The First Mediation Knols!

In response to my last post introducing Google knols, the first two mediation knols were published today - one from Italy by Mike McIlwrath and the other out of Boston by Dina Lynch Eisenberg.

Take a read Mike's knol - Finding an International Mediator - identifying suitable candidates to mediate an international commercial dispute.

Mike is also known for his groundbreaking CPR podcasts and is Senior Counsel - Litigation, GE Oil & Gas in Florence. Florence!

The knol is a teaser from Mike's forthcoming book to be published by Kluwer Law International in 2009 on International Dispute Resolution. He is co-author with John Savage of Shearman & Sterling (I'm going to profile a draft chapter of the book at this blog in the next week or so).

Mike comments that, at the rate they've been working on the book, he's concerned that this may be a posthumous piece - only then will he have time to complete it....

'It can be difficult for parties to identify suitable candidates to mediate an international commercial dispute. This article proposes some avenues available to parties that can help get the initial part of the mediation process - agreement on a mediator - underway...

Unfortunately for parties, the identification of suitable candidates and agreement on the appointment of mediators (and arbitrators, for that matter) remains firmly embedded in pre-20th century technology: imperfect information transmitted via word of mouth, and what can be gleaned from a curriculum vitae or an initial discussion with the candidate. Although there are some hopeful indications that this will change as private international dispute resolution grows, it is through these admittedly unreliable channels that parties must generally weigh their considerations about a mediator's suitability for their dispute.'

What is interesting from a technical point of view is that Mike has set up an open knol so anyone can edit the article. Those edits will be moderated by a group of 5 invited 'authors' including the glitteratzi of the mediation blogosphere, Diane Levin - fantastic!

Visit Mike's knol here.

The second knol is by everyone's favourite mediation marketing evangelist Dina Lynch Eisenberg who has uploaded a motivating piece titled Stop Being a Mediator - Be a Successful Business Person Who Mediates.

'It takes more than a business card and good intentions to create a thriving mediation practice. Mediators are business people, too. Explore the steps that can take you from barely surviving to absolutely thriving in your ADR practice'

Visit Dina's knol here.