Things You Can Do With CETR Systems

Beyond Intractability's CETR systems can be constructed in a variety of configurations depending upon the client's budget, the type(s) of conflict being addressed, and the needs and preferences of those the system is intended to serve.

CETR systems might, for example, be constructed to support:

• Development and humanitarian relief organizations seeking effective ways of operating in high conflict situations,
• Individuals struggling to rapidly build large-scale collaborative networks composed of the highly dissimilar organizations that are likely to respond to a major natural disaster or other emergency,
• Individuals responsible for handling relations between peacekeeping forces and local communities, or
• Non-governmental organizations seeking to promote dialogue and mutual understanding between contending social groups.

Among the many things that you can do with CETR systems are the following:

• Develop Systems Collaboratively with Beyond Intractability
  Key to the effectiveness of any CETR system is our understanding of client/partner needs and the resources and expertise that client/partners bring to the project. Thus, the foundation of any CETR project is time for in-depth joint planning, as well as time for continuing collaboration throughout the entire project.
  
  
• Identify the Most Useful Public Conflict Information
  The most basic and least expensive CETR system consists simply of a guide to existing publicly available information that addresses the client's needs. These guides, which can be configured as pre-conflict planning guides or mid-course, "things to think about" checklists, link users to the most useful information available from Beyond Intractability and other producers of Web-accessible resources. In addition to providing links to freely available materials addressing each topic covered, the guides can also include introductory notations describing what is most useful about each resource for the particular client or user.
  
  
• Illustrate Concepts with Client-focused Examples
  The effectiveness of the overall system can be enhanced by replacing the generic, one-size-fits-all, examples that tend to accompany the general information sources identified by the above "guides" with examples specifically tailored to the client's conflict situation. We can rewrite the examples used in existing Beyond Intractability materials or we can add conflict annotations to any existing "case study" materials that the client may have. We can also look to other sources for news articles and case studies that better illustrate how general concepts can be applied to the client's particular situation.
  
  
• Incorporate the Client's Expertise and Experience
  Within any organization, there are individuals with extensive experience in dealing with the organization's conflict problems -- people who often do not get a chance to make their insights available. One of the best ways to improve an organization's conflict skills is by structuring CETR systems in ways which systematically incorporate these ideas and, thereby, limit the number of times that the next generation will have to learn things the "hard way." Programs to gather these insights start by working with the client to develop a set of interview questions which will then be asked of the organization's experts. The responses are then recorded, transcribed, and integrated into the CETR system in ways which make it easy for users to match insights with the problems that the organization is likely to face.
  
  
• Integrate Conference / Meeting Insights
  Many organizations hold conferences and meetings that generate insights that can help members of their organization better deal with likely conflict problems. CETR can be structured to systematically gather, organize, and make these insights easily available to people who are in a position to use them.
  
  
• Convert Program Evaluations Into Learning Tools
  Most organizations conduct program evaluations. Unfortunately, the many good recommendations contained in these reports are often not readily available when decisions are being made about future programs. Incorporation of these ideas into CETR systems, with their anytime/anywhere availability, can help remedy this problem.
  
  
• Foster a Collaborative Learning Community Among Users
  Web-based CETR systems can incorporate numerous tools for encouraging users to contribute their conflict insights as well as ideas for improving the overall CETR system. Also highly desirable are mechanisms which support and facilitate discussions among users and between users and CETR system developers.
  
  
• Present Ideas in More Interesting Formats
  A great many people find it difficult to learn from ideas presented in academic text formats. While Beyond Intractability's short, relatively readable, newspaper-type articles help correct this problem, there is still much that could be done to make the materials easier to understand and more interesting to non-academic users. It may, for example, be appropriate to present some of the most important ideas using such things as cartoons, do's and don'ts lists, or short and compelling "war stories." Also possible are audiovisual components including PowerPoint slides, diagrams, pictures, sound clips and even YouTube video segments. One example of what a set of "high-interest learning objects" might look like is our Stop Fighting (http://stop-fighting.crinfo.org) tutorial.
  
  
• Create New Fill-in-the-gaps Materials
  Clients struggling with difficult and intractable conflicts often face situations that are not now adequately addressed by currently available materials. For these cases, CETR programs can create new materials focused on the client's specific conflict challenges. In some cases, this may involve the relatively inexpensive preparation of "state of the field" literature search articles which summarize current thoughts on a particular topic. For more difficult problems, we may seek out the most qualified experts available and ask them to work with the Beyond Intractability staff and the client to develop new approaches to the client's problems. These would then be incorporated into the CETR system.
  
  
• Deliver Materials to Users Without Web Access
  One of the primary goals of CETR systems is to make its materials available anytime/anywhere. The most appropriate strategy for doing this depends upon the conflict situation to be addressed, the education and background of system users, and their access to information technology. To meet the accessibility needs of some users, we can modify our Internet-based system in a variety of ways. We can produce CD / DVD-based systems that will run on old laptops, disconnected from the Internet. We can also produce PDF versions of documents which can then be printed, reproduced, and bound. It is also possible to convert a great many materials to audio format where they can be distributed online or made available, for use on MP3 players, as collections of sound files. This same system could also be adapted for distribution through a modified version of a telephone-based help system.
  
  
• Support Experiential, Interactive Learning
  Many conflict skills are best learned through some sort of experiential/role-play process. To support this, we can add to CETR systems a variety of single- and multi-player exercises. Learning efficiency can also be increased by supplementing text and audio presentations of key ideas with interactive components that continually prompt users to actively evaluate options and make choices. Such capabilities can also be incorporated into CETR systems.
  
  
• Evaluate and Certify User Learning
  Some clients may wish to evaluate the degree to which CETR users actually master the materials presented and, perhaps, certify them accordingly. For such situations, we could create automated or instructor-graded evaluation systems with the option of making variations on these systems available to users for self-testing purposes.
  
  
• Reach Across Language Barriers There is no reason why CETR materials cannot be translated into other languages, and no reason why resources originating in other languages cannot be translated into English for use with CETR systems. Here, the cost would simply be the cost of translation services.
  
  

As you can see from the above, CETR systems can be constructed on an à la carte basis, with basic systems starting as low as $15,000, and with a broad range of possible enhancements available to strengthen the effectiveness of each system.