Gabriela Ender’s Open Space Online is almost ten years old and now it’s value has been recognized by the Ashoka Fellowship. Gabriela sent this update…
I am thrilled to share with you a next wonderful milestone on my OpenSpace-Online path. I can’t believe it, next summer this adventure will have it’s 10th anniversary. With great pleasure I can report that I have been accepted into the highly prestigious international Ashoka Fellowship Support Network as Ashoka Fellow 2008.
Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent problems. Ashoka was founded in 1980 by the American Bill Drayton. The Harvard Center for Public Leadership rates Drayton as one of the “20 Best Leaders” of the USA. The best-known Fellow of the Ashoka Network is the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus. In the meantime since 1980, in almost 70 countries, around 2000 Ashoka Fellows work to promote social and sustainable change in fields such as health, education & youth, economic development, environmental protection, regional and urban development, citizen participation, and human rights.
At the beginning of 2008, I was invited by Ashoka to take part in a multi-level, national and international selection process. I have been through a very intense seven-month process, including a practical OpenSpace-Online project for Ashoka. They are very much convinced about my “do-it-yourself online concept” – the power of virtual facilitated, solution-oriented self-organization and problem solving via the Internet in real-time and it’s wide spectrum of effects for individuals, organizations and climate protection around the globe. As I learned from Ashoka recently, I was able to win against around 300 competitors throughout Germany. Worldwide, more than 7,000 candidates were evaluated.
On Nov19th, 2008, Ashoka Germany had arranged a Award Ceremony in Munich with more than 350 guests. From now Ashoka wants to support me and the further spread of OpenSpace-Online in many wonderful ways. At the German Ashoka website there is a video portrait about me and OpenSpace-Online – currently only in German. During the award ceremony, I also saw the video for the first time. More information are also at our website news section.
At this milestone its very important for me to take a deep breath and to send again a big THANK YOU to you dear Harrison (!) and to all other wonderful Open Space and Genuine Contact (TM) colleagues and friends far and near, who supported and trusted me in so many different ways during the whole years. Thank you so much, dear OS and dear GC community!
Warmly from Berlin,
Gabriela