Fwd: RE: [huml] Mediation SC: draft charter

[Rex Brooks <rexb@starbourne.com>]

Title: Fwd: RE: [huml] Mediation SC: draft charter

Hi Diane,

I am writing to you to ask for advice in regard to several issues regarding the requirement of ensuring that our new Mediation Subcommittee work, producing the framework for a Human Mediation Markup Language, is correctly, properly and appropriately aligned with and in compliance with existing local, state, federal and international legal vocabularies, particularly with regard to specific mediation services that exist now (which serve to lessen the burden of sheer amount of litigation in the courts--particularly for neighborhood and marital cases that can be resolved short of requiring court sanction--with which we do not wish to confused).

If you could refer us to appropriate resources, we will do our best to import, include or cite as references the correct sources for the meaning of specific terms in specific contexts.

It was specifically asked in the course of our regular monthly TC meeting yesterday, if my use of the word legal referred to formal legal issues when I included it in the rough, strawman draft of the Mission and Charter Statement included here as the last of the items in this message separated by horizontal rules. That WAS my intent. We do not want there to be any ambiguity about the work we do, so citing the legal authorities for usages is a paramount requirement.

Also, just a note, I have begun attending the eGov TC meetings to keep abreast of those issues and to make myself available for liaison when or if appropriate. My work with CAP in the Emergency Management TC also seems like a fitting liaison to be established with eGov. Today's events in Madrid underscore the global nature of preparedness. I also wanted to make sure it is understood that we have long since accepted that it would be inappropriate for us to attempt to develop a standard vocabulary for such governmental activities as diplomacy.

Additionally I wanted to note that this effort has transmogrified through several further name and conceptual changes changes from diplomacy to conflict-resolution to perspective-bridging to finally emerge as Mediation.

After much thought, it seemed to me this was the most appropriate HumanML category for including personal preferences and the elements of personality which can best be described within the rubric of "temperment" and which can add greatly, along with such self-descriptive concepts as ethnicity and cultural derivations, memberships or affiliations to produce accurate personal profiles. This is also the area where HumanML stands its best chance of gaining some traction in the business world for standardizing such personal profile information and making it the responsibility of the individual.

It is in this way that such personally constructed and approved profiles can then be used effectively both within the specific context of mediation and within other usages such as secondary, in-depth, identity authentication and verification that could serve to add a greater level of trust to PKI and federated single-sign-on authentication which our efforts seek only to support and extend in the best tradition of XML.

On a more personal note I want to express my own appreciation of your efforts in serving as editor for the OASIS eGov focus area.

What follows are my responses to our initial few suggestions concerning the proposed Mediation Charter and Mission Statement, which is still evolving.

Ciao,

Rex

---

Thanks, James,

I have incorporated this.

Ciao,

Rex

At 10:29 AM -0600 3/10/04, James Landrum wrote:

> Dear all, I'd  recommend amending
> the proposed charter/mission statement section on
> membership/interested parties to read:
> Interested parties may include the
> following:
> -----
> Government agencies -- inter and intra
> government
> United Nations and other International
> bodies
> Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
> Corporations -- interested in conflict management
> within and between organizations
> Individuals and Organizations involved in
> Negotiation, Arbitration, and Deal Making
> Domain
> Specialists; e.g.,  Anthropologists, Behaviorists, Cognitive
> Scientists, Linguists, Political Analysts, Psychologists,
> Sociologists, etc.

---

> Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 11:38:45 -0800
> To: "Ranjeeth Kumar Thunga"
> <rkthunga@humanmarkup.org>,
> <huml@lists.oasis-open.org>
> From: Rex Brooks <rexb@starbourne.com>
> Subject: RE: [huml] Mediation SC: draft charter
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> X-Attachments:
> Thanks Ranjeeth,
>
> I will take your advice and most of your
> restructuring in the next version along with placing
>
> "For  individuals, communities and organizations
> with a vested interest in mitigating conflict.
> "
>
> at the start for conspicuous prominence
> as the short form of the Mission Statement. I will let it stew a bit
> and then submit an amended version soon for discussion in email in
> advance of our next meeting on the 24th.
>
> Ciao,
> Rex
>

At 11:57 AM -0500 3/10/04, Ranjeeth Kumar Thunga wrote:

I thought the updates are very nice Rex, and addresses the Mediation effort
from a variety of different perspective, conceptual and detailed.  Very cool
to see.  You framed the effort around a set of HMML specifications, which

gives focus to the effort.

The main input I have is that we separate the technical examples and details
from the general mission statement description and conceptual framework of
the SC.  I had a couple of other minor comments (see the NOTES section at

the end of my email), but looks very good overall. 

Although it is still a "Technical SubCommittee" I am looking at it from the
eyes of the non-profit community I am more part of.  Of course, this is
slightly different from the government, educational, or corporate
community's eyes.

 

We can go back and forth a bit till our next meeting.

 

MISSION STATEMENT

-----

The Mediation Subcommittee of the HumanMarkup Technical Committee is tasked
to produce a Human Mediation Markup Language, HMML. To do this, the
subcommittee will gather resources, identify and incorporate specific
existing vocabularies that represent established means for mediation.  This
will include contributions to the overall Human Markup Language.

 

Subsequently, this subcommittee will support the ongoing development of
significant additions or deletions to the Primary and Secondary Base Human
Markup Language modules, and incorporations of or from other standards, to
ensure that these specifications can be used interoperably to facilitate the

effort of resolving conflicts in various manners.

Beyond incorporating vocabularies in their proper, societal self-determined
contexts, it is considered a requirement to create a standard language for
human preferences and interests, cultural and ethnic self-identification,
general self-description for temperament and self-description for thresholds

for subjective evaluations.

Assisting successful collaboration efforts with other standards
organizations, working groups, technical committees, businesses and
governmental agencies by using other standards in combination with HMML is
an important component of our mission. This may include encouraging sample
implementation projects and efforts aimed at improving conditions throughout
the human world where mediation efforts can contribute to such improvements
or where improvements are necessary to bring about the conditions necessary
to allow mediation to serve the purpose of mitigating conflict and/or

encouraging cooperation or collaboration.

 

PARTS TO BE PLACED WITHIN EXAMPLES / SCOPE SECTION
 

"formal legal discourse and less formal, but well recognized social contexts

that can be legally ratified or notarized"
 

"allow parties to air their positions with an improved likelihood of being

accurately understood"

"establish relationships between organizations with a vested interest in

mitigating conflict. "


"accepting unfamiliar religious practices in public as a more

conflict-arousing instance."


"determining 'tolerance for delay in transaction before cancellation of
transaction' that allows for a greater degree of accommodation in normal
human social processes such as purchasing decisions for groceries versus
purchasing decisions for automobiles" (I had a tough time with this

one...maybe an example more reflective of mediation, or another
explanation...I liked the concept much, although it may be too specific

early on?)

 

NOTES:

------

-Not everyone reading this will know what the Secondary Base HumanML refers
to, so I thought it best we introduce it later in the description.

 

-I eliminated "satisfactory to most, if not all participants." (results are
not necessary satisfactory to "most" parties either)



-I eliminated "legal" from the mission statement (I don't think we should
necessarily tie ourselves in with legal vocabulary, although there are
valuable uses within that field as you mention).

 

-I extracted some details into a different section (above).

 

 

Ranjeeth Kumar Thunga

---

MEDIATION SUBCOMMITTEE DRAFT CHARTER AND MISSION STATEMENT

-----------
 
 
Mission Statement:
-----
The Mediation Subcommittee of the HumanMarkup Technical Committee is tasked to produce a Human Mediation Markup Language, HMML. This will include contributions to the Secondary Base Human Markup Language. To do this, the subcommittee will gather resources, identify and incorporate specific existing vocabularies that represent established means for mediation, both in formal legal discourse and in less formal, but well recognized social contexts that can be legally ratified or notarized or can simply allow parties to air their positions with an improved and improving likelihood of being accurately understood and establish relationships between organizations with a vested interest in mitigating conflict.  

Subsequently, this subcommittee will support the ongoing development of significant additions or deletions to the Primary and Secondary Base Human Markup Language modules, and incorporations of or from other standards, to ensure that these specifications can be used interoperably to facilitate the effort of resolving conflicts in ways satisfactory to most, if not all participants.

Beyond incorporating legal vocabularies in their proper, societally self-determined contexts, it is considered a requirement to create a standard language for human preferences and interests, cultural and ethnic self-identification, general self-description for temperment and self-description for thresholds for subjective evaluations such as 'tolerance for delay in transaction before cancellation of transaction' that allows for a greater degree of accommodation in normal human social processes such as purchasing decisions for groceries versus purchasing decisions for automobiles, or, accepting unfamiliar religious practices in public as a more conflict-arousing instance.

Assisting successful collaboration efforts with other standards organizations, working groups, technical committees, businesses and governmental agencies by using other standards in combination with HMML is an important component of our mission. This may include encouraging sample implementation projects and efforts aimed at improving conditions throughout the human world where mediation efforts can contribute to such improvements or where improvements are necessary to bring about the conditions necessary to allow mediation to serve the purpose of mitigating conflict and/or encouraging cooperation or collaboration.

 
Scope:
-----
1) determine requirements for this effort,
2) to organize resources and determine parties interested in mediation standards,
3) establish membership and liaisons between these various parties
4) develop use-cases for HumanML applications applied in mediation scenarios

5) develop extensions to the HumanMarkup Primary and Secondary Base Schemata, and other efforts within the Internet Standards arena, that can be helpful in promoting communications that can facilitate mediation
 
 
Interested parties may include the following:
-----
Government agencies -- inter and intra government
United Nations and other International bodies

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
Corporations -- interested in conflict management within and between organizations
Individuals and Organizations involved in Negotiation, Arbitration, and Deal Making
Political Analysts and Commentators

 
 
Values Statement:
-----
Openness, honesty, and accountability of information transfer.
 
 
 
Objectives Statement:
-----
We will create a Requirements and Design Principles Document.
We will deliver an initial outline of resources for this subcommittee.
We will establish relationships with appropriate organizations and government agencies.
Further we will establish guidelines for maintaining and extending the HumanMarkup Primary and Secondary Base Schemata and other efforts.
 
 
 
Membership:
------
Rex Brooks: Chair

> Other
> roles: TBD 
>
> -- 
>  
> Rex Brooks
> GeoAddress: 1361-A Addison, Berkeley, CA, 94702 USA, Earth
> W3Address: http://www.starbourne.com
> Email: rexb@starbourne.com
> Tel:
> 510-849-2309
> Fax: By
> Request

-- 

Rex Brooks
GeoAddress: 1361-A Addison, Berkeley, CA, 94702 USA, Earth
W3Address: http://www.starbourne.com
Email: rexb@starbourne.com

Tel: 510-849-2309

Fax: By Request