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

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Could use some moderation

The Capitol Steps, DC a cappella legends, with a great routine on the red/blue divide: YouTube video.…

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How I started my mediation practice

There's an ADR-related game of blog tag going on out there around "how I started my mediation practice."  Tammy started it, I think, then Diane ta…

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Glenn Smith comes to my rescue

Glenn Smith sets the record straight on Brooks: "Isn't it a bit transparent when those who hold or seek power tell us that their power is all that will…

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A few illustrative tradeoffs

Matt Tabbibi makes some interesting points on Alternet: "If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family... woul…

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Letter to a Young Sailor

From a posting by Col. Daniel Smith, U.S. Army (Ret.) on Foreign Policy in Focus: "...after my years in the army... I have come to the conclusion that warf…

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Settling disputes with a blackberry

Patricia Cohen in the Times: "There was a time when ... points of trivia might arise at dinner or over drinks and lead to a brain-racking long debate or an…

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The "Myth" of natural human goodness

David Brooks column on Sunday really agitated me. It's thesis: "Sometimes a big idea fades {...} until it has almost disappeared. Such is the fate of t…

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From Obama's announcement

It's clear he understands the importance of healing the divide: "...it's not the magnitude of our problems that concerns me the most. It's the…

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Politics and personality

From an interesting article in the Times by Patricia Cohen: "For anyone who assumes political choices rest on a rational analysis of issues and self-intere…