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3 Harv. Negot. L. Rev. 175 (1998)
Electronic Online Dispute Resolution: A Systems Approach--Potential, Problems, and a Proposal

handle is hein.journals/haneg3 and id is 183 raw text is: Electronic Online Dispute Resolution: A Systems Approach-Potential, Problems, and a Proposal Robert C. Bordonet I. INTRODUCTION Reports estimate that more than 37 million people have access to and regularly use the Internet.' Based on a monthly growth rate of nine to twelve percent,2 and estimates that a new person plugs into the Internet every ten minutes, some have speculated that every per- son on the planet will be networked by the year 2003.3 Indeed, though practically unknown in 1989, the Internet today links more than 130 countries around the globe.4 Businesses, organizations, in- stitutions, governments, and individuals use computer networks to sell products, share information, converse, and develop communities across borders of space and time on virtually every subject.5 With this explosion of activity and collaboration in Cyberspace and with the corresponding rise of what many call virtual com- munities on the Internet comes the certainty of online conflict and t Robert C. Bordone is a 1994 summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth Col- lege and a 1997 cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. He is currently a law clerk to the Honorable George A. Oroole, Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Beginning in September 1998, Mr. Bordone will be serving as Deputy Director of the Harvard Negotiation Research Project and as a Lec- turer on Law at Harvard Law School. Mr. Bordone wrote this paper during the 1996- 97 academic year as a Hewlett Foundation Research Fellow at Harvard Law School. 1. See George Friedman & Robert Gellman, An Information Superhighway On Ramp for Alternative Dispute Resolution, 68 [N.Y. ST. Bus. J.] 38, 39 (MAY-JUNE 1996). 2. See Charles Mann, Regulating Cyberspace, SCIENCE, May 5, 1995, at 628. 3. See DmTY W. MooRE, THE EMPEROIeS VIRTUAL CLoTHEs: THE NmhED TRUTH ABouT INTERNET CULTURE at xiv (1995). 4. See M. ETHAN KATSH, LAW IN A DGrrAL WoRLD 14 (1995). 5. See Friedman & Gellman, supra note 1, at 38-39.