Case Studies
by Graham Ross and Beth Silver
The case studies provided here general involve only live cases, and statistics are provided where available. An early impression is that, with the exception of those services making use of various forms of blind bidding (a tool that can be used within any process of dispute resolution, online or offline and, therefore, not alone likely to drive any overall recommendations and conclusions for the ODR Advisory Group) the only ODR services used in live casework have been limited to those using the online medium simply as a platform for discourse (whether synchronous, as in conferencing and chat rooms, or asynchronous, as in forum based systems). Those systems attempt to do little more than emulate existing dispute resolution processes such as mediation and arbitration (albeit with the benefit, in so doing, of avoiding physical attendances) and depend, for the quality of their outcomes and user satisfaction levels, very much on the ability, experience and approach of the neutrals rather than on the technology itself.
Projects considered in these papers include: domain disputes, eBay, The Mediation Room, Modria, Smarter Complaints and eQuibbly.