Stanford CIS

Colin Rule

Non-Residential Fellow

Colin Rule has worked at the intersection of technology and conflict resolution for the last two decades. He is CEO of Modria.com, an online dispute resolution service provider in Silicon Valley, and Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at UMass-Amherst. From 2003 to 2011 he served as eBay and PayPal's first director of Online Dispute Resolution, designing and implementing systems that now resolve more than 60 million disputes each year.

Mr. Rule is the author of Online Dispute Resolution for Business, published by Jossey-Bass in September 2002. He has presented and trained around the world for organizations including the U.S. Department of State, UNCITRAL, the International Chamber of Commerce, and the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, as well as teaching at UMass-Amherst, Stanford, Southern Methodist University, and Hastings College of the Law. He has written and been interviewed extensively about the Internet since 1999, with columns and articles appearing in ACResolution, Consensus, Dispute Resolution Magazine, and Peace Review. He holds a master's degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in conflict resolution and technology, a B.A. in peace studies from Haverford College, and he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Eritrea from 1995-1997.

Recent articles

Blog

New ODR startup: AllRise.com

Allrise.com: a community justice site... a couple people (Sanjana was first, John Muller was second) sent me this link after Michael Arrington profiled it on hi…

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My wife's new food blog: 5 second rule

As the many thousands of loyal readers of this blog know, I eat far better than I deserve to, totally as a result of my betrothal to my beloved, the food writer…

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The People's Court - RAW

Jeff Bercovici on Conde Nast's Portfolio.com: "Over the weekend, I stumbled across what appears to be a stealth-marketing campaign for a new website, P…

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Trying to find common ground on Tibet

Shaila Dewan in the NYT: "Ms. Wang, who had friends on both sides, tried to get the two groups to talk, participants said. She began traversing what she ca…

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Divided We Fall

Kristof in the Times today: "To understand your feelings about Wednesday night’s debate, consider the Dartmouth-Princeton football game in 1951. That bitte…

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The inviolable right to a day in court

Randy Cohen, the NYT Magazine Ethicist, today: "  The gynecologist I’ve seen for seven years has begun requiring patients to waive their right to a day in…

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How to Disagree

Very interesting post from Paul Graham: "The web is turning writing into a conversation. Twenty years ago, writers wrote and readers read. The web lets rea…

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A deeper deadening

Sean Wilsey, reviewing Service Included by Phoebe Domrosch, in the New York Times Book Review: "Depending on your constitution you will revel or recoil at…