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Getting
to Yes with Blogging: Time for ADR Practitioners to Join the Conversation
from "Online
Guide to Mediation" by Diane
Levin
This post is the first in a series of essays on blogging for alternative dispute
resolution professionals that will unfold over the course of the summer.
Blogging, after all, is an ideal medium for sharing ideas, transmitting
knowledge, engaging in dialogue, and connecting with others in our field. My
hope is that blogging will fire the imagination of conflict resolvers to the
degree it has for other professions and endeavors.
One of the benefits of membership in the Association
for Conflict Resolution is the subscription to its quarterly magazine, ACResolution.
I had eagerly awaited the Spring 2006 issue since its theme was "Marketing
Your ADR Practice: How to Make Conflict Resolution Your Day Job." I figured
that somewhere in there there'd definitely be something on blogging, maybe even
an entire article devoted to blogs.
As it turned out, I was wrong. There wasn't a single mention of the word
"blog" anywhere in the entire issue.
Not even, to my utter amazement, in an article on "Marketing Your Mediation
Practice on the Internet". How could a national publication with a sizeable
circulation fail to include blogs in a whole issue devoted to marketing? And how
could blogs have been omitted entirely from an article specifically on marketing
on the internet?
This seemed symptomatic to me of blogging’s overall invisibility to the ADR
community--something I am determined to change.
The influence of blogging cannot be denied: blogs have shaped our political
processes, transformed the way we conduct and market our businesses,
revolutionized the dissemination of knowledge and information, and redefined
journalism.
For ADR practitioners and scholars to understand the significance of blogs, it
may be helpful to consider its impact on an allied field: the law.
Students, scholars, and practitioners of law have seized upon blogging as a
medium for debating, transmitting, and developing ideas and theories about law
and its practice. Law blogs (known as "blawgs") have radically changed
dialogue and scholarship on legal issues, leading Dahlia
Lithwick, senior editor of Slate,
to
recently observe:
The most compelling,
cutting-edge, honest legal writing being produced in this country today is
happening on the Internet, and the crop improves daily. From the fistful of
judges (including Richard Posner) who maintain regular blogs, to the vast and
growing number of law professors and law students who find the time to post
daily, it's clear that the real bones and guts and sinew of the national
conversation is happening online, and not in print.
Law blogs have become such an integral and influential part of the legal
landscape that no less a bastion of legal scholarship than Harvard
Law School recently held a symposium on "Bloggership:
How Blogs are Transforming Legal Scholarship" at its Berkman Center for
Internet & Society. (Papers presented at this symposium may be downloaded
at the Social Science Research Network.)
Although law blogs emerged only as recently as 2002, today there are over 1,500,
according to "Blog
2.0: The Next Stage of Lawyer Blogging", a recent article published on
the American Bar Association web site by
influential law blogger Tom
Mighell. Law blogs, which launched a revolution in communication for the
legal community, have gained such momentum that they are now rapidly moving
toward a "next stage" as the title of Mighell's article reflects.
It seems surprising then that the popularity and success of law blogging have
not been duplicated among ADR practitioners and scholars, given how many
parallels lie between our field and the law.
Alternative dispute resolution, like the law, has produced dazzling scholarship,
influential texts, and numerous symposia, conferences, and initiatives. Despite
its relatively short history as a modern movement, it enjoys a rich tradition of
intellectual endeavor and advancement, produced through collaboration and
communication among its adherents. It is a field by virtue of its very nature
that promotes and pursues the exchange of philosophies, beliefs, and ideas. It
is all about conversation.
So, too, is blogging which provides an ideal medium for mutual discovery,
exchange of knowledge, and fostering connection. And all you need is a computer,
an Internet connection, and an idea to share.
Despite the slow initial growth of ADR blogs, both momentum and awareness are
building.
The National Institute for Advanced Conflict
Resolution (NIACR) recently made history in announcing the winners of its
first Annual
Mediation Blog Roundup. This award, the very first of its kind, goes far to
legitimize and gain recognition for blogging in the conflict resolution field.
My deepest appreciation to NIACR for raising the public profile of conflict
resolution bloggers.
In addition, the editors at ACResolution contacted me in the spring to
ask me to write a 500-word article on blogging which will appear in the Summer
2006 issue. That's exciting, too, since this is the first time (to the best of
my knowledge) that ACResolution has ever published a piece on blogging.
The issue comes out this month (although unfortunately it won’t be available
online).
Meanwhile, the number of ADR bloggers is growing. Since I launched the World
Directory of ADR Blogs just a few weeks ago, I've already added more than a
dozen new titles, and others will be coming soon.
Interested? There are ways that you can contribute to the conversation:
If you need help or have questions about blogging, count on me as your
resource. Get in touch with me or the other ADR bloggers who are out there. And
please check back here at Online
Guide to Mediation for more articles in this series on blogging as I share
with you the benefits that publishing a blog can bring.
About The Author
Diane Levin is a mediator, trainer, attorney and founder of Partnering
Solutions, LLC, a dispute resolution firm based in the Greater Boston
area. More articles of interest can be found at her mediation blog
"Online Guide to Mediation" at http://www.mediationblog.blogspot.com.
Disclaimer
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