17 e-Mediation - Mediate.com

Noam Ebner
4.2.4 Introduction
Parties to online mediation not only need an introduction to the concept and nature of
mediation, they also need to understand the nature and rules of the online venue they will
be employing for the mediation process. Providing parties with a tour of the platform or
some initial training in its operation increases their satisfaction and comfort levels. Parties’
sense that their mediator is capable with the technological platform and has a clear road
map for the process affects their degree of trust in the mediator. 58 Combined, these issues
would suggest the need for a new process stage, in which parties are walked through the
platform (individually or jointly), and given an introduction to the online environment
as it is used for mediation. Elements of this might include a site tour and tutorial, communication
ground rules, instructions for participation, comments regarding language, time
zones, synchronous/asynchronous communication and expectations and technical support
available to parties.
4.3 Mediators’ Skills
What would constitute a full skill-set for online mediators? Raines 59 suggests that there is
no need to re-invent the wheel: online mediators require the same general skill-set of a
face-to-face mediator, with added twists made necessary by technology. By contrast, the
report of the Distance Mediation Project stated very clearly that “Distance mediation
employs different skills, and involves a different mediation ‘style’ rather than simply new
tools in the mediation tool box”, 60 and noted that mediators expressed desire for specialized
training in skills unnecessary for face-to-face settings. It could be posited that by using the
face-to-face mediator’s skill-set as the baseline and considering what needs to be tweaked
or added, we are setting mediators up for confusion and for misapplication of techniques.
In the end, both of these approaches combined probably offer a better picture of what is
needed: All tools in the traditional mediation need to be closely re-examined for suitability
and application online.
There are skills deemed necessary for providing face-to-face services that are simply not
necessary in some online venues. Text-based mediators do not need skill in communicating
via their own body language, or in interpreting others (although videoconferencing certainly
does require these skills). Teaching e-mediators to consciously rely on these cues, as faceto-face
mediators are taught, might be burdening them with a handicap that they will feel
58 See Hammond (2003).
59 S. Summers Raines, “Mediating in your Pajamas: The Benefits and Challenges for ODR Practitioners”,
Conflict Resolution Quarterly (2006) 23, 3.
60 Getz (2010), p. 3.
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