Deborah Hartmann and Esther Matte worked together to open the RoCoCo camp event recently in Montreal. They did that in French and in English, taking things paragraph-by-paragraph, repeating everything in two languages. Then they came to the OSLIST to talk about how others do it. Harrison Owen offered an elegant approach…

When Michael Pannwitz and I did the Open Space for 2000 in Wurtzburg, Germany — we did everything all at once. The situation may have been a little different as most people spoke German and some English. Also in the plenary session (Opening) we had simultaneous translation. But in any event we did a duo. At the start Michael went one way in the circle, I went the other — and after we crossed at the starting point, we just wandered all over, everywhere. When we started I announced that Michael was not going to translate, rather he would do his thing, I would do mine, and hopefully we would end at the same place, which I think we did. It took a little longer, but we also had a lot of fun doing it together. The best part was Michael’s comments on what I had to say. One time after a rather lengthy discourse on my part (maybe 30 sec.) Michal came in with just a single word. Everybody howled. Wonderful!

Michael posted this invitation to the first-ever World Open Space on Open Space in French yesterday, and here from Marquis Bureau is the invitation itself in French:

La voici en grande primeur : l’invitation au tout premier Forum ouvert mondial sur le Forum ouvert en français. L’événement se tiendra à Val-David près de Montréal, au Québec, Canada, les 14, 15 et 16 septembre, sous le thème Aller un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin, dans nos connaissances et pratiques du Forum ouvert.

Les couleurs automnales et la beauté particulière de l’endroit contribueront certainement à la richesse de l’expérience que nous vous invitons à vivre avec nous.

Nous vous serions reconnaissants de nous aider à diffuser notre invitation. Nous avons trouvé une auberge qui offre plusieurs options d’hébergement, à prix plus que raisonnable.

Nous avons hâte d’accueillir des participants de toute la Francophonie. La date limite d’inscription est le 13 août 2007.

Au plaisir de vous rencontrer à Val-David!

Le comité organisateur

Étienne Beaulieu, Louise Brissette, Marquis Bureau, Diane Gibeault, Roch Landry, Esther Matte

Pour de plus amples renseignements :
Louise Brissette: louisebrissette (a) ipsai.net
ou Roch Landry: roch (a) rochlandry.com

Click here for registration form. (Word)
Click here for complete details. (PDF)

Or www.ipsai.net or www.rochlandry.com

Jo Toepfer, who held the space for the 15th Worldwide Open Space on Open Space on days one and two, writes:

Thank you for support. The thing is over now and I am totally exhausted and (guess what) happy! you will hear more stories…

Andrew Ballance, in a post to the Change Management Blog, writes of the Kyiv OSonOS:

The core of what I achieved in this Open Space was an appreciation for (and maybe even some understanding of) the different frames that other practitioners, some highly experienced, hold.

Andrew also reports that

Our Vikings (Thomas and Eva) presented Lisa Heft’s invitation to host the WOSonOS in 2008 in San Francisco…The generosity of the invitation was completely irresistible…The decision was thus inevitable. In 2008, the WOSonOS will be in San Francisco.

Need some visuals from the space? A few are available here. Thank you Olga Datsko of Lugansk, Ukraine!

We look forward to learning more soon!

I suppose this should really be in French, and maybe it will be reposted that way. But for now I have it in English…

Our invitation to the very first World Open Space on Open Space in French which will take place September 14, 15 and 16 in Val-David near Montreal, Québec, Canada is now available.

The theme is Aller un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin, dans nos connaissances et pratiques du Forum ouvert. (Reaching New Heights in our Knowledge and our Practices of Open Space).

Fall colours and the particular beauty of Val-David will no doubt contribute to a very rich event for all of us.

Please help us in disseminating our invitation. We found an inn proposing a variety of lodging options and prices.

Deadline for registration is August 13, 2007. We look forward to welcoming participants from the world Francophonie.

Warmly,

The Organizing Committee

Étienne Beaulieu, Louise Brissette, Marquis Bureau, Diane Gibeault, Roch Landry, and Esther Matte

For additional information, please contact:

Louise Brissette or Roch Landry

Kaliya Hamlin and friends are working in the world of network technology and making an important link between the Open Space and Unconferencing movements. Here’s a good invitation and example…

The Supernova Open Space Workshop is an open forum on the social, moral, technical, and strategic questions impacting the increasingly connected world in which we live. Discussions about topics like user control, neutrality, identity and open standards are setting the stage for future policies and economic decisions. Come to this event to learn more, participate in the community and shape the future of the New Network.

