Conflict at a distance: disentanglement principles

You know this story. It begins with an email.

Maybe it’s timed badly, maybe it’s a little crass - sometimes, it’s just plain offensive. The next thing you know, the mailing list has exploded with barely suppressed rage, there’s a flurry of private messages, people you know are not speaking to each other, and the entire community appears to be on the verge of splintering.

You shake your head, wonder - again - how a species that has managed to reach the edges of our solar system can come to such disagreements so quickly, and begin the long slow road to community recovery.

This talk will explore conflict resolution principles and their application to a geographically disparate volunteer community, held together by passion and goals that are, sometimes, less common that they first seem.