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

Empathy vs. Rationality

I must say, the end of the Bush era seems to have buried the part of David Brooks that got me so wound up, leaving only the part I treasure.  Now all that remai…

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Google Wave

Now this is going to be cool: http://wave.google.com/ I urge you to watch the youtube video of the demo.  Who knows if it's going to get critical mass --…

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Obama and Open Government

The White House announced its Open Government initiative today... check it out at http://www.whitehouse.gov/open.  My good friend Beth Noveck's fingerprints…

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2009 ADNDRC conference

If anyone happens to be in Hong Kong next week, the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center is having its conference on May 22nd at the Grand Hyatt. All th…

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Volunteer Customer Service

By Steve Lohr in the NYT this weekend:  "HERE’S the job description: You spend a few hours a day, up to 20 a week, at your computer, supplying answers onli…

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Friends and Health

From the NYT, via my friend Conor: "Last year, researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and f…

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The Chemistry of Love

Paulette Kouffman Sherman, via my friend Larry: "Some researchers found that whether you are attracted to or repulsed by a man’s body odor may depend upon…

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Cracked Human Consciousness

I never thought I'd quote cracked.com on my blog, but Geoff Shakespeare did such a good job I couldn't resist (careful, I've cleaned it up a bit her…

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Organizational Sociopaths

"Organisational sociopaths: rarely challenged, often promoted. Why?" by Richard J. Pech and Bret W. Slade "Organisations sometimes select and pr…

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Obama in Turkey

From President Obama's remarks to the Turkish Parliament yesterday: "I know there have been difficulties these last few years. I know that the trust th…

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Descendents of successful cooperators

David Brooks in today's NYT: "The question then becomes: What shapes moral emotions in the first place? The answer has long been evolution, but in rece…