Hi Peggy, (long time not heard) maybe It helps if I give a more detailled analysis of my perception of the context and I guess, we are not as different in our point tof views.
>>how to let grow networks > > at the same time- which needs more activities than to open spaces. > > Why do you believe it needs more activities than to open spaces? We have > found that over the years of Spirited Work, folks take more and more > responsibility not just for the content of the sessions but > the form and direction of the community. While there is a group of stewards > who meet once a month, the needs and decisions the community faces, as well > as a variety of projects that have been incubated at SW, show up in the > marketplace. > I am an interested observer of processes and conditions needed to help social systems grow up and sustain. I just open the spaces. I am not the sponsor, though I do a little coaching to support the sponsor. The sponsorlady and (some folks around her) created the idea of founding the network and she invited people she suspected to share the hope of possible benefits of this meetings.(Quiet successful by the way) She offered a social and physical frame for a start up. I think people followed both: her call and the individual hope for benefits. But actually I would name that hope of the folks rather interest, than passion. You can use Open Space in this context in two ways: To grade up the quality of discussions and to grade up the network as a selforganized system itself. To use Open Space for high quality in discussion, you only need passion for your own interests (and some trust to people, you do not know). To use Open Space for the system, you need the passion of the folks for the system. That means, that they appreciate the frame that much, that they want to put responsibility to it, too. This might be a difference to the example you talked about. When folks come together who share e.g. professions, they have a more or less clear picture how they can benefit of the meetings. In my example the folks superficially don't share a lot. When I wrote "it needs more activitities than to open spaces" I meant, that the first task of the sponsor is to stabilize the frame, to garantuey the continuation at the beginning and let an indifferent hope change to secureness, that they are at the right spot to gather whatever they want to. And then hopefully >folks take more and more > responsibility not just for the content of the sessions but > the form and direction of the community. And this will be the moment to suggest an Open Space on the Network. We are not very far apart in our opinions, arent'y we? bye from Vienna Erich * * ========================================================== 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
