Software Worlds
by
Ethan Katsh
A year can
make a difference. Consider the following computers, one
advertised by the Dell Computer Co. a year ago and one
advertised for sale this month.
October,
1996 |
$3500 |
Pentium Pro |
200 MHz |
64 Mg RAM |
4.2 gigabyte |
17" monitor |
October,
1997 |
$3500 |
Pentium II MMX |
300 MHz |
64 Mg RAM |
8.4 gigabyte |
20" monitor |
Clearly,
three thousand dollars buys a lot more today than a year
ago. Twice as much storage space on the hard drive, fifty
percent more speed, a more advanced processor, and a
bigger monitor. If you happen to own either of these high
end machines, you probably feel that you are working with
a lot of power.
The feeling that you
possess an incredibly powerful machine is quite
justified. Yet, hardware power does not necessarily
translate into improvements in how much work we can do or
how well we can do our work. Compared to a year ago, some
of us are working with Microsoft Office 97 instead of
Office 95, or WordPerfect 8 instead of WordPerfect 7.
Does anyone using these tools feel like they are fifty
percent more productive than they were a year ago?
It is hardware that is
advertised more but it is software that should have more
of our attention. As we look at options for mediating
online, it is more software than hardware that holds us
back. Software is harder to assess than hardware yet it
is, in general, software that controls what we can do and
how well we can do it. The personal computer would not
have been as popular with the business community as it
was if not for the development of an electronic
spreadsheet, software that radically changed potential
users' comprehension of what the personal computer was
and what it could do.
Software has changed the
electronic environment many times yet the fact that it is
software that should be the focus of our attention seems
to be a hard lesson to understand. The Web is referred to
as a network, implying that it is hardware, yet it is
software on your machine interacting with software on a
server somewhere that places text and image on your
screen or allows sound to emanate from speakers. If
online dispute resolution has a future, it is a future
that lies largely in sofrware that allows us to work
together and employ on-screen techniques for consensus
building activities.
During the past year, as
we have tried to work with parties and others to advance
the potential of online dispute resolution, we have been
impressed with how much powerful hardware people have. We
have also observed how frequently old and imperfect
versions of software are employed. While an old word
processing program may be adequate for drafting most
documents, use of the Web is limited by the software one
employs. While both Netscape and Microsoft have recently
made available version 4 of their browsers, version 3 of
each will probably be sufficient for a while. AOL and
most other online services and Internet Service Providers
will provide versions of at least one of these browsers
free of charge. Upgrading is a hassle and often does
cause some kind of malfunction. Yet, the Web with an old
browser is likely to be a Web without java, without
frames, perhaps even without tables.
Dispute resolution is a
communication and idea generating business. If technology
can assist in dispute resolution, it will be software
that empowers us and catalyzes creative thought and work.
In future months, we will show some examples of ideas we
are developing for using the Web to interact with others,
and not simply to obtain information from distant
sources. It is the ability to interact and collaborate
that makes upgrading your software something you should
take seriously.
Please contact us if you have any comments or questions
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