Hi there! Thanks for stopping by.
My name is Geoff Sharp. I’m a mediator here in Wellington, New Zealand and I’m the guy behind the mediation vBlog project.
I started on this project because I have always been a little uneasy about the way we mediators work behind closed doors, without much sunlight in the room …so time to change that with the video blog project.
My hope is that we’re going to be the first, the very first, to track our practice by video blog - a kind of mediation genome project by video blog.
The idea is to take advantage of recent video sharing technology to post short video clips of mediators everywhere at work, the more live the better. The growth of video social networking is amazing with 60,000 new videos uploaded every day and over 100 million viewed every day, as more people explore this type of online medium.
So the aim is ambitious. The object of the vBlog Project is to provide a platform for mediators from all over the world to share our images by video. It may take some getting used to but think of the possibilities for exchange when you see colleagues in Germany, UK and Boston debriefing a mediation or giving us a glimpse of themselves as they go about their professional life. One things for sure, unless you contribute the project won’t take off, so how about giving it a go?
All of us have at least one digital camera, phone camera, PDA, Blackberry or Treo don’t we? And guess what… they all take short video clips that can easily be emailed.
Try taking a clip of anything to do with mediation:
- your opening!
- a participant’s reaction after the mediation
- one of the lawyer’s reflections after the mediation
- debrief to camera on what went well or what didn’t
- you or a colleague training or talking on an aspect of mediation
- interview someone or have someone interview you
Then just email it to me, in any format and coming in somewhere under 5 minutes (about 2 or 3 minute clips are perfect) at vblog@geoffsharp.co.nz
It will be posted here at this blog in no time.
Your clip can be of any quality. Let’s not worry too much about production; some clips taken on camera phones/PDA’s may be low res, but that’s fine. The main thing is to post.
Also have as many ummms and ahhhhs in it as you want - we will get what you mean but anyone working in the L.A. market may have to set a standard although the rest of us can stumble through.
This is going to be your chance to collaborate, contribute and converse with your peers.
My thanks to Richard Best, a colleague and friend, for his technical know-how in getting the project up and running. Richard is one smart young lawyer with an amazing ability to see how new technologies and law intersect.
Thanks too, to Diane Levin over at the Online Guide to Mediation for her friendship and encouragement.
Come on, get those clips and be one of the first to be part of this trail blazing mediation experiment.