Anyone who trains mediators is always on the lookout for good videos for training or teaching purposes. They’re tough to come by. Finding free videos is even harder.

Thanks to the efforts of Professor James Coben of Hamline University School of Law Dispute Resolution Institute, 20 videos depicting mediation in litigation contexts are available for downloading, all at no cost. (Some of you may remember that Professor Coben is also the author of one of my favorite articles on mediation, in part because of its great title, “Gollum, Meet Sméagol: A Schizophrenic Rumination on Mediator Values Beyond Self Determination and Neutrality” (PDF), discussed here in a post from last year.)

All that Professor Coben, who produced these videos, asks in return is that you notify him if you’re using the videos and let him know the context, and of course to provide proper attribution before showing them. A very small price to pay indeed.

Some of the videos are better than others, and downloading should definitely not be attempted without a high-speed internet connection. What makes some of these vignettes especially fun are the deliberate mistakes here and there you’ll see the actor-mediators make–lots of food for thought and discussion here.

Thanks to my colleague and friend, Melinda Gehris, for the link.

Many, many thanks to readers who were kind enough to respond to my recent survey. I greatly appreciated your thoughtful comments and suggestions.

I was happy to learn that there’s much here at Online Guide to Mediation that you like. Most of you enjoy the eclectic range of topics covered here, which was nice to know. Someone even asked me for a date for last Friday night, but that turned out to be my husband. (You know it’s time to adjust the work-life balance thing when desperation drives your spouse to communicate with you via an online survey.)

Your suggestions for changes or improvement included:

• More coverage of topics related to ADR in employment and business contexts
• More coverage of ADR and technology
• More links and resources for ADR practitioners, particularly for educators and students
• More articles that examine the social and cultural implications of ADR
• Greater exploration of the influence and impact that lawyers and the law, together with ADR, each bring to bear on the other
• Less emphasis on lawyers and legal issues in ADR

I will do my best to be responsive to these ideas. It was helpful for me to know what you need.

I do, however, want to speak to that last suggestion. My friend Tammy Lenski wrote an eloquent post on the professional mediator and asked that once and for all we dispense with the terms “attorney-mediator” and “non-attorney mediator” because of the degree to which those terms marginalize fellow members of our own profession or devalue those who are not lawyers. She proposed a new nomenclature: that we call ourselves instead “professional mediators”. I agree.

In writing this blog I similarly do not want to marginalize or alienate those of you who come from a field that is different from mine. Many of my readers do. Many share my professional background. But all of us come from a vast range of personal and professional backgrounds. We all bring a lot to this table that is the Web.

My hope is that this blog offers something for everyone. I envisioned it as a kind of smorgasbord of ideas relating to ADR, allowing readers to heap their plates with what appeals and skipping over those offerings which are not to their taste. Some of you, I hope, have been tempted to sample new or unaccustomed flavors just to say that you’ve tried it once.

However, I am not just a mediator. I’m also an attorney. My training and my work — both kinds — influence my writing, color and flavor my ideas and the ways in which I express them. The law is an integral part of me. It casts its long shadow over much of the work that I do as a mediator. It is implicit in the phrase “alternative dispute resolution”, since it is the thing that mediation serves as an alternative to.

I am, I suppose, a chimera. I identify myself as both law blogger and ADR blogger. In my writing and my work, I straddle two worlds–two worlds which I have tried to reconcile and bring together here.

Therefore, I must apologize in advance to anyone who requested less emphasis on legal issues. I try to ensure that my posts on ADR outweigh my posts on the law, but often it is not possible to speak of one without the other. I heard your concern, and I am grateful that you raised it. And I hope you will understand why for me, someone who is both an attorney and a mediator, I cannot abandon the subject–for me, in fact, the life–of the law altogether. It is what I hope makes my voice unique.

Of course if any of you have specific suggestions for topics, or have discovered a web site or online resources you’d like me to post about, let me know. (And of course I’ll credit you if I’m able to use the lead you provide.)

Thank you again. And please remember, your comments are always welcome.

Back in July I published a post entitled “Don’t sell yourself short: why fair compensation should matter to mediators“, a polemic on the tendency within the mediation profession to devalue the work that all of us do.

