Dear Emi Hotta, one of the things that a number of us have discovered is that open space "works" in a number of different cultures. In fact, nobody has reported that it does not work in a particular culture. Also, it seems, that some or mayby all cultures have had open space like ways of communicating for thousands of years. When I facilitate an open space in Kenya a few years back an old man stood up and said "I know this, we do that in our village". When I asked him what word he has for it he said "baraza" which means as much as "meeting under a shady tree". Others in the group then recalled that there used to be similar things in their villages (different tribes) with different names, but essentially the same concept. When looking at the German "tribal" roots a meeting style called the "ting" comes to mind, that also seems familiar to danish and perhaps other northern European traditions. Of course, North American Indians sat down in a circle and talked things through. In German and English and I suppose in other languages there are also a number of references to circles, like "Kreis der Familie" or "Kreis der Freunde" or "Freundeskreis" all suggesting that the circle is one of the basic elements people have always known about. I wonder whether there are similar roots in Japanese tradition or language. I invite you to have a look at http://www.openspaceworldmap.org/ As you go over the map with your cursor the names of countries in which open space has been used show up and those countries where os-people work have a number behind the country's name indicating how many there are. Someone has actually done open space in Japan but so far nobody has included themselves personally. If you like, you can include yourself....anyone working with open space (practitioners, members of organisations that use open space for their ongoing work, researchers and others having an ongoing interest) is invited. The map has been up for about 3 weeks and 52 people from 16 different countries have included themselves so far. Its a good way to show the world who is involved with open space worldwide. When you take a look at http://www.ostasia.net/ you will see an emerging network of os-folks from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Thailand...would not surprise me if Japanese colleagues start showing up there, too. When you pass through Germany and particularly through Berlin, stop by and we will arrange a meeting (there is a whole bunch of us in Berlin which you can see when you hit the search button in a country field and enter Berlin and hit search again...12 people so far) As I am writing this mail to you I remember receiving an inquiry from Dr. Waldemar Kippes (kip...@redemptor.or.jp) back in 2002 who was interested in introducing open space around the topic of "the future of spiritual/pastoral care" for ministers working in hospitals in Japan. He had heard of an open space I facilitated around a similar topic for ministers in Germany have a look at http://www.michaelmpannwitz.de/index.php?id=69 and then scroll down to Nr. 82...there are some pictures of the open space.
On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 04:25:03 -0600, Emi Hotta wrote: >Dear Peggy and Friends in the Open Space Listserv, > >Hello, everybody. >I'm Emi Hotta and Peggy forwarded my request to you. >Peggy, thank you so much for all your kindness in trying to help me. >I joined the OS list by your recommendation. > >Most of the overview of the research is written in the e-mail. >I hope to add a few background below in case you might be interested. > >In Japan, Open Space Technology is very unfamiliar and the word "Open Space >Technology" can't be found on the Japanese internet. >However, I think there is a great need in Japan for concepts like Open >Space >Technology. >Japan used to be a very high context and single culture. >Now there is a great need for diversity and change, but we ended up not >knowing how to communicate and create synergy with people from diverse >background and culture. >I thought Open Space and many other generative facilitation processes such >as Appreciative Inquiry, and Dialogue are needed in Japan. >I have a great passion to introduce the concept and value of Open Space >Technology to Japan. > >I have a detailed document describing the research concept. >And also, I will certainly share the information with anybody who has >helped. >Please contact me if you are interested. > >Sincerely >Emi Hotta >Researcher >Human Value Inc., Japan >Tel: 81-3-5775-2888 >Fax: 81-3-3408-5544 >E-mail: ho...@humanvalue.co.jp >http://www.humanvalue.co.jp/company/eng/eindex.htm > >* >* >========================================================== >osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu >------------------------------ >To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, >view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: >http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > >To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: >http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist Michael M Pannwitz, boscop Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany FON ++49 - 30-772 8000 FAX ++49 - 30-773 92 464 www.michaelmpannwitz.de 125 Berliner open space-Veranstaltungen von 12 BegleiterInnen in 16 verschiedenen Bereichen: www.openspace-landschaft.de An der 152-köpfigen E-Gruppe "openspacedeutsch" interessiert? Enfach eine mail an mich. Schaut mal in die neue Open Space World Map, seit dem 17.8.2004 online www.openspaceworldmap.org * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
