It was an honour to be guests of the Naut’sa mawt at the first Indigenous Green Economy Conference in Vancouver from March 13 to 14, 2019. Chief Patrick Mitchel recounted that his people have been self-sufficient for 8000 years in Canada and lamented that somehow we’ve now got only twelve years left.
David Suzuki challenged the audience with an urgent call to climate change action.
Peter Holt and Ernest Thiessen explained how algorithms can support collaborative negotiations that involve First Nations and promote a green economy.
Smartsettle’s founders have a long history of being involved in service negotiations, including a project in Nepal, where their work won a Blue Planet prize. This work inspired Dr. Thiessen’s PHD studies at Cornell University, where he was challenged to bridge the huge gap that exists between engineers and decision makers. This is the difference between the desired outcomes, and possible outcomes, dreaming vs. reality.
Dr. Thiessen’s work at Cornell became the basis for eight core algorithms, the foundation of which is called ‘Maximize the Minimum Gain’, and has been compared to the work of Nobel Laureate John Nash. Nearly three decades of research and development have produced practical negotiation systems, that can be accessed via the internet to support negotiations, from the simple, to the very complex.
Smartsettle systems produce superior outcomes in shorter times while protecting valuable relationships wherever decisions need to be negotiated. Applications range from eCommerce and dispute resolution to procurement and international peace treaties. This technology has the potential to relieve the burden on our court system by preventing disputes in the first place.
The Naut’sa mawt had already complimented us through their engagement with us through simulations and several live cases. An award from the Build in Canada Innovation Program provided the catalyst to grow the relationship with the Naut’sa mawt. Now in a joint venture with the Naut’sa mawt we anticipate engaging the First Nations community in exploring how Smartsettle ONE employs intelligent algorithms to promote collaborative decision making. This tool will initially be applied to simple negotiations such as workplace disputes or other conflicts that might otherwise end up in the courts. We look forward to this project evolving towards many other applications. We believe that we can make a difference in supporting negotiations and reaching decisions around issues such as reduction of provincial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, liquefied natural gas (LNG) use, carbon tax, health system priorities, wilderness preservation, labour agreement policies, education and literacy goals, affordable housing goals, and First Nations language preservation, just to name a few.
Our aim is to work together as one towards a greener world, one that is more intelligent, more collaborative, and more peaceful.