To help Americans separate fact from fiction in the media they consume, a new web site has launched, Ameritocracy, which describes itself as

a user-contributed and user-generated content site that allows people to judge the accuracy, credibility and relevancy of claims made by society’s leaders and information gatekeepers such as media and business.

The Ameritocracy community, made up of anyone who signs up for an account, submits and then rates quotes based on several scales, including accuracy, credibility, and relevance.

I’m personally not about to put my trust in the wisdom of crowds to help me assess the accuracy of the news stories or political claims presidential candidates make — not when at one time 70% of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was linked to the attacks of 9/11 — and a disturbingly significant number continue to. I’ll trust to other sources for fact-checking, thank you very much.

Thanks to the always insightful Sanjana Hattotuwa at ICT for Peacebuilding for the link.

The College of William and Mary has posted an interview with Mitchell Reiss, Vice Provost for International Affairs, who explains the art of negotiation and describes his experience negotiating with North Korea in this short video.

One of the most important qualities a negotiator possesses is patience, according to Reiss, who observes that it “isn’t just a virtue, it becomes a tactical advantage” at the negotiation table.

If you’re interested in learning more about international negotiation or ADR in international contexts, don’t forget about International Dispute Negotiation, the excellent podcast series by Michael McIlwrath, Senior Counsel, Litigation for GE Infrastructure - Oil & Gas, based at his company’s headquarters in Florence, Italy.

Recent offerings include:

• Inside the ICC’s Case Management Processes, Part I
• Dispute Resolution in Malaysia
• Arbitrator Bias - An Interview with Sophie Nappert

Michael plays engaging host in conversations with some of the best and the brightest from around the globe. You can view the archive of previous episodes to find more.

Many thanks to Judge Robert Vonada blogging at Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Journal, who was kind enough to alert his readers that “Mediation Practice Well Represented in Blogs“, linking to Mediate.com’s Featured Blogs.

Judge Vonada writes, “Mediators have the ambition and the aptitude to produce very useful blogs on the subject.”