The workshop is being organized in conjunction with the Supernova 2007 conference (notably, sponsored by Wharton Business School), but is a distinct event, open to the entire community.

Go, Kaliya! Go!

Unconferencing is a recently emergent phenomenon that sometimes parallels Open Space and in other moments is deeply informed by it. Either way, it’s good to see Unconferencing written up in Business Week. It doesn’t mention Open Space by name, but the spirit of offering and inviting and self-organizing, so essential to Open Space, is there.

This on the OSLIST from Deborah Hartmann…

RecentChangesCamp is the international conference for folks interested in Wikis, Collaboration, Community Building, and Self-Managing Teams. The latest of several incarnations dating back to January 2006 is taking place now in Montreal as RoCoCoCamp.

Here is the link to the slide show (so far 🙂
*http://flickr.com/photos/tags/rocococamp/show/
*if you click on the image you will see the caption of each photo as it
cycles through the slide show.

Session notes are accessible from the home page.
http://www.rocococamp.info/

See also “Talking Chair” for (what I think is) an exciting development!
http://www.rocococamp.info/TalkingChair

The space has been amazing to work with… unique and with its own
challenges and incredible benefits.

Today we will “converge” to move forward. Exciting!!

deb

UPDATE: RoCoCoCamp in the mainstream media, original in French and translated into English.

John Engle began a lively discussion of the “Whatever happens in the only thing that could have” principle in late April on the OSlist. And it is continuing! Here is how it all began:

I know that some have been through this hundreds of times but I’m wanting to get the most recent reflections on the principle:

What Happens is what happens – learn and move forward.

Join the conversation on OSlist!

Jamie Pitts at Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program sends along the following:

Hi- I’m coordinating a nationwide project, Interethnic Dialogues on Immigration, that will use OST. The web address is www.immigrationdialogues.org.

These will take place in various places around United States.

Gerard Muller shared this a while back on the OSLIST, notes from a session at the OSonOS practitioner conference he hosted earlier this year:

Issue: Beliefs: What beliefs are important to attract OST clients? What beliefs do the organizations need for successfull OST? What are important beliefs for good OST Facilitators?

Conclusions:
We attract our experience based on beliefs held especially at the subconscious mind. It is important to consider what limiting beliefs or fears we have in doing and attracting OST and then create new empowering beliefs of what we want instead. These new beliefs attract a new reality/experience.

Some Beliefs:
I am open enough to hold space.
I have the energy I need to facilitate.
I have the courage to say no when the conditions are not right for OST.
I know when the conditions are right for OST.
I believe that groups find the energy to come to action.
I easily communicate the principles of OST & they get it.
I attract people that live the principles of OST.
I trust the process of OST and it works for me.
I am open to the outcome in OST.
OST always works and I trust it.
I create the space for people to be engaged and responsible when I
facilitate.
I know how to invite and I attract the right people that are needed.
When I make mistakes, I open the space for myself and others to learn.
I believe in the responsibility of all the people involved.
Wisdom leads to harmony.
The wisdom is always in the room.
I am Open Space.
I hold the attitude and essence of Open Space.

Harrison Owen was recently interviewed by a new online news service, assignment zero.

You can read the full text of the article here.

Thank you Joelle Shelton for sharing this piece of inspiring news on the OSlist about Cheryl Honey, originator of Community Weaving, an approach to activating the gift economy for family and community vibrancy and resilience. This approach in part draws upon open space principles.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper and Microsoft Corp. honor five people, including an Antioch University Seattle graduate, who make a difference through community service.

Cheryl Honey, who received her B.A. degree in 2006, has been selected to receive a 2007 Jefferson Award for her 15 years spent weaving people together to create a support system for families. The program, named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson, was created nationally in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Sen. Robert Taft Jr. and economic-development expert Sam Beard. The founders’ vision was to create an award, similar to a Nobel Prize, for public and community service, with a special honor for local service “by ordinary people who do extraordinary things.”

The full story can be read in the online version of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Wendy Farmer-O’Neil announces an April 28th stammtische in Nanaimo (British Columbia) for those who will be unable to attend the Toronto Open Space on Open Space April 27th and April 28th:

In confluence with our friends to the east who will be opening space at the Toronto OSonOS, we are hosting a West Coast Canada Stammtisch on Saturday, April 28th for all of those who want to join us. We will be gathering at Muddy Waters Marine Pub (within walking distance of the Vancouver Ferry) on the water in Nanaimo at 1:00. We look forward to seeing you there!

Directions are available here.

Harrison Owen has started a lively thread on OSlist using a Washington Post piece by President Carter’s national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski to launch the conversation.

Essentially, the question being posed is:
How do we keep opening space in a(n) (inter-)national climate of fear?

Marty Boroson has developed a video companion to his book, Becoming Me, inspired in part by open space. Acclaimed by spiritual leaders of different faiths, the clip has been posted to YouTube. Becoming Me is a simple, daring, and moving story of your/my creation.

This resource might be considered as another video to inspire one’s open space practice. An addition, perhaps, to this collection?

Proceedings from the Nexus for Change conference have been available throughout the conference.

What is Nexus? Why it is
an unprecedented conference bringing together practitioners, researchers, leaders, activists, and educators to advance participative change methods.

The conference brought together practitioners of many (most?) of the change methods represented in the second edition of the Change Handbook, by Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, and Steven Cady and others, including OST.

Change methods bloggers will be sharing their perspectives in the coming days.

Holger Nauheimer at Change Management Blog writes:
Rich conversations have begun, however, and .. the desire for some kind of shared meaning within this practice seems to be deeply rooted in all of them.

Stay tuned!

Veteran Novosibirsk (Russia) Open Space Technology facilitator Elena Marchuk writes on the OpenSpaceRu discussion group that
“a few more have joined the club.”

Elena just finished conducting a Working with Open Space Technology learning workshop as part of the Genuine Contactâ„¢ Program in organizational health and balance.

More than 20 participants completed the workshop commissioned by the Community Relations Department of the City of Irkutsk.

Elena notes that “as usual all the learning in the workshop was great.” The workshop participants experienced a mini-OST meeting with action planning on the topic of “Increasing our Effectiveness in Working with the Community.”

The City of Irkutsk asked Elena to conduct the workshop because “the city wanted to learn a method together with neighborhood groups and local NGO’s so that they could speak the same language and make headway in future collaboration.”

Good work, Elena!

This question just in from Menlo Park, California…

I am doing a bit of reasearch on if it would be possible to conduct an open space type meeting with the participants not located in the same room, but geographically distributed and connected via the Internet through instant messaging and other communication tools.

In your experience, have you seen anything like that in the past and/or do you have any thoughts on the viability of doing that?

Any thoughts that you could share would be appreciated.

Please use the comments link to offer your views and experience.

Note to email subscribers: This message will publish while I’m in the middle of a loooooong airplane flight. Would one of you alert the OSLIST and invite comments on this? Many thanks, Michael

Entendendo uma Desconferência | Cabala 1001 Gatos de Schrödinger

Os princípios que guiam uma desconferência são diretamente influenciados pelo trabalho do autor e consultor Harrison Owen, que descreve um método de organizar grupos de interação, chamado Open Space Technology. Owen em seu artigo “Opening Space for Emerging Order”, explica os Quatro Princípios do Open Space:

1. Seja quem for que veio,é a pessoa certa,
2. O que quer que aconteça, é apenas aquilo que deveria ter acontecido,
3. Quando quer que comece é na hora certa, e
4. Quando acaba,acabou.E acompanhando a Lei dos Dois Pés afirmando que, “Se a qualquer momento você encontra-se em qualquer situação onde você não estiver nem aprendendo ou contribuindo – use seus dois pés e dirija-se para um lugar mais ao seu gosto”.

O método Open Space foi utilizado com sucesso para organizar os encontros da Fortune, de 500 executivos.cientistas, e mesmo políticos rivais na África do Sul.

HawaiiBreeze writes:

OST is a gem, embodying the concept of minimal structure — just enough to get what’s ready to happen, out and into life. Kinda like a baby being born. Mostly you just want to allow it to happen smoothly without making too many requirments on baby or mom.

Chira Humanitarian Research Institute is blogging about us! A quick look around reveals lots of other interesting posts, about Corrigan’s Tao of Holding Space, Deliberative polling, Exploitation and True Sharing, Relationships and the economy, Open Space and keynote speakers and more!

Interesting reference to OST from New Zealand 2007:

I also don’t use ‘happy sheet’ evaluations but two post-its – on one they write what was ‘good’ and on the other what they want ‘more of’. One of the ‘goods’ was ‘responsive style, no set agenda – great’ much like the feedback I received from ACES when we used Open Space Technology on their LTA Co-ordinators Retreat.This open, facilitative approach is more risky but has much more meaning for the participants as it addresses their needs rather than our agenda. However, there are still some who just want to be given ‘the answer’ or ‘how to do it’ – a bit like students really!

Something about a 15 year anniversary, I think (In Rot@tion!: 15 Anos Rota Jovem):

A Ana Paula e o Quim foram os anfitriões de serviço e recorreram à Open Space Technology para agitar as ideias mais adormecidas.