Forum Mundial de Mediación - World Mediation Forum - Forum Mondial de Médiation

Acknowledgements

  Any new undertaking is a challenge, but we never know how big it can be nor what it will bring about. We never know what we don’t know until... we know it, and only then can we value what we didn’t know.

Building a Web page was something appealing, novel, above all if it was for the Worldwide Forum on Mediation, and I’m a mediator, not a computer expert.

If this undertaking was possible, it was due to the high level of COLLABORATION between a group of people who don’t know each other, not even I, who have centralized the work, know all of them. However, they have worked, handled and taken care of each other’s productions as if they were their own; for example, between Horacio and Soledad, who have never seen or communicated with each other.

Pichon Rivière used to say: heterogeneity of the group and homogeneity of the task. I believe I’ve never seen a more heterogeneous group: women and men, of different ages (from 14 to 52), of different professions and occupations (lawyers, psychologists, social psychologists, translators, computer specialists, students, etc., not to mention the problem of incumbencies!) and the task that joined us: the Forum’s Web before the 28^th November... and the one that will keep on joining us: its maintenance; but now this group will be enlarged with all those who are willing to make their own contributions...

I want to thank my family, who always give their times so that I may be able to carry this out, my son Nacho, who receives my e-mails, the working team, who had to fill all the empty places I left behind, and especially:

 Willy Wilches, who has helped me in making my first steps into this fascinating world, by giving me his knowledge, his indications, etc . info@wilches.com

 Horacio Martínez Phillips, Social psychologist,  who has adapted the page backgrounds, corrected the endless mistakes I’ve made, shared the emotions, asked me the oddest questions and asked for things that were impossible for me at that time (to change my Pop3, which is the URL, to use htm instead of html, etc.), who was happy when we were finally able to load the page and always helpful, professional and reliable. abbadon@ciudad.com.ar

 Daniel Bustelo, who thought that we could do it and collaborated immediately with everything, in the strange things (for me and also for him) that I asked him, even to the point of loading the page from Spain!, some hours or maybe minutes before boarding the plane to Argentina.

 And María Soledad Suares, the ineffable trilingual public translator, who has been in charge of the translations into English, French and Spanish. Without her, this production would have been almost impossible (it’s quite funny that I’m writing this in Spanish and she will be -in turn- in charge of the translations into English and French, and as a good professional, she will have to do it without changing anything). LANGUAGE BUREAU (mssuares@ciudad.com.ar)

 We all work, as all Argentines do, against the clock, but –with all the imperfections that will be corrected in due time- we have made possible and materialized (or virtualized?) the main principle of Mediation: COLLABORATION.

We are looking forward to receiving yours,

         Always in touch...

Marinés

(misuares@ciudad.com.ar)

Publisher