thanks, all. while you've been adding to the thread here, i went and edited the opening overview and history sections of the wikipedia page. i've incorporated some of these new details you've sent.
here's what i posted. i'm better at storytelling than citations, but i tried to structure it in ways that would make citations easy. if you can add to or correct any of this, just go do it in the page itself. no sense tweaking this stuff here when it's open for public editing. there are at least two or three other sections that need work, as well. mh -- *Open Space Technology* (*OST*) is an approach for hosting meetings, conferences, corporate-style retreats and community summit events, focused on a specific and important purpose or task -- but *beginning* without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme. Highly scalable and adaptable, it has been used in meetings of 5 to 5000 people and is characterized by five basic mechanisms: (1) a broad, open invitation that articulates the purpose of the meeting; (2) participant chairs arranged in a circle; (3) a "bulletin board" of issues and opportunities posted by participants; (4) a "marketplace" with many breakout spaces that participants move freely between, learning and contributing as they "shop" for information and ideas; and (5) a "breathing" or "pulsation" pattern of flow, between plenary and small-group breakout sessions. The approach is most distinctive for it's *initial* lack of an agenda, which sets the stage for the meeting's participants to create the agenda for themselves, in the first 30-90 minutes of the meeting or event. Typically, an Open Space meeting will begin with short introductions by the sponsor (the official or acknowledged leader of the group) and usually a single facilitator. The sponsor introduces the purpose; the facilitator explains the "self-organizing" process called "Open Space." Then the group creates the working agenda, as individuals post their issues in bulletin board style. Each individual "convener" of a breakout session takes responsiblity for naming the issue, posting it on the bulletin board, assigning it a space and time to meet, and then later, showing up at that space and time, kicking off the conversation, and taking notes. These notes are usually compiled into a proceedings document that is distributed physically or electronically to all participants. Sometimes one or more additional approaches are used to sort through the notes, assign priorities and identify what actions should be taken next. Throughout the process, the ideal facilitator is described as being "fully present and totally invisible" (see Owen, User's Guide), "holding a space" for participants to self-organize, rather than managing or directing the conversations. Hundreds of open space meetings have been documented ( http://www.openspaceworld.org; Open Space Institute US, STORIES Newsletter; http://www.openspaceworldscape.org; Tales from Open Space, edited by Harrison Owen, Abbott Publishing). In "Open Space Technology: A User's Guide," (and seven other books about Open Space), Harrison Owen explains that this approach works best when four conditions are present, namely high levels of (1) complexity, in term of the tasks to be done or outcomes achieved; (2) diversity, in terms of the people involved and/or needed to make any solution work; (3) real or potential conflict, meaning people really care about the central issue or purpose; and (4) urgency, meaning that the time to act was "yesterday." According to Harrison Owen, originator of the term and the approach, Open Space works because it harnesses and acknowledges the power of self-organization, which he suggests is substantially aligned with the deepest process of life itself, as described by leading-edge complexity science as well as ancient spiritual teachings. (Owen, Wave Rider, 2008) [edit<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Open_Space_Technology&action=edit§ion=1> ] History The history of Open Space Technology is detailed in the Introduction to "Open Space Technology: A User's Guide", by Harrison Owen. (Paperback: 192 pages, Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 3 edition (April 1, 2008), Language: English, ISBN-10: 1576754766, ISBN-13: 978-1576754764) In the early 1980's, Harrison Owen wrote a paper on what he called "Organization Transformation." He presented this paper at a traditional management conference. It was well enough received that a number of people urged Owen to organize a conference to specifically address the issues and opportunities he identified in his paper. Owen hosted the first annual Symposium on Organization Transformation in 1983, in a traditional conference format, in Monterrey, California. The event was a success, inasmuch as it was generally agreed that it should happen again. John Adams, a colleague of Owen, offered to organize the second annual symposium (OT-2) one year later, still in a traditional format. Harrison Owen agreed to organize OT-3 for the following year, but by his own account, did not relish another year of work to manage all the details. Upon volunteering to host the third symposium, he retreated to the bar, where he consistently claims to have discovered what he later called the "Open Space" approach to meetings and events, at the bottom of his second martini. His plan for the following year's symposium was informed by his experience as a biblical scholar, associate pastor, peace corps organizer in the villages of west Africa, and federal government staffer and organization development consultant in Washington DC. The following year, he sent out a simple, one-paraphraph invitation and more than 100 people showed up to discuss Organization Transformation. In his main meeting room he set the chairs one large circle and proceeded to explain that what participants could see in the room was the extent of his organizing work. If they had an issue or opportunity that they felt passionate about and wanted to discuss with other participants, they should come to the center of the circle, get a marker and paper, write their issue and their name, read that out, and post it on the wall. It took about 90 minutes for the 100+ people to organize a 3-day agenda of conference sessions, each one titled, hosted, and scheduled by somebody in the group. Particpants at OT-1 and OT-2 said that the best part of the events was the coffee breaks, which Owen always pointed out was the one part of the event that he didn't plan and couldn't take credit for. His inspiration to articulate the theme, the larger purpose for the work of the symposium, in an invitation and then a brief opening comment, and then simply "open the space" for participants to self-organize around the issues and opportunities they saw as essential to that purpose, was a conscious decision to make "more of what works." His martini-based plan sought to minimize the grunt work by leadership (him) and assign responsibility for maximizing productive learning and contribution to his participants (everyone else). The approach worked well, in the 3-1/2 days symposium, where it was repeated annually through OT-20. Soon after the first "open space" event at OT-3, however, Owen tried the same approach with a consulting client, a large chemical firm and a group of polymer chemists. When it worked there, too, the participants of OT began trying it out with their clients, in a variety of different kinds of organizations, to address many different kinds of strategic and community issues, in countries around the world. They returned to the OT symposium each year to share learnings. Owen never trademarked or patented or certified "Open Space" in any way. He always claimed to have discovered, rather than invented, it. He said it could be practiced freely by anyone with a good head and good heart. From the beginning, he said only that those who used the approach and found it valuable, should share their stories and learnings as freely, as well. Twenty-five years later, Harrison Owen estimates that more than 100,000 different "open space" meetings have taken place. The Open Space World Map ( http://www.openspaceworldmap.org) documents that these events have taken place in more than 160 countries. In December 2009, the OSLIST email listserve (hosted by Boise State University at http://listserv.boisestate.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=OSLIST) for practitioners worldwide had 660+ members and more than 26,500 publicly searchable messages, relating to all aspects of practice. Information about Open Space is now posted in 21 different languages at Open Space World (http: www.openspaceworld.org). There are at least six different government-chartered associations or institutes (Canada, France, Germany, Portugal, Sweden and USA) promoting Open Space practice around the world. The german language yahoo group started February 2002, had 233 members at yearend 2009, mostly from Germany, Austria and Switzerland but also a bunch of German speakers from France, Spain, The Netherlands, Poland and elsewhere, with 3497 messages in its archive. Harrison Owen originally used the term "open space" for his "self-organizing meetings". One of the earliest implementations of the approach was for a conference theme of "The business of business is learning," in Goa, India. The organizer of the conference was interviewed by the local media and described the simple process. When asked what the process was called, he embellished it a bit, with the more important sounding "Open Space Technology." The story was picked up by the New York Times (need date, c. 1985), and so "Open Space" became "Open Space Technology." * * ========================================================== 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