This post touched a powerfully responsive chord among my readers. Two months later, I’m still hearing from you about it. I have received numerous electronic shouts of “Amen” from ADR professionals who thanked me for speaking out on this issue and who wished to add their voice to the growing chorus of mediators insisting upon fair compensation for their services.

There’s more to it, however, than getting paid for the work we do. It’s also about demanding–and receiving–the recognition that every profession deserves. We are, absolutely, professionals. And let’s not let the rest of the world–or ourselves–forget that.

Pursuing that theme, incidentally, were two mediators who took the time to post smart, insightful comments, which I direct your attention to now (several weeks after they were first created, alas, no thanks to the hand surgery I underwent, but definitely worth the wait). Read these comments, and see if you don’t find yourself shouting out “Amen” as well.

Two new blogs have been catalogued, classified, and posted to the World Directory of ADR Blogs, my ongoing project tracking alternative dispute resolution weblogs around the globe.

These new additions, one from the East Coast, one from the West Coast, here in the U.S., are:

• New York Center for Interpersonal Development’s Blog Spot. This blog is published by the New York Center for interpersonal Development, which provides training and services for conflict management, youth and community development, effective communication and intercultural awareness. Its motto? “Strengthening Communities, Improving Relationships”. This blog actively solicits reader participation–see for example “Does the Internet Encourage Dialogue?” and “The Riddler“, two posts that caught my attention.
• San Francisco Mediation. Written by San Francisco, California, mediator and attorney Paula M. Lawhon, this mediation blog offers visitors information and discussion on mediation as an alternative dispute resolution process, including the benefits of mediation, advice for those thinking of mediating a case, and the expanding role of mediation in civil and family law matters.

A warm welcome to both these blogs.

(As always, if you wish to add your blog or someone else’s to the World Directory of ADR Blogs, please let me know. It’s a commercial-free site, and there is no cost to be listed. The Directory has information on submitting your blog and submission guidelines. I’m especially interested in hearing about blogs outside the U.S. On my wish list? An ADR blog from Australia—there must be one out there somewhere, given mediation’s high level of visibility in that corner of the globe.)

Technorati tags: alternative dispute resolution, blogging, mediation, mediation blogs, conflict resolution

Regular readers may remember “What’s bugging us: Cockroaches rival humans in ability to make decisions as groups“, a post that signaled my return to blogging following a brief break.

I now return to blogging at the end of a similar break. Therefore, it seemed somehow fitting to do so with a post that explores a related theme. This one concerns not cockroaches, but an even lowlier lifeform: germs.

Not only do cockroaches work well in groups, but so, too, do bacteria, according to “A Biologist’s Listening Guide to Bacteria“, a recent story on National Public Radio, which featured an interview with Bonnie Bassler, a professor of molecular biology at Princeton University, who has made some intriguing discoveries regarding marine bacteria.

Bassler’s work demonstrated the capacity of these tiny organisms to actually communicate with each other. In studies done on glow-in-the-dark bacteria, Bassler and her assistants learned that

It turns out that when one of these bacteria is all alone, it doesn’t glow. After all, that would be a waste of effort because nothing could ever see such a tiny amount of light. But it does send out chemical signals that say, hey I’m here … and it listens back for other bacteria sending the same signal.

When enough bacteria are doing this, they know they have a quorum. All of a sudden, they light up and do all sorts of other things to act in concert, like a super-organism.

“So they turn on and off 100 different genes, to let them turn off behaviors that are good when you’re alone and turn on genes that are good when you are a community. And for reasons we don’t understand, the gene that lets them make this beautiful blue light is one of the genes they turn on,” Bassler says.

Okay, folks, if cockroaches and bacteria can communicate and work together, what’s up with us humans? Hmmm?

You have probably noticed that I’ve been uncustomarily silent this past week. This silence is due to the minor surgery I had to undergo last week on my right hand. Needless to say, it’s made typing a little challenging.

When I’ve regained my manual dexterity, which I hope will happen by the end of this week, you’ll be hearing more from me.

