One of the most significant domestic changes in Australia is linked to the Web 2.0 approach where government and others are adapting policy and processes on an unprecedented scale to take advantage of new technologies and better connectivity. Although these processes may not support full stand alone ODR environments (at least initially), they do enable supportive environments to be constructed. In addition, many Australian ADR environments now use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to engage with business, consumers and stakeholders about dispute resolution and to support dispute avoidance and self managed negotiation strategies.
However, the rate of growth of ODR has not been as fast as some may have predicted in the early 2000s in Australia. At that time, it was predicted that ODR would be taken up and used by a significant proportion of the Australian population by the end of the decade. After conducting a survey in 2003, Conley Tyler and Bretherton concluded that: “There is demand for online ADR among more than 70% of potential users” and it did not seem unrealistic to assume that this would translate into significant growth in ODR.
Despite this early optimism, it is fair to say that exponential growth rates have not been achieved in the ODR field and that only gradual, although significant, ODR initiatives have been undertaken within Australia. It is also clear that as broadband speed and internet infiltration has increased so have the options and processes available within the ODR environment within Australia.
Some of the early opportunities for ODR were discussed by NADRAC (a leading government ADR agency in 2002) and this chapter charts not only the growth in actual ODR but also the growth in ODR research and evaluation within Australia: Information technology provides opportunities to facilitate communication and so assisting prevention and management of disputes … to provide information to parties and to complement, or substitute for, traditional face to face interventions.
Within Australia and in this chapter, ODR has been used to refer to dispute resolution processes conducted with the assistance of communications and information technology, particularly the internet. ODR can include facilitative processes such as online mediation, advisory processes such as online case appraisal and determinative processes such as online arbitration or adjudication. Using the NADRAC definition, it also includes processes conducted through a computer program or other artificial intelligence that do not involve a “human” practitioner.