Report on a very sui generis OS

[Gilbert Brenson-Lazan]

Good morning, all:

First and foremost I want to thank all of you who sent me your ideas on the 
challenge that I shared with you a few weeks ago regarding the use of OS as 
part of a major cultural transformation at a Central American Ag 
University.  I received dozens of letters, both on the list and off-list 
(although I can´t imagine why so many people chose to share their wisdom 
off-list).  Some of the suggestions were excellent but impractical due to 
the poverty level in Honduras and the unavailability of many items.  Others 
were very important and useful.

I compiled (and translated) them and sent them to the organizers at the 
University and together we finalized the strategies on-line.

My colleague-wife and I travelled to Honduras a couple of weeks ago to do 
the program.  Right from the start there were several major challenges, 
mainly with the previously agreed-upon and now undoable logistics, so we 
had to modify (considerably) the original plan to accomodate not only the 
logistic questions but also some last minute cold feet from some of the 
fossilized members of the administration and the alumni association that 
were all for change on paper but in flesh and blood it was too threatening.

The first day we spent mainly talking with students and faculty and getting 
to know the 7000 acres of campus, crops, pastures, animals, woods, jungle, 
etc.  That evening we did just the first part of the OS: 200+ of the 800 
students, and almost no faculty members, responded to the initial call.  It 
was impossible to put them in a circle outside in the center knoll between 
the principal buildings (thanks, Harrison, for that great idea) as we had 
planned (no lights and no PA system were working) so we put them in the 
auditorium.  After a brief intro about the "rules" and "roles" of OS we 
gave out 10cm X 20cm cards to everyone with the invitation to mill around 
and get together in groups to decide topics and "convene" the work 
teams.  The only restriction was that every card had to begin with "How can 
we...".  We received over 500 cards!!!

The next day we met with the volunteer internal facilitators (dorm 
supervisors, counselors, staff and faculty) and we briefed them on OS and 
their role monitoring the "second part".  Together we used stickywalls to 
affinity-sort the cards and summarize them.  Amazingly, especially for 
adolescents, almost all the cards were able to be summarized in 24 
groups.  We insisted that all 500 be published immediately on the 
University Intranet, which amazed everybody with the transparency of the 
process and the good intentions of the majority of the University leadership.

On the third day all classes and work were suspended at the Univ. and we 
did the "rest" of the OS.  We prepared 30 workspaces in classrooms and 
sheltered outdoor spaces (24 subjects and 4 extras for spontaneous 
subjects, which very commonly arise in