Supporting Negotiation and Dispute Resolution with Computing and Communication Technologies

摘要

Careful study of the application of computer and communications technologies to negotiation and dispute resolution can lead to a more harmonious and functional society, but also to more effective technology for software development and evaluation, and to new facilities for pursuing social science research. Work in this area has initially been spurred on by rapid growth in the number and variety of disputes in the world, which seem to be increasing as the number of parties grows and the variety of their interactions increases. Initial application of software technology to support dispute resolution has shown encouraging success, and suggests a broader research program in which computer science and social science research enrich each other. The resulting mature technological support for dispute resolution should, moreover, have important benefits for software development, a domain in which constructive approaches to resolving disputes should be of enormous value.