On 8/25/06, Diana Larsen <dlar...@futureworksconsulting.com> wrote:
As the person who opened and held the Space at Agile 2006.
Oh! I didn't know that; but perhaps if I did, I would have been more delicate, and as a result would have learned less. :) Thank you for holding the Open Space, and thank you for being frank in your response!
Everything you heard was true. (Lots of reasons I won't go into here.) With all its challenges, it still managed to be the most valuable part of the conference for a number of conference goers -- they told me so. However, it was largely invisible to many others, especially those who had never experienced it before and didn't think to seek it out.
Yes. We just had our monthly BayXP meeting here in San Francisco on Wednesday of this week (for non-techies, "XP" is a subculture in the "Agile" movement in the software industry, hence the connection with the Agile 2006 conference where Diana opened and held an Open Space session) -- the topic was Agile 2006, with four people having attended the conference. One who hadn't attended mentioned that he had heard something about the Open Space being less satisfying, so we took up that topic briefly toward the end of the evening. One who had attended the conference both this year and in previous years was able to offer some comparisons, such as the "second class" comment; he said that previously the Open Space sessions had also run concurrently with the rest of the conference, but the opening circle in particular had been a distinct "stop the conference" kind of event, whereas this year it was concurrent with other planned sessions. But along the lines of your observation, one of the other attendees mentioned that the most meaningful session for him at this year's conference was in fact one of those held in Open Space. He described further that the convener of that session, the author of the book that was the topic of the session, was actually 30 minutes "late", but someone else who had read the book and had brought detailed notes stepped right up and started a lively conversation that led very naturally into more advanced topics when the author did arrive.
Some of us had already planned to hold an all Open Space event on Agile topics in the NW (there's already one in Europe), and that experience solidified our determination.
Wonderful! Let me know how I can help. :)
That's partly why I'm asking the question. The term "Open Space" in some circles is becoming associated with mildly satisfying group discussions that don't go through the program review process and, therefore, are of dubious value. I'd like to sneak up on those folks with the real power of self-organization. So, I'm seeking some sheep's clothing in which to hide my wolf. :-)
I think "Open Space on Agile Topics" would be a terrific name! Maybe it's time to reclaim the name, as Harrison tried to do with his letter to Nature? Cheers, Justin P.S. I seem to be using exclamation points more than usual lately; I'm on a bit of a learning high, here and elsewhere. :) * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
