David, My interest in your situation is in the significance of mandatory attendance and short time. Others will rell you that neither time limits nor mandatory attendence will undermine open space if people are willing to identify their passions and accept responsibility in the context of whatever space they have.
What I will look forward to hearing about after your event is how a group of academics manage to distinguish between their focus on the issues affecting their work together and their tendency to analyze and critique the process while they are in it. When I work with traditionally trained American academics I often remind them that both Krishnamurti (in his own words) and Yogi Berra said, "You can't think and hit!" One of the things I value about about Open Space is that it is built on a different epistimology than most of our Eurocentric, reductionist world view relies on. What I have experienced is that the least formally educated Americans I have worked with in Open Space have some intuitive sense of its potential and will go with it. What I have also experienced is that the people who seem to struggle the most either have a Ph.D! (notice the judgement? each of us has our own diversity issues, don't we? So my request is that you and others who work with Academics share some of your wisdom and experiences dealing with this group. Chris
