Software for Computer-Supported Dispute-Resolution

This Workshop will take place within the 15th International
Symposium "Informatics for Environmental Protection", October
10 to 12, 2001, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. The main theme of
the conference is "Sustainability in the Information Society".

http://ais.gmd.de/~maerker/online-mediation/workshop2/

Organizing Committee:
Thomas F. Gordon*,
Oliver Märker*,
Matthias Trénel**,
Angi Voss*

We would like to invite you to our workshop. You are welcome
to submit a paper - please have a look at the current Call for
Papers below.

Background

Achieving sustainable development is an issue of increasing
importance. Against the background of rapid development and
dissemination of advanced information and communication
technologies (ICT), a critical question is how to make effective
use of the potential of ICT to faciliate the ecological, economic,
and social goals of sustainable development.

From an institutional point of view, strategies must be developed
for enhancing citizen participation, fostering new forms of dispute
resolution, and balancing interests. Computer-supported
participation and conflict resolution might be a new and
important option for developing information societies, to deal
with the complex and conflict-ridden goals of sustainable
development, to find constructive solutions in the context of
Local Agenda 21 processes, and to facilitate sustainable city and
regional planning.

Question and objectives
The goal of the workshop is to provide an overview of the
current state of development and use of software in the field of
dispute resolution. Therefore, the main questions of the
workshop are:
* Which software tools for Online Dispute Resolution are
available?
* For which fields of application have these tools been
developed?
* How have these tools been used in practice and with what
results and effects?
Not only software tools and procedures for e-government
domains, such as environmental mediation, will be considered,
but also tools which are in use for helping to resolve conflicts in
the private sector:
From negotiation tools for simple, bilateral conflicts (Blind-
Bidding Systems, Automatized Procedures) up to tools for
supporting collaborative work in the context of complex,
multilateral conflicts (international mediation, environmental
mediation). Software for mediation processes which are to be
carried out exclusively on the net, as well as applications which
are embedded in procedures which combine face-to-face
meetings with phases of computer-mediated communication. We
are also interested in contributions about the social issues to be
considered when designing and deploying such systems.


Further Goals
The goal of the workshop is to transfer and apply tools,
concepts, methods and other results from the general world of
Online Dispute Resolution to the specific problems of the field of
computer-supported environmental conflict resolution:
* Which software tools for Online Mediation can be useful for
computer-supported conflict resolution in city and regional
planning and why?
* Which particular functions or features of existing tools are of
particular interest for computer-supported environmental conflict
resolution?
* Which issues require further research and development?

Call for Papers

Contributions to the workshop are welcome! Please read the
following information. Contributions should answer most of the
following questions:

1. Which kind of software do you have in mind?
Note: Alternatively to existing software which is being
developed, also theoretical concepts or models could be
described here. Concepts or models which may constitute the
basis for future development work towards new types of
software tools or functionalities for different fields of computer-
supported dispute resolution. So this question and the following
ones could be related to both existing software and theoretical
concepts.

2. In which field of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) the
particular software (or internet-service/s) is being used / or is
supposed to be used, or to which field of ODR your theoretical
concept is related?

3. How is the software (the internet service) supposed to be
used?
o "within the software" --> Which concepts, discourse rules,
procedures have been implemented, or which ones - according
to theoretical concepts - should be implemented?
o "outside of the software" --> According to which concepts,
discourse rules, procedures, ideas the software is supposed to
be used?

4. Which experiences have been collected so far and/or which
results or effects are to be expected in the future?
Or: Which impacts might have existing theoretical concepts on
the practice of computer-supported conflict resolution?

5. Which experiences might be transmitted to the field of
environmental conflict resolution, or more general, to public
participation and conflict resolution procedures (e.g. in urban
and regional planning)? Which not? Or: Which theoretical
concepts could be transferred to and utilized?

Deadline for submission of extended abstracts - no more than 3
pages (type size 11pt, line spacing 1.5) - is May 11.

Notification about accepted papers will be given until May 6.
Accepted contributions will be published as full papers in the
conference proceedings and can be presented in the Workshop
(20 min.). Extent of full paper: a maximum of 10 pages in the
layout as determined by the formatting guidelines of the
metropolis publisher - please have a look at Author Information
of the conference. Note: The deadlines of this workshop deviate
from the set dates of the congress!

Deadline for the full paper is May 31.

Submission Address: The authors are requested to sent their
extended abstracts - no more than 3 pages - electronically as
RTF, Word or PDF file. Please send the abstract - no more
than 3 pages, type size 11pt, line spacing 1.5 - not later than
May 11 to [log in to unmask] and CC to
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Contact
* GMD Forschungszentrum Informationstechnik GmbH, Institut
für Autonome intelligente Systeme, Mediationssysteme Team,
Schloss Birlinghoven, D-53754 Sankt Augustin. ** WZB
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Abteilung Normbildung und
Umwelt, Reichpietschufer 50, D-10785 Berlin


___________________________________________________

Dipl. Psych. Matthias Trenel

Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fuer Sozialforschung
Abteilung Normbildung und Umwelt

Social Science Research Center Berlin
Research Unit Standard-setting and the Environment

Reichpietschufer 50
D - 10785 Berlin

Tel:    +49 30 25491 281 (Mo-Mi)
        +49 351 463 5367 (Do-Fr)
Fax:    +49 30 2549 1219

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http://www.wz-berlin.de/~trenel