Google project 10 to the 100
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[edit] Google Project 10 to the 100
Under the name Microjustice Sharing Rules, the norms and processes.com project was submitted as an entry to the Google project 10 to the 100. Google organises this special competition on the occaission of its tenth anniversary. Project 10 to the 100 is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Google makes available 10 million dollar to implement up to five projects/ideas to change the world. More information is available on the Google project 10^100 website.
[edit] Entry form
In the following you can find the texts that were used for the pre-structured entry form. A short video on YouTube also is part of the entry. A longer version of this video will soon be available.
[edit] Summary idea
Rules and formulas for fair sharing bring justice in human relationships through a P2P web-interface.
[edit] Description idea
Imagine buying a used car, or an apartment, without information about market prices. How would you know whether you would get a fair deal? Fortunately, prices of what others paid for similar assets are readily available on the internet.
When we experience conflicts in our family, at work, or in business, the issues also relate to who gets what for which price. Here, information on fair deals is often absent. Expensive lawyers can inform us about our rights, but these are rather abstract. We would like to know how others split assets, divided money, or shared responsibilities. This information is crucial because the stakes are often very high and we are confined to the other party.
On SharingRules.net people can find norms for their specific types of conflict, situation and geographical location. Unlike formal legal systems, which purport to provide the one and only right solution, SharingRules offers a range of practical norms, leaving it to the users to choose the most appropriate and fair norm. This helps people to find common ground, just like they can cope with different quotes for similar cars.
The website focuses on property disputes, water conflicts, unfair dismissal, landlord-tenant disputes, divorce, and problems between business partners. For each of these areas, the three or four most important issues are defined. Formulas for severance payments, damages schedules, and rules of thumb for dividing commonly held assets are presented. Users can also request norms for particular situations, and share and rate them. Furthermore, they can sponsor the development of norms.
SharingRules implements a great idea for a better world: transparency (codification) of the law. However, this time not imposed by Justinian, Napoleon, or the Supreme Court, but grassroots; best practices to cope with conflict, suggested by people to their fellows across the world. Information rules!
[edit] Problem statement
Conflicts are about miscommunication and conflicting values. Communication skills, negotiation and mediation help here. But the fear of not receiving a fair share is at the heart of most conflicts. This uncertainty is one of the biggest impediments to development; self-protection is costly, and uncertainty makes people hesitant to invest.
Distributive issues are difficult to solve. Research has explained why even rational people haggle, issue threats, ask too much, offer too little, and reach an impasse. Knowing how others settled helps.
Communities have standard solutions for splitting the pie. These solutions, however, are often deeply hidden in the legal system, in the minds of local leaders, or in the experiences of conflict parties. Few incentives exist to share this information, yet people who want to share have no platform. Often, the going rates of justice are only accessible through expensive legal advice, or by letting a neutral determine the outcome.
[edit] Project beneficiairies
- Farmers in developing countries, who have uncertain property rights over their small plot of land;
- Slum dwellers, who face eviction from their houses, without fair compensation for their property;
- Husbands, wives, and children, who have to cope with the consequences of divorce;
- Employers and employees, who decide not to continue their relationship;
- Neighbors;
- Landlords and tenants;
- Victims of accidents and insurance companies who spend our premiums on damages;
- Buyers and sellers of goods and services, each with their own ideas about quality;
- Partners that split their business.
Every person in the world is a potential beneficiary, because he or she is likely to encounter at least one severe conflict in his lifetime. Particularly, the 4 billion people who live outside the reach of a formal legal system would benefit.
[edit] Initial steps
A clickable demo of the website is available at http://gr.uvt.nl/google/. The next steps are to:
- Find partners to build a beta-version of the website;
- Collect formulas, rules of thumb, and sharing rules from 10 countries/locations on each continent, for 5 urgent legal problems with 3 issues each, to form the initial content of the website;
- Develop the business model for expanding and maintaining the site.
The major challenge is to develop a model in which:
- People with knowledge about going rates of justice (persons who experienced conflicts, lawyers, others) have sufficient incentives to upload this information;
- Organizations or individuals can sponsor the disclosure/development of norms that are requested by people with disputes;
- The neutrality and quality of the norms can be made transparent by a rating system or user evaluation.
[edit] Project outcome
Transparency of the going rates of justice empowers people to:
- Bring neutrality in relationships;
- Trust lawyers and courts, because it enables clients to evaluate their advice, settlements, and decisions;
- Avoid costs of bargaining and haggling;
- Cope with a life-crisis, without having to fight;
- Safely invest in homes, businesses, and relationships.
On a system wide level, the following effects can be expected:
- More trust in fellow citizens and in institutions;
- Faster and fairer conflict resolution;
- Lower transaction costs; fewer legal costs;
- Countries can learn from each other, and their legal systems can become more just over time;
- Opening up of the market for legal services because of the lower costs of legal information.
These effects can be measured by using standard methods (for measuring trust and legal costs) or by tailored methodologies that are currently being developed (see the project Measuring Access to Justice).
