hi joe, in terms of opening space in a third world country (i personally prefer the term two-thirds world country) i have some experience. i've been doing it here in haiti for about five years.
there are challenges in opening space in a society which has clearly defined classes. frankly, if you have computers buzzing and people using them, while you also have people who do know how to read and write, chances are, there are going to be a lot of reflections going on among participants that will surely not get voiced. be it united states, haiti, most places i am told, people who do not know how to read and write often feel ashamed of this. typically, society creates the condition that leads to this shame. not surprising, people avoid being "exposed" in public, especially if it looks like its assumed that people do know how to read. at the open space gathering in vancouver, a number of us convened on the subject of using open space with people who are illiterate. you will find our notes if you look for them on the openspaceworld.org website, go to the vancouver conference notes. although i've been using open space, and have four colleagues that are using it here in haiti - three of them are haitian - the majority of the participants at our meetings/events are literate. we feel that we need to adapt a method which is sure not to alienate non-readers. you will see that three of my haitian colleagues participated in our meeting at vancouver, as did lisa heft who has experience in working with non-readers. john _________________________________________________________________ Téléchargez MSN Explorer gratuitement à l'adresse http://explorer.msn.fr/intl.asp * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
