Well done Gabriela! And if it turns out that face-to-face Open Space has a continuing role to play in the program that will be marvelous. I believe that Open Space has a particular contribution to make in the environmental area and in fact the media is the message to use an old phrase from Marshall McLuhan.
In simplest terms, groups operating in Open Space have an immediate and direct experience of consciously working in and through the phenomenon of Self-Organization which is the way of all Nature. People become aware (particularly if effort is made to bring them to awareness) that hugely complex issues and systems will come to flowing synergy, not by the exercise of external control but rather through their own internal process. Which after all is what self-organization is all about! For 14 billion years, the natural world has managed to progress in this fashion until we humanoids came along and thought we should take charge. Our job, we thought, was to control nature! And goodness knows we have tried, and now we must face the consequences of our efforts. Why we got into this situation is an interesting question, probably caused by equal parts of Ego, perceived necessity, and the fact that we really didnt see any alternatives. The role of Ego has received a lot of attention and rightfully so. Somewhere along the line Homo sapiens came to the conclusion that we were the King of the Heap disregarding the fact that our place in the cosmos is a very small one and we are definitely late comers. But in all fairness it would seem that there were good reasons to make the attempt (perceived necessity). The natural world can in fact be an uncomfortable place what with flooding rivers, hurricanes, typhoons, and odd meteorites stopping by. Surely we must do something about all that! We could see the problems so we had to find a fix. Take the case of rivers. We know that they often flood, and flooding is deleterious to human communities in the way. The fix seems obvious build dams and levies. Control The River! All well and good until that wonderful day when Old Man River and Mother Nature say, Enough! And all our Flood Control comes sloshing down around our ears (Think Katrina), creating a disaster out of a natural event. It turns out that the Flood Plain (where we built our towns) was there for a purpose. Come the springtime floods, the waters would spread out quite gently leaving fresh soil and new seeds. It worked that way for millennia until we applied the fix only to discover that we are (literally) drowning in a sea of unintended consequences. But what were the alternatives? Of course we should Take Charge because we all know that the only way things will work is when we get it all organized. That is what we have been taught. It is what all the books say. I believe that the real significance of Open Space is that it provides a direct experience of the alternative. It is true that many people, particularly those who have just heard about Open Space, find it counterintuitive, impossible and wrong. It just couldnt work! Unfortunately it does and as it works we are confronted with an alternative way of working with each other and the world around us. Symbiosis as opposed to domination. Learning to flow with emerging organization, and trusting that flow. A very different experience for most, but essential if we are really going to become an effective part of our environment as opposed to being antagonists. New learning for sure, but learning that can take us to places that rational argument will never reach. As we all know, experience is the best teacher. I grant you that learning in Open Space may be a little too subtle for many and too slow for all of us. However, I think it is safe to say that if we do not take advantage of the OS learning opportunity (along with other similar opportunities) the day will inevitably come when Mother Nature delivers some painful lessons which we cannot avoid. One thing I am quite sure of is that should we choose to resolve our environmental issues with the same approach that got us into the predicament in the first place our level of success will be minimal at best. So Thank you Gabriela for creating the (electronic) Open Space class room, and may you be successful in opening many more. And of course I know that there are lots of folks here on OSLIST who will be delighted to help. Me for one. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> www.openspaceworld.org Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gabriela Ender Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 4:08 AM To: [email protected] Subject: "Online Climate Summit" - held on the basis of OpenSpace-Online (x-posted to Genuine Contact List) Dear Open Space friends around the globe! Together with the best wishes for an exciting 2008 I am pleased to inform you about a very special project: On December 4, 2007 the "First German Online Climate Summit" was held on the basis of the OpenSpace-Online Methodology. Patron of the event was the President of the German Federal Environment Agency, the organizer was the "Deutsche Städte- und Gemeindebund" (German Association of Towns and Municipalities), financial support and sponsorship for the project was provided by Cisco Systems and the concept and technology partner was OpenSpace-Online GmbH. The aim of this event was to enable an improvement in the quality of interdisciplinary, open and - at the same time - result-oriented collaboration, with the involvement of the most important environmental and climate experts in Germany, while simultaneously starting a comprehensive information and communication campaign under the motto "local authorities protecting the climate". The First German Online Climate Summit was intended to be the kick-off event for fast, unbureaucratic and forward-looking collaboration over long distances and across borders for organizations, institutes and universities, as well as public and local authorities. For the German Association of Towns and Municipalities the online climate summit and the use of the OpenSpace-Online method was a resounding success. They say: "Our intention is to continue the online climate summit in the coming years, possibly at an international level. The results of the summit will be included in the face-to-face event "Climate Protection and Energy Efficiency Local Authority Strategies for Action and Methods of Resolution", which will be held by the German Association of Towns and Municipalities on January 11, 2008 in cooperation with the Federal Environment Ministry (with the participation of the Minister of the Environment)." We have a few more information about the online climate summit at our website. If you are interested please click here: < <http://www.openspace-online.com/en/climate-summit2007.php> http://www.OpenSpace-Online.com/en/climate-summit2007.php> It looks good, that during the further process an OST conference will play as well an important part within this project. I will be pleased to inform you about next Open Space highlights (offline and online) regarding this project in the future. I wish you all a wonderful start for Year 2008 and I look forward to see many of you in San Francisco this summer! Gabriela * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * OpenSpace-Online GmbH - The Power of People! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Winner of the "Top 10 World Changer 2006" Award * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Resselsteig 30, 12209 Berlin, Germany eMail: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] website: <http://www.openspace-online.com/> http://www.OpenSpace-Online.com phone: +49-(0)30-772 31 69 fax: +49-(0)30-77 39 20 21 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg HRB 75583 Managing Director: Gabriela Ender * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
