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.
by Diane Levin on September 22, 2006
in Mediation
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?
