I just want to say that my experience on the Design Team for the Virtual Open Space on Virtual Open Space has been as challenging and learningful (is that a word?) as I hoped. There is no direct translation between face to face OS and virtual OS. It is like using two very different languages to try and say the same thing. Something is captured, and something is transformed in the process. We're still figuring out which.
One example: What does it mean to hold space as a facilitator for an event which never stops (24/7) and lasts as long as a month? Can the essence of the facilitator's role be shared among a group of people who wake at different hours and have never met? What does the presence of a facilitator mean for an event where the s/he is truly invisible and can't be seen, smelt, or touched? If you are intrigued, sign up for VOSONVOS and join in the conversation. Jay Once again, here are the details: Participants Invited for First International Online 3Open Space2 Gathering Big Mind Media and Full Circle Associates (Seattle), Peoplesworth (Boston), and Smith Weaver Smith (Indianapolis), serving as a voluntary conference design team, have issued an invitation to participate in the first worldwide 3Virtual Open Space on Virtual Open Space2 gathering, May 13-June 19, 2002 - to be conducted online. Organizational development consultants, non-government organization staff, community and economic development leaders, online community builders, education‹health--ecology reformers, and all others with a passion for community building locally and globally are urged to participate. Sponsored by the Open Space Institute, this Open Space is open -- to anyone across the world with Internet access. Registration is accomplished online at http://www.bigmindmedia.com/vosonvos/register.html VOSonVOS is a gathering built on the concept of 3Open Space,2 a method for self-organizing, collaborative action among diverse groups of people who want to improve the quality of human life. In this case, meetings are not held in auditoriums or meeting centers, but in a collaborative online space accessible anywhere in the world at any time. Through an Internet connection and a web browser, participants will connect to VOSonVOS at times and from places convenient to them. Once online, participants view and may choose to contribute to a record of conversation and activity. The conference theme is: What are the issues and opportunities of online gatherings in Open Space? The registration fee is US $35. Voluntary contributions above the minimum will support an Access Fund to provide assistance where needed. We anticipate hundreds of participants. Early registrations are in from New Zealand, Portugal, Columbia, Austria, Italy, Israel and the United States. Big Mind Media will host VOSonVOS using their collaborative workspace software, BigMind Catalyst. Registrants will receive a web site location and a password. Email participation is offered to those for whom Internet access is expensive. What is it like? Join us and contribute to that answer. We promise this: VOSonVOS will engage participants in meaningful conversation about the issues and opportunities that you passionately care about. The conference is attracting the most diverse collection of experienced and newly learning Open Space and online facilitation practitioners that have ever assembled. * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
