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Introduction to Mobile Technologies, Conflict Management, and ODR: Exploring Common Grounds

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Book cover Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management

Part of the book series: Law, Governance and Technology Series ((LGTS,volume 2))

Abstract

For some years now, mobile phones have become the most ubiquitous communication device worldwide. By the beginning of the second decade of this millennium there will be an estimated 5.3 billion mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide (ITU 2010). In developed countries, the mobile market is already reaching saturation levels with on average 116 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants at the end of 2010 (compared to 76% globally), while penetration rates will reach 68% in the developing world at the same date, mainly driven by the Asia and Pacific region (ITU 2010). In the Africa region, penetration rates will reach an estimated 41%. While far behind the world average, mobile technologies in Africa are doing much better than the Internet, with a user penetration rate of 9.6% (compared to 30% globally).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Pouvoir toucher tout le monde comme si le monde était un ronde: simple, ingénieux, un gain de temps. Tostan, nous te sommes reconnaissants” (Translation: “Being able to reach the world as if the world was just a round dance: easy, well-thought, a gain of time. Tostan, we are grateful”). I warmly thank Guillaume Debar and Rowena Luk, from the project Tostan RapidSMS in Senegal, and Erica Kochi from UNICEF Innovation, for granting me permission to use this SMS. UNICEF and Tostan work together in Senegal to facilitate community dialogue in rural areas.

  2. 2.

    By 2004, roughly 30 service providers (out of 115) were no longer operational (Conley Tyler 2004).

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the authors of this book for putting aside part of their time to write and reflect on their experiences, applications and ideas on mobile technologies. My thanks, also, to those colleagues that could not contribute to the volume but warmly encouraged its publication. The edition of book, finally, would not have been possible without the experience gained through two different research projects developed in parallel at the UAB Institute of Law and Technology: (i) ONTOMEDIA: Platform of Web Services for Online Mediation, Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce (Plan AVANZA I+D, TSI-020501-2008, 2008–2010); (ii) ONTOMEDIA: Semantic Web, Ontologies and ODR: Platform of Web Services for Online Mediation (2009–2011), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CSO-2008-05536-SOCI).

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  1. Faculty of Law, Edifici B, Campus de la UAB, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Marta Poblet

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  1. , Faculty of Law, Edifici B, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Campus de la UAB, Bellaterra, 08193, Spain

    Marta Poblet

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Poblet, M. (2011). Introduction to Mobile Technologies, Conflict Management, and ODR: Exploring Common Grounds. In: Poblet, M. (eds) Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management. Law, Governance and Technology Series, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1384-0_1

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