a welcoming and user-friendly resource for anyone who wants to find a more civilized way to navigate the difficulties that divorce and family conflicts can bring. This web site demystifies the mediation process, provides resources for parents and families, has links for downloadable forms, and even features a Kids’ Divorce Art Gallery.

This is one of the most comprehensive, easily accessible, and visually pleasing web sites I have encountered. Divorce and family mediators in search of ideas for enhancing their own web presence should plan to stop by.