Process Technology for Achieving Government Online Dispute Resolution

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Dispute resolution is a fundamental and pervasive activity of government, requring efficiency, effectiveness and fairness. This project proposes applying process technology to develop and evaluate dispute resolution processes through online delivery. The intention is to improve dispute resolution, and deepen understanding of how to be more successful in developing and evaluating processes with the stringent requirements of public governance. The project focus is on the dispute resolution processes and approaches used by the National Mediation Board (NMB). Intellectual Merit: The project's intellectual focus is on the applicability of process technology to processes having particularly stringent efficiency, effectiveness and fairness requirements. These, in turn, rest upon the need for strong management of communications and information flow, and strong assurances about security, privacy, and accuracy. The establishment of transparently fair, validated, processes designed by multi-stakeholder collaboration can meet these requirements, and lead to increased trust in government. The research will include evaluation of the success of innovative process definition, analysis, and collaboration technologies in meeting these stringent requirements and in increasing trust. These technologies have succeeded in such domains as software development, medicine, and scientific data processing.; they will now be evaluated in the complex domain of online dispute resolution, with its particularly challenging goal of trust enhancement in an environment where the parties are in dispute. The research is interdisciplinary in nature, involving researchers from computer science, management, and legal studies. Broader Impacts: Most federal agencies must respond to grievances from citizens and groups, and resolve disputes between the agency and individuals and organizations. The Federal government has recently mandated that its agencies use alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods to resolve disputes. As a result of both Congressional and Presidential action during the 1990s, federal administrative agencies must use non-adversarial dispute resolution whenever possible. Over eighty Federal agencies have such mediation programs. The NMB's clients and sibling organizations will be prepared to adopt these technologies in applying Online Dispute Resolution to their own needs. Results will be distributed through traditional publication venues and also by the UMass Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution, the UMass Electronic Enterprise Institute, and the NMB's participation in the US Government Interagency Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Working Group of over 25 agencies.