For just $19.95 a year, Deathswitch, a new web service promising to “bridge mortality”, allows users to communicate important information after death with surviving family members, colleagues, and others.

Among the uses Deathswitch advertises that it is suitable for are expressing final wishes, disclosing “unspeakable secrets”, and, not surprisingly, having the “last word in an argument”.

This proves yet again the extremes to which people will go to avoid difficult conversations. We mediators evidently need to improve our marketing strategy.

Darn. I guess I can’t avoid it. I’ve been tagged by not just one but two bloggers, Justin Patten and Colin Rule, to participate in the current game of memetag. (A memetag is the blogosphere’s equivalent of a chain letter. It requires an act on the recipient’s part–in this case to recount five things you don’t know about me–and then the recipient must “tag” others to pass it along. Fortunately nothing bad happens if you break the chain.)

Okay, here goes.

1. You probably know that I was a litigator before I became a mediator. What you probably don’t know, however, is that I really, really, really liked being a litigator. I was highly competitive, liked winning, and loved the performance art theatre that was the courtroom. Not only did I have fun writing briefs, but I especially adored oral argument. And you know what? I still miss it. Shhhh. Just don’t tell the other mediators.

2. When my husband Steve and I got married, we ran away to Las Vegas to do it. And no, we were not married by a parachuting Elvis Presley impersonator.

3. I’m a great cook who has entered numerous recipe contests and won cash prizes. My husband’s got the cholesterol level to prove it.

4. There’s a commonly held assumption (and, like most assumptions, wrong) that all American mediators are registered Democrats. I’m not. I’m an independent. (However, I’m still a card-carrying member of the ACLU.)

5. On a dare, I once walked across a 20-foot-long bed of live coals.

I tag Geoff Sharp, Victoria Pynchon, Perry Itkin, Stephanie West Allen, and Christoph Stroyer (just to send this game into the German-speaking part of the blogosphere). No pressure, folks!

It’s nice to start the new year with two additions to the World Directory of ADR Blogs. They are:

Resolución Electrónica de Disputas. This Spanish language weblog is published by an internationally known authority on negotiation and online dispute resolution, Alberto Elisavetsky, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From the web site: “La idea de comezar a desarrollar este Blog, es a efectos que podamos generar un proyecto Latinoamericano de (RED) Resolucion Electronica de Disputas, que tenga en cuenta nuestras lenguas, y nuestras particularidades regionales.Por ello invito a todos los amigos Latinoamericanos, a participar de este foro, a efectos de intercambiar experiencias y/u opinions.”

Mediators Without Borders. “Working for a Sustainable Peace” is the motto of the newly launched blog of Mediators Without Borders, a non-profit provider of pro bono conflict resolution capacity building within post-conflict communities. Victoria Pynchon, an attorney and mediator who has proven time and again her commitment to the field of alternative dispute resolution, and publisher of several blogs including the deservedly well respected Settle It Now Negotiation Blog, serves as editor.

This brings the current head count at the World Directory to 94.

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.

The arrival of 2007 finds several alternative dispute resolution bloggers boasting brand-new web addresses. If you haven’t done so already, please make sure that you’ve updated your RSS feeds, subscription information or bookmarks for the following blogs:

Victoria Pynchon’s Settle It Now Negotiation Blog (now at http://www.negotiationlawblog.com/)

Gini Nelson’s Engaging Conflicts (now at http://engagingconflicts.com/)

Christoph Stroyer’s Master of Mediation (now at http://masterofmediation.wordpress.com/)

Colin Rule’s eponymous blog (now at http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/colin-rule)

Best wishes to these four bloggers on their new locations.