What's New with INSPIRE and InterNeg?

Here is a list of the main user-visible changes we've made during the last few months.

• Abstracts and table of contents of Volume 2, issue 1 of the International Negotiation Journal is released in its home page at our Training Department. (Feb. 28, 1997)
• A note on negotiation skills, "Negotiations and Resolving Conflicts" by professor E. Wertheim, Northeastern University, is included in our Training Department. (Feb. 22, 1997)
• New links are added to the tools and reference sections of the External Links Department. (Feb. 16, 1997)
• Related disciplines, a new section, is added to our External Links Department. (Feb. 10, 1997) This section contains information on the following disciplines: Electronic Commerce, DSS, CSCW, CCC, AI and Agents.
• Prespectives on Representation and Analysis of Negotiation, a paper on negotiation problems and analysis of decision making, is added to our Research Department. (Jan. 9, 1997)
• An INSPIRE project for students in information systems and a synopsis of key information to instructors to start a negotiation with INSPIRE are added to our Learning and Training Department. More external resources are linked to our External Links department. (Jan 6, 1997)
• InterNeg becomes the home site of the International Negotiation Journal. (Dec 5, 1996)
• Released the new reorganized InterNeg! (Dec 5, 1996). Divided into five departments, InterNeg is now a site  for and about all aspects of negotiation.
• Released version 2.2 of INSPIRE (Nov 25, 1996). New entries on the questionnaire, and scores of minor improvements. Bug fixes have made the engine more reliable. "InterNeg" is now a site  for and about all aspects of negotiation. The negotiation support system that was hitherto called InterNeg has been renamed INSPIRE: the InterNeg Support Program for Intercultural REsearch.
• Added a new case on technology negotiations. (Nov 24, 1996). This case is developed by Madan Mohan from the Indian Institute of Management.
• Released version 2.1 of InterNeg (Oct 17, 1996). This release supports negotiation deadlines: each negotiation can be set to automatically terminate after a preset date.
• Released version 2.0 of InterNeg (Aug 9, 1996). This version features
  • Support for sequential negotiation---the ability to make an offer that specifies a value for only one issue (or a subset of issues), ignoring the others. People often like to reach agreement one issue at a time. This feature has been turned off for participants in our cross-cultural experiments (to provide some measure of control for our study), but is available upon request to researchers, or users conducting real negotiations.
  • A helpful new Preparation page that explains the preference elicitation steps just before the user is asked to do them.
  • Now the two participants in a negotiation can each have their own name for the negotiation. (In version 1, we couldn't honor the names requested by both participants---we had to choose one.)
  • Lots of bug fixes, error checks and improvements in the engine---this is a generally much cleaner implementation.
  • More colorful pages. :-)
• An extensive example that illustrates how InterNeg is used and explains some of its more subtle features. (July 22, 1996)
• A redesigned home page featuring a login shortcut for return visitors. (June 27, 1996)
• We allow a user the possibility of terminating negotiation even before the first agreement is reached (previously disallowed for the purposes of our study). (June 24, 1996)
• Added a repository of negotiation-related resources on the Web. (June 20, 1996)
• Two optional questionnaires pop up--one before and one after the negotiation--to query the user for experimental data. (June 18, 1996)
• The history of offers and counteroffers is now displayed graphically and changes in scores can be seen at a glance. (May 7, 1996)
• Scores are displayed everywhere (during offer description, offer construction, and in the history) to help the user keep track of progress. (Apr 21, 1996)
• Most pages have been re-edited for crispness. (Apr 18, 1996)
• Arbitrary negotiation cases (with discrete issues) can now be supported upon user request. (Apr 15, 1996)
• Offers and messages are displayed interlaced, as a running history. (Apr 9, 1996)
• A new update facility: when awaiting a response from the other party, an update button allows you to keep checking InterNeg for recent activity. (Apr 8, 1996)
• Case descriptions are now customizable: each side sees a different page describing their particular interests in the case. (Apr 8, 1996)
• The packages presented for evaluation are now sorted, using the option ratings obtained in the previous step. (Mar 28, 1996)
• A glossary explains InterNeg-specific word usage. (Mar 26, 1996)
• During a negotiation you can now send a message alone, without making an offer. (Mar 20, 1996)
• E-mail is sent when you submit an offer, if your opponent's address is available. (Mar 19, 1996)

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