Goals
The immediate practical goal of the Zeno project is to design and implement a mediating system for the World
Wide Web. This will be a new kind of issue-based conferencing and group decision-support system. Unlike
conventional groupware systems, Zeno supports decision making amoung individuals and groups distributed
across organizations throughout the world. Using any Internet email system, a group of users will be able to
propose and discuss alternative solutions to some problem or issue. By sending a copy of their messages to a
Zeno mediation server, an issue-based information system for the World Wide Web will be constructed. Using
any World-Wide Web browser, users will be able use hyperlinks to quickly access and view a
structured protocol of the discussion, to quickly find issues, positions, and arguments. Hypertext links between
these kinds of elements and the original messages will allow quick and easy access to the full text of the cited
messages. Zeno will also provide various ways of searching and sorting messages, for example by author, date
or issue. Future versions of Zeno will provide more advanced mediation services. The goal is to provide
intelligent assistance to human mediators, facilitors,
arbitrators and other kinds of trusted third parties. The services to be provided include managing the
dependencies between arguments, claims, positions and issues, and providing advice about procedural rules.
More about ZENO
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ZENO Mediation System
