Hi Koos, picking up some threads from your e-mail. Yes, we are in Open Space and exercising our communication electronically. I find that electronic medium is good for the long term in building community only if there are occasional face to face meetings. There is a lot of research about this, including how men do this differently than women :-) I think we do currently have opportunity to meet face to face annually on two occasions and would encourage all on the list to do so---the Organizational Transformation Symposium (this year held June 29-July 3 in Oregon) and the Open Space on Open Space (this year held Sept 26,27 in Chicago). Information about both is on the websites including mine under training/special events. I see both events as a chance for real professional development in Open Space, whatever that may mean. For me it means opportunities to do great learning and to test what I believe and listen to what others believe. Great fun too!
And there is a fun story on my website about people who met on the internet and then gathered together in an Open Space done by Barry Owen. He and I had the fun of watching the people meet each other for the first time (great intimacies had been shared by e-mail amongst the people who never thought they would meet, so it was like watching a soap opera unfold as people now had to be face to face). Warmest regards, Birgitt Birgitt Bolton of Dalar Associates www.openspacetechnology.com 55 Ravina Cres., Ancaster, Ontario, Canada L9G 2E8 phone: 905-648-5775 fax: 905-648-2262 -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu]On Behalf Of koos de heer Sent: Friday, June 18, 1999 6:23 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Electronic follow up At 09:28 18-06-1999 -0400, Steve wrote: >As for electronic follow-up, I don't think it has as much to do about skill >or confidence but lack of intimacy. On-line web sites are a far cry from >intense face to face interaction. I think both are true. A few thoughts that I have been thinking about this: - This mailing list is a great example of an electronic Open Space. The exchange that takes place here is almost always interesting and very often inspiring. Sometimes the intimacy of the things people share here is moving me. And when a topic does not interest me and/or I do not feel I can contribute, I follow the law of two feet and ignore it. The people on the list are always the right people, and so on... both in form and in content, it resembles Open Space closely. - There are also great differences. The whole dynamics of being together, the sharing of coffee and meals, the listening and speaking to each other in person, the process of determining the schedule for the day, etc. all add to the OS experience and we don't have any of that on line. I have been trying to imagine what it would be like to get the people on this list together physically in a real OS. To add the power of the personal encounter to the power already there. Wouldn't that be great? - It might not be. Because the power of this list could just lie in its occasional character, its loose structure, its almost anonimous bumblebee-like atmosphere. Or maybe partly. I have had experiences with people I knew through email and chat and who felt close to me in the electronic communication, while the friendship did not work at all after we met in person. It would certainly be an interesting experiment with this group. - In order to share personal experiences and stories through a certain means of communication, one has to be reasonably familiar with annd have a certain amount of trust in that means of communication. When you are not comfortable with internet, you will not easily use it for sharing. It might even be awkward to read other people's personal stories when for you it would not feel right to communicate similar things in that same way. - I think for an OS event to have an electronic follow up (maybe combined with an electronic exchange beforehand), it is also necessary to create a connection between the real and the virtual part of the conference. I think that could be done by: - making the virtual conference part of the invitation - it has to be an integral part of the whole project; - letting the electronic conference run continuously from before the physical conference, during it and a while afterwards; - having internet computers available at the meeting site(s) so that participants in the physical conference can communicate with those not physically present and the proceedings of the physical conference can be shared with the electronic participants; - putting pictures of the physical conference on the internet site of the electronic conference, both for those not present to get a visual impression and for those present to view afterward, maybe even have one or two webcams in the main meeting room; - and maybe more (ideas welcome). Those are my thougts at this moment. Any comments, experiences, or invitations to discuss trial projects welcome ;-) Koos ------------ koos de heer auryn management advies utrecht, netherlands mailto:koos...@auryn.nl http://www.auryn.nl/