In the meantime, thanks for visiting. I’ll look forward to continuing our conversation in just a few more days. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, as I recuperate, you may be interested in reading “The Effect of 9/11 On The Field of Conflict and Dispute Resolution”, an essay by Professor Calvin Sharpe posted at Case Western Reserve University School of Law’s Institute for Global Security and Law Policy blog, which hosts this week’s edition of Blawg Review.

From September 25 through 29, the folks at the Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution (CITDR), in conjunction with the InternetBar.org, are hosting Cyberweek 2006, an annual online conference.

CITDR has this to say about the events that are planned:

Cyberweek consists of many different kinds of activities and opportunities, from Skypecasts to meetings in virtual worlds to Podcasts to discussion forums and more. Cyberweek is a free all-online conference and we invite you join us in both asynchronous and real-time events. Last year, we had several hundred participants from over forty countries and we are working to have a most ambitious program this year.

A list of Cyberweek programs (still under development) can be viewed at the Cyberweek web site.

Not only is Cyberweek a free event, it’s also an inclusive one: you don’t have to be a tech-savvy online dispute resolution practitioner to take part and have fun. Anyone with an interest in exploring the intriguing crossroads of conflict resolution and digital technology is welcome. Participants as I have happily discovered are friendly, encouraging, and glad to answer questions.

See you there!

One of my favorite weekly features in the local newspaper, the Boston Globe, appears each Sunday. “The Globalist Quiz” tests readers’ knowledge of the world around them.

The Globalist Quiz comes courtesy The Globalist, a web site dedicated to increasing understanding of world politics, culture, and economics by bringing to its visitors a wealth of information, resources, and regular features, including a Global Diary, a Globalist Factsheet, and of course the Globalist Quiz. A great way to start thinking globally.

If you’ve like to explore other web sites that increase global awareness, visit “New world view order: web site promotes ‘culturosity’” and “Acting globally: the importance of intercultural awareness for the international business traveler“.

The Federation of American Scientists has created a Nuclear Weapon Effects Calculator to bring home to Americans the devastating effects of a nuclear blast. Select your nearest U.S. city from the dropdown menu, choose the weapon yield (kilotons or megatons), and designate the delivery method–automobile or aircraft–to reveal in a chilling and deeply disturbing way the area of impact and the degree of destruction.

A quietly compelling case for nonproliferation if there ever was one.

(Thanks to Collision Detection.)

Within the next couple of weeks I will be publishing my 400th post here at Online Guide to Mediation.

Anniversaries of all kinds present a natural opportunity for taking both stock and perspective, and I would welcome your help with that. I’d really like to know what you like about this blog and what I can do better.

I have just a few questions for you, so it shouldn’t take up too much of your time. Your feedback means a great deal. Please click here for the online survey.

It’s completely anonymous, too (which means even my friends get to tell me what they think of this blog without worrying about hurting my feelings).

Ready? Then please go ahead and visit the survey, which will remain open to your responses until 5:00 EST on Sunday, September 17.

Thanks to everyone, of course, whether you take the survey or not–I’m always glad that you dropped by.

Alternative dispute resolution practitioners who specialize in workplace conflict will want to visit this week’s edition of Blawg Review, the review of the best of the week in legal blogging, hosted by the Workplace Prof Blog.

A member of the Law Professor Blogs Network and co-authored by law professors Richard Bales and Paul Secunda, this blog tracks and reports on developments in labor and employment law, including matters relating to alternative dispute resolution and the workplace, particularly arbitration. (Workplace Prof Blog is also listed in the World Directory of ADR Blogs.)

Next week’s Blawg Review will also be of interest to those of us in the conflict resolution field–it is hosted on Monday, September 11, by Case Western Reserve University School of Law’s Institute for Global Security and Law Policy blog.

For those of you unfamiliar with Blawg Review, it constitutes a vital resource for news, ideas, and information regarding law and jurisprudence. If you practice or study law, if your work occupies the nexus between law and other fields, if staying informed about trends in legal issues matters to you, Blawg Review is your source. Or, if you simply want to be a better blogger, introduce yourself to Blawg Review, which each week introduces readers to exemplars of blogging excellence, as well as links to articles like uberbloggers Jim Calloway and Tom Mighell’s recent work, “Blawg: Marketing Your Practice with a Weblog“, appearing in the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Today–with advice that works for mediators, too.