So now what.

[john engle]

hi joe,

in terms of opening space in a third world country (i personally prefer the
term two-thirds world country) i have some experience. i've been doing it
here in haiti for about five years.

there are challenges in opening space in a society which has clearly defined
classes. frankly, if you have computers buzzing and people using them, while
you also have people who do know how to read and write, chances are, there
are going to be a lot of reflections going on among participants that will
surely not get voiced. be it united states, haiti, most places i am told,
people who do not know how to read and write often feel ashamed of this.
typically, society creates the condition that leads to this shame. not
surprising, people avoid being "exposed" in public, especially if it looks
like its assumed that people do know how to read.

at the open space gathering in vancouver, a number of us convened on the
subject of using open space with people who are illiterate. you will find
our notes if you look for them on the openspaceworld.org website, go to the
vancouver conference notes.

although i've been using open space, and have four colleagues that are using
it here in haiti - three of them are haitian - the majority of the
participants at our meetings/events are literate. we feel that we need to
adapt a method which is sure not to alienate non-readers. you will see that
three of my haitian colleagues participated in our meeting at vancouver, as
did lisa heft who has experience in working with non-readers.

john

_________________________________________________________________
Téléchargez MSN Explorer gratuitement à l'adresse
http://explorer.msn.fr/intl.asp

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html