FO rapport et historique français: Forum ouvert sur le Forum ouvert – Aller plus loin dans l’action, à Brownsburg-Chatham, Québec, le 13 octobre 2007. Rapport et historique (pdf)

Précédemment: 1e Forum ouvert sur le Forum ouvert international en français: Val David (Québec) Canada, 14 au 16 septembre 2007. Thème : Aller un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin dans nos connaissances et nos pratiques du Forum ouvert. Rapports de discussion (pdf)

Thanks (and congrats!) to Joern Geisselmann, Adviser for Public Participation & Capacity Building at Shining Stone Community Action, for this report from mainland China:

On May 15th Shining Stone Community Action (SSCA), a Beijing-based NGO promoting participatory urban governance, conducted what was perhaps the first Open Space event organized and facilitated by a mainland Chinese organization entirely on its own. SSCA decided to include a one-day Open Space into one of its training courses on participatory community development following a training on the Open Space methodology in April 2007 by Stiftung Mitarbeit, a German foundation dedicated to the promotion of public participation, and CANGO (China Association for NGO Cooperation).

The theme of the event was “Public Participation in Community Development”. Participants included community workers, NGO representatives, and residents. Since Open Space is so different from typical Chinese meetings that tend to be very formal and hampered by hierarchies we were worried at first how participants would respond to the unusual latitude given to them. However, this concern vanished quickly as participants began taking the initiative proposing topics they wanted to discuss. The enthusiasm and resourcefulness of participants continued to astonish us throughout the event and Open Space turned out to be the highlight of the 3-day training. In fact, about a week later a participant informed us that they had enjoyed Open Space so much that they had already conducted a community meeting using some of the Open Space elements.

For more information, please contact Ms. Song Qinghua, Director of Shining Stone Community Action.

Please note the new page — and renewed invitation — to get involved in the Open Space community and to contribute news for posting in this weblog.

Please join us! Please contribute!

Christopher Carfi posted a nice summary of work done in a breakout session in Open Space last year, following the Consortium for Service Innovation Annual Summit in Orlando.

His summary is about the work, not the process. And that’s the point. Real work gets done in Open Space — and becomes the center story of the event. I wonder how many other participants went out posted their notes.

His posting represents the kind of “action” that keeps real work moving, based on personal passion and responsibility, but never shows up on the screen when people ask, “How does action happen?”

This group should know something about getting things done. The conference sub-theme: the economics and social elements of mass collaboration.

Harrison Owen, author of Open Space Technology, Expanding Our Now, The Power of Spirit and The Spirit of Leadership, won the Sharing the Wealth award from OD Network.

The award honors the memory of Kathie Dannemiller, a major force in the founding of OD Network (and the author of a Berrett-Koehler book, Whole Scale Change) It is given to “an individual whose achievements demonstrate their values, innovation and generosity.”

Congratulations, Harrison!

In December, EventManagementBlog featured an interview with Harrison Owen in December. They likened the use of OST to “Open sourcing your event.”