Collaborative lawyer and ADR professional David Hoffman, in an op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor, asks, “Microsoft and Yahoo: Where were the mediators?“

David makes the strong case that mediation could have made all the difference, getting these digital technology giants to yes:

In the Microsoft-Yahoo negotiations, a mediator could have helped in several concrete ways.

First, since disagreements about the price of a company usually turn on financial predictions, mediators can help the parties structure creative options for mitigating their risks. Acquisition agreements often contain “earn-out” provisions that award benefits to the seller if the deal turns out to be a winner for the buyer. Without any investment in the outcome, mediators become “honest brokers” who can advance such ideas without the perception that they are seeking an advantage based on secret knowledge.

Second, a mediator can help the parties obtain neutral and independent opinions – as opposed to the potentially partisan opinions of the parties’ hired experts, lawyers, and investment bankers.

Third, a “mediator’s proposal” can test the waters of compromise. Let’s say the mediator asks each side to tell the mediator – on a confidential basis – whether they would accept a deal at $35 per share. This protocol means the mediator will report the answers only if both sides say “yes.” Thus, each side can take the risk of saying yes because the other side will never know unless they, too, have said yes.

Considering that mediation is “assisted negotiation“, it’s time for all of us who mediate to draw attention to the fact that mediation is not just for settling cases on their way to court or already in litigation — mediation makes sense whenever people want to negotiate better and smarter.

Read the rest of David’s commentary here.

Susan Jacoby, the author of The Age of American Unreason, a polemic on anti-intellectualism in the U.S., has accused Americans of a lack of global awareness. There is indeed evidence to support her views: a geographic literacy study conducted by National Geographic in 2006 found that six in 10 Americans ages 18 to 24 cannot locate Iraq on a map of the Middle East.

Even more depressing is the news that “fewer than three in 10 of those surveyed think it is absolutely necessary to know where countries in the news are located. Only 14 percent believe speaking another language fluently is a necessary skill.”

In an effort to build global knowledge and increase geographic literacy among American youths, National Geographic has created My Wonderful World, with tools and resources for parents, educators, and students.

Interested in more sites and online tools for increasing global knowledge or improving your ability to interact with those of other cultures and countries? Check out these posts from the Mediation Channel vaults:

“New world (view) order: Web site promotes culturosity and intercultural awareness”

“Online game tests knowledge of world geography”

“Geography has made us neighbors: the importance of geographic literacy in the 21st century”

“Internet as mediator: web sites provide online resources for building community and conversation”

Brevity, said the Bard, is the soul of wit.

If you seek proof of the truth of that maxim, then look no further than What About Clients?, one of the very best of the legal blogs. Irreverent, edgy, and smart, with a keen international focus, What About Clients? has long made the case that in a flat world, savvy American lawyers eager to retain their competitive edge must look beyond U.S. borders and across the seas for news, ideas, and business.

Practicing what it preaches, WAC? recently assumed a new name (What About Paris?) and a new slogan (”News and ideas on clients, customers, business and law around the globe”). What remains unchanged of course are the crisp writing, dangerously sharp ideas, and the extensive list of international blogs in the site’s sidebars.