Event about resolving transactional disputes and BBB-type organizations

Date: Friday, June 10, 2005
Time: 3:00PM - 4:00PM (60 minutes)
Location: Ambleside (58,10
Host: Pathfinder Linden
Category: Discussion

Event description: There has been some Resident led discussion about how to resolve transactional disputes in a fair manner as well as the possibility of inworld “Better Business Bureau” type organizations that help Residents. This discussion will be attended by Robin Linden, and will be an open discussion to hear from any Residents interested in these concepts. We hope to learn more from everyone what the key issues are and explore possible ways that Linden Lab can support all Residents in a fair and impartial manner.

http://secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=55622&date=1118386800

Thanks for providing this opportunity to move forward in the area of dispute resolution. One side effect of your meeting might be to open up the opportunity to combine efforts. If like-minded people collaborate on joint projects instead of having many tiny struggling groups, each trying to do their own project, we might get enough volunteer resources to make a difference.

I'm glad this meeting is getting more publicity because the past Thinkers meeting on this subject evidently got buried under the Tringo announcements.

While originally I trusted that one BBB could come into being in this relatively small community, because 3-4 respected individuals might be found with community consensus to serve in this capacity, I now see this is going to be impossible because several groups will pull and tug the blanket on themselves and make the group serve their own interests, first and foremost, to keep oversight away from themselves, and to ensure that their own disputes are never examined properly.

I'd like to see a variety of groups come into being which reflect the differing facets of business transactions, i.e. trade groups, consumer advocates, industry associations, dispute resolution councils, etc.

It's ok for lots of little groups to "struggle". It's called "democracy". It would be unreasonable to expect everyone to herd into one Linden-approved group, and if that is how it will be done, you can expect either significant dissent, or significant non-compliance and lack of interest. The effort has to have buy-in from a wide cross-section of SL. As it stands now, many players would rather have a Linden adjudicate disputes rather than have to cede power to a player-based body that might use a combination of third-party sites, outside the TOS, and invasive information-gathering, to enforce its control over this or that economic sector.

Currently, there are two models of dispute resolution, in the world, and in SL.

In the first model, called the "violations" approach, a set of rules, such as a TOS or ROC, is put forth, if someone is found to be in violation of it, they are in the wrong, and a punishment is found for them. There is oversight, reporting, rules, a perpetrator, a victim. Everyone understands that if one person has defrauded another, you don't make them sit down at a table and hold hands and sing "Kumbayah". One party has wronged another under rules both in theory recognize. The overseeing party finds the facts, one party is found in violation, and the other is either compensated or vindicated morally at least, and the offending party has a punishment or debt to society to pay off.

In the second model, called the "reconciliation" model, there may be rules, but they are fungible. What's most important is that the community stay together and that we all get along. We may all go down to wash our sins away in the River Jordan, and we are all cleansed and nobody is in the wrong. In this model, a "facilitator" sets down one party with another, and both are equal. No matter that the wronged party now must sit at the table with his victimizer -- they are now to be "reconciled". Both maybe are at fault, both need to "work on their issues".

In our modern life, the "reconciliation" often prevails due to 1970s social work thinking or 19th century ideologies or all kinds of cultural and religious factors. It's one that some in SL might like to reach for because it just sounds "nice".

In RL, arbitration courts solve business disputes but without undermining standards of business conduct.

The task in SL will be to determine the body of behaviour that causes disputes, and therefore might be resolvable by disputes mechanisms, but which does not fall under the TOS per se.

Ack - missed this meeting by mere minutes! Is there a transcript of this meeting?


- Newfie

I have one Newfie, IM me inworld. It seems way to long to put up here and I thought Pathfinder himself might be summarizing it or putting up.