17 e-Mediation - Mediate.com
17 e-Mediation - Mediate.com
17 e-Mediation - Mediate.com
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Noam Ebner<br />
3.1 Organizational Structures for E-<strong>Mediation</strong> Services<br />
This section will focus on the prevailing trends and applications in offering e-mediation<br />
services.<br />
3.1.1 Regional versus Global<br />
Some service providers hold themselves out as global practitioners, not limiting themselves<br />
to any one region. 14 Others, while not explicitly limiting the scope of their operations, do<br />
so implicitly by including <strong>com</strong>ments on their website referencing particular areas, organizations<br />
and legal issues, by the language/s services are offered in, by a country-specific<br />
domain name or by the language in which the website itself is in. Still other service providers<br />
limit themselves explicitly to specific countries or areas. 15<br />
3.1.2 Individual Practitioners versus Institutional “Service Providers”<br />
From the start, examination and discussion of e-mediation (and ODR in general) has<br />
tended to focus on “service providers” and not on practitioners. This probably had multiple<br />
reasons, some of which are suggested below.<br />
First, this was indeed the actual business model often employed; many of the early<br />
ventures in e-mediation were run by a service provider who kept a roster of mediators.<br />
OnlineResolution kept a roster of 600 mediators and arbitrators, and SquareTrade had<br />
about 300 mediators on their roster. 16 The sites themselves were operated as a business<br />
which performed intake of cases, collection of fees, assignment to mediators from the<br />
roster, provision of training and support to neutrals, etc.<br />
Second, it is the nature of internet <strong>com</strong>merce that individuals set up a business and<br />
present it as a larger-scale business. This is not only in order to impress; on the web, your<br />
catchy name and web domain are part of your branding strategy. “Internet<strong>Mediation</strong>-<br />
Team.<strong>com</strong>” will always be more effective than NoamtheMediator.<strong>com</strong>.<br />
Third, the previous point is particularly true given the e-mediation targeted market<br />
and clients. Early service providers were attempting to engage with e-<strong>com</strong>merce entities<br />
and integrate themselves into their b2b and b2c operations. A corporate veneer and<br />
framework is much more likely to succeed in that.<br />
14 Examples would include Juripax and The<strong>Mediation</strong>Room.<br />
15 E.g., Cybersettle (limiting <strong>com</strong>ments), emediation.nl (language and domain name), and the British Columbia<br />
Family <strong>Mediation</strong> Roster (explicit geographical limitation). An interesting provider in this regard is ODR-<br />
World. This website does not limit the scope of its operations, but the same service provider also operates<br />
ODRChina, ODRMalaysia, ODRAustralia and ODRIndia, servicing these countries specifically. In essence,<br />
it contextualizes its services by offering services to diverse regions in South East Asia and Australia.<br />
16 See Rule (2002).<br />
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