Arbitration & Mediation

The ABC's of Conflict Thanks the ADR Blogosphere and Mediate.com

By Victoria Pynchon

(pictured:  the Queen of the ADR Blogosphere ~Diane Levin of the Mediation Channel and the World Directory of ADR Blogs)

I began to blog on ADR topics in 2006 when I stumbled over local mediator Jeff Krivis' blog (thanks Jeff!) I've often said that the blogosphere is a small Midwestern town where the residents feel safe enough to keep their doors unlocked at night and everyone has carte blanche to walk into the neighbors' kitchens, open their refrigerators and taste whatever gustatory pleasures await their curiosity.

Chief among my guides and colleagues in this generous and collaborative world was and is the brilliant and savvy Diane Levin whose Mediation Channel andWorld Directory of ADR Blogs set the standard high enough to keep me blogging in an effort to reach it. Others in the blogosphere who directly or indirectly contributed to the book include Tammy Lenski (Conflict Zen),Stephanie West Allen (Idealawg and Brains on Purpose), Geoff Sharp(formerly of Mediator Blah Blah and now of the m3 blog); John DeGroote(Settlement Perspectives); Jan Frankel Schau (Mediation Insights), Phyllis Pollack (PGP Mediation Blog), Jeff Thompson (Enjoy Mediation), Karl Bayer,Victoria VanBuren, and Holly Hayes (Disputing Blog), Lee Jay Berman (Eye On Conflict Blog) and the Professors behind the ADR Prof Blog (Andrea Schneider, Michael Moffitt, Sarah Cole, Art Hinshaw, Jill Gross, and Cynthia Alkon).

No list of mediation writers would be complete without Jim Melamed and John Ford, both of mediate.com which published my first mediation article back in 2005. They provide a home for mediators and the work that mediators do with passion, pride and the promise of a better tomorrow. To these wonderful folks I dedicate the chapter N is for Neighbor.

Special thanks also goes to anonymous Ed. of Blawg Review for whom I spent many happy months as a 'sherpa,' finding and recommending the best law blog posts of the week for inclusion of that mainstay of the legal blogosphere. Though I personally know Ed. to be bold and forthright, because he has remained anonymous all of these years, I am irresistibly drawn to dedicate to him the chapter P is for Paranoid.

And if you're looking to purchase the ABC's ~ you've come to the right place! ~ here they are ~ A is for Asshole, the Grownups' ABC's of Conflict Resolution.

Full post as published by Settle It Now Negotiation Blog on October 24, 2010 (boomark / email).