Hi, Doug (and others) - I should have lifted the words Harold gave for
Kaliya's description from his earlier posting and placed them in my
posting - rather than simply refer to it. Sorry about that.
In Harold's earlier posting he mentioned that "Kaliya calls it a bunch
of Alpha Geeks rushing at the blank wall to grab the best spots."
The words you bolded are mine. And thank you ;o)
Lisa
On Sep 7, 2010, at 7:35 PM, doug wrote:
Lisa--
I am not clear--are these words bolded yours or Kaliya's? Either way
I like them a lot.
:- Doug.
On Tue, 2010-09-07 at 17:40 -0700, Lisa Heft wrote:
Hi, Annamarie -
Harold, I think Kaliya describes it so beautifully.
From what I am hearing, the word 'unconference' - when used by most
people - seems to be a generic term for 'not the usual PowerPoint
type of meeting/conference' - started perhaps in the tech
communities but is now a term used by others.
It does not mean Open Space. To everyone.
And just as we often hear of groups using 'Open Space' and then
when we ask them to describe it, it's something completely un-Open
Space (but just uses a circle, or just uses topic signs on a wall,
or something), I hear that in the tech / hybrid / mashup world what
often is referred to as Open Space or Unconference is not anything
we would call Open Space.
So often what I hear is it is not the complete form:
- Opening Circle - invitation and explanation of process,
principles and law
- participant-driven co-created agenda (without clustering, without
facilitator's 'helping', without voting or elimination of topics,
and done at a time-for-everyone speed rather than whoever-thinks-
the-fastest speed)
- multiple participant-led discussions around the room (that folks
can wander amongst) for multiple session times (without
facilitators 'helping', with time enough for not-just-the-quickest-
responders to participate, ideally with some sort of participant-
generated documentation of the discussions)
- as mentioned above - ideally some sort of participant-
documentation component that ultimately becomes a co-created Book
of Proceedings (to share more than the moment of talking / to
provide data to all, to share knowledge with everyone about what
you discovered and learned in the certain sessions you hosted or
attended)
- facilitator becoming totally present and completely invisible and
holding space - not directive or intervening or traffic controlling
- after welcoming/inviting/explaining/opening
- Closing Circle for comment and reflection
Not squished into too short a time frame, not hybridized or morphed
(for this results in different deliverables than the compete OS
tool delivers), not cut into pieces, no pressure to present, and
ideally welcoming of all kinds of people (quick responders, slow
responders, topic convenors, witnesses, established leaders,
emergent leaders, folks of lower power or rich difference, and so
on).
So. I hear there are some wonderful facilitators who use true Open
Space for tech-based Unconferences / camps. Certainly most
'agilistas' (Agile community) seem to help each other learn Open
Space well.
I know some of you folks who specialize in using OS in tech
communities / camps / unconferences personally. You are amazing.
You do it so well.
I also hear there are things that sound sort of like it, that are
not it, that I wish were not called Open Space. I would love it if
the term 'Open Space' were only used for the complete form. I
welcome people to do any parts of interactive / dialogic work that
work for them - I just like participants and other users to know
which tools deliver what - proper naming for understanding proper
use of tools. Just like knowing a hammer is best for some things
and when you say hammer you have thought about what it's most
useful for and what it's design can deliver. Rather than using it
for everything or pulling it apart into components and expecting
the same results.
I welcome all experimentation, all stretching, all sharing of
different experiences, too.
What do others think?
Lisa
*
*
==========================================================
[email protected]
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of [email protected]:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
