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

A crisis of legitimacy

I had an interesting back-and-forth with my friend Conor Sen in email this morning.  I'm usually the one who sends him links to David Brooks columns in the…

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The narcissism of minor differences

Cohen in the NYT today: "Some of my summer in France was spent listening to indignant outbursts about U.S. health care reform. The tone: “You must be kiddi…

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red/blue dialogue on health care part 5

This is a great dialogue.  See Don's latest post here.  I feel like my understanding of the issues we're discussing is improving, and I think I've g…

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red/blue dialogue on health care, part 3

Don posted his response to my blog entry here, and I encourage you all to check it out.  Many thanks to him for all the quality thought! I was inspired by the…

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The bully kicking sand in your face

Dowd today: "...President Obama is so wrapped up in his desire to be a different, more conciliatory, beer-summit kind of leader, he ignores some verities.…

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A red/blue dialogue on health care

Don Dodson and I went to high school together.  And like all high schoolers, we pretty much resembled each other during the years we shared wandering the halls…

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"The Sinister March of Net Niceness"

From Valleywag (warning: heavily airbrushed and quite cleavagey model picture after the link): "...that's the thing about being impolite online: it mig…

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A change of heart on heath care

Kristof in the NYT today: "Opponents suggest that a “government takeover” of health care will be a milestone on the road to “socialized medicine,” and when…

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Living abroad and creativity

Is there anything more satisfying that academic research that confirms one's basic worldview?  Thanks are due to William Galinsky and Adam Maddux for this o…