OS in Liberia


This from Susan Partnow, via the OSLIST…

You may enjoy these photos. The middle group is of an Open Space we did in Liberia – where Harrison first gained many of the insights for OST! It was inspiring to see how empowered the participants felt. They began offering many contributions to the circle once space was opened – songs, dances, etc. It was also wonderful to see how participants who were illiterate were easily incorporated and supported by those who were literate.

If you’re inspired by our work, you may be so moved as to support our endeavors to create the Liberia Peacebuilder Initiative. We have a $10,000 matching fund grant and so we need to raise $10,000! Your donation will be doubled (or – if you have a corporate tie with a policy of matching – quadrupled!) so please give it some thought! You can donate here: http://globalcitizenjourney.org/paypal/

WOSonOS Report


Gail West, convener of the group that hosted the 18th annual World Open Space on Open Space practitioners’ gathering, reports from sunny Taiwan:

It was a time of deep, conversation, fun in the sessions and outside, celebration, I-Ching readings, spacial massage, reiki healing for one of the participants who got ill the last day, one child who came with her Mother, drawings, delicious food and more. And so……………. before the closing circle on Day 3, we had a whole-group conversation about “what’s next?” Following an invitation from Michael Jr to a global open space community gathering in Berlin in May 2010, we declared a consensus from this gathered group on behalf of others who were not able to be present in Taiwan, to have the 18th WOSONOS in Berlin in 2010. We hope to see many of you (including those not on this listserve) in Berlin in May 2010!

There were lots of camera folks here, so another round of photos, as well as the group discussions can be found in the included links. Enjoy!

Click for WOSONOS 2009 pictures on flicker or WOSONOS 2009 Group Discussion Documents Anyone can just sign-in, add new post, leave some comment, or start a new discussion.

Another Successful OSonOS in Haiti


John Engle reports more success from Haiti…

I’m delighted to share photos from 8th Annual Haiti OSonOS, which convened for three days 70 Haitians, many of whom are educators and community leaders from around the country. These photos taken by Haitian pro photographer, Eric Graham:

A special thanks to Open Space Institute, USA for providing scholarships for 16 participants.

With deep gratitude, John

PS Here’s an unprofessionally done video, created by me ; ) I made it especially for folks who were there but I’ll share it here in case some of you want to get a better feel for the meeting.

Open Space Uganda


ugandatraining.jpg

I noticed open space uganda in the news sidebar this morning. Followed the link to find piles of great pictures in a new Open Space Uganda website. Looks like some training has been happening there. Still only one person listed for Uganda in the OpenSpaceWorldMap, but looks like there should be more coming soon.

Pictures and Posters


Thanks to Doug Caldwell for the following pictures and posters…

More on the Agile Open Northwest Conference


green eggs and ham, in open space

Diana Larsen (facilitator) points us to Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, one of the hosts of Agile Open Northwest, who had never (knowingly) participated in an OST event.

Rebecca, who hosted entirely on faith and with a few nervous moments about whether it would really work, wrote a blog post about her take on the event.

A great look at how newcomers experience open space, complete with Green Eggs and Ham (photo). This session? Overcoming Resistance!

Extreme Open Space: Many Languages


They Do Things Differently There was the theme of a day for Customers, Testers and Developers Learning Each Others’ Languages — A French-English Open Space forum …hosted by the XP (eXtreme Programming) Day Montreal 2006 conference.

Deborah Hartmann has posted the invitation, photos of proceedings, and some other bits about this program, in the OpenSpaceWorld.NET wiki workspace. Way to go Deborah!

diversity


Notice the photos in the top-left corner of this page? They’re different every time you look at this page because they’re randomly selected from all photos tagged “openspacetech” at flickr.com. So go ahead and add your own photos there and notice the diversity of what open space looks like throughout time and space.

The Four Practices of Open Space- reframed


Many practitioners of OST underline that the daily practice of open space in life is more important than the tool called “Open Space Technology.”

Michael Herman together with Chris Corrigan have outlined a brief description of the four practices of Open Space. Michael offered a refined version of these practices recently.

Paul Everett shared his understanding of these practices on the OS list as inspired by the South African teacher, Oz Swallow.

As Paul remembers them:

CHOOSE TO HAVE FUN

Fun creates Enjoyment.
Enjoyment invites Participation.
Participation focuses Attention.
Attention expands Awareness.
Awareness promotes Insight.
Insight generates Knowledge.
Knowledge facilitates Action.
Action yields Results.

(Therefore, Fun is results-producing)

Open Space Photos at Flickr


You have probably noticed the ever rotating set of photos to the right. These are photos of Open Space events posted at Flickr using the tag “openspacetech.” Amazingly, in the space of only a couple of weeks the number of photos with that tag has grown from a few dozen to 428. You can see them all at the Flickr openspacetech page. It provides a wonderful visual feast of the process with which we work.

You too can take part, by starting a Flickr account, uploading your photos and tagging away.