Mobiles and ODR: Why We Should Care

This chapter is from “Online Dispute Resolution
Theory and Practice,” Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Ethan Katsh & Daniel Rainey ( Eds.), published, sold and distributed by Eleven International Publishing.
The Hague, Netherlands at: www.elevenpub.com.

This chapter explores the importance of mobile smart phones. The mobile phone is to many in the world their first PC. Mobiles today are more capable than average PCs were a few years ago. They are more pervasive, affordable and utilitarian and revolutionizing both ODR and ADR.

Excerpts:

The mobile phone is to many their first PC. Mobiles today are more capable in fact than average PCs were a few years ago. They are more pervasive, affordable and utilitarian. The mobile today is first a device for the exchange of information through text messages (SMS), including mobile commerce, and only then a device for voice conversations. In the case of smartphones, the mobile is even more akin to a PC, revolutionizing in the vernacular as well as in English, the way content is consumed, disseminated and archived through text, image, audio and video.

. . .

What is recognised and referred to as online dispute resolution today will transform into dispute resolution. In other words, online will be an extension of what is conducted face to face, in person. The process of dispute resolution will no longer differentiate between physical, real world interactions and virtual, web mediated and mobile interactions–they will be seen as parts of a greater process, seamlessly interwoven into various platforms that combine automated processes (bots, artificial intelligence driven software agents) as well as expert human input to facilitate negotiations and discussions. In this sense, ODR may in fact cease to be a term that is used, or useful.

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Sanjana Hattotuwa

Sanjana Hattotuwa is a TED Fellow,using and advocating Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for over ten years to strengthen peace building, reconciliation, human rights and democratic governance. He set up and curates the award winning Ground views (www.groundviews.org), Sri Lanka’s first civic media website. Teaching new media literacy and web… MORE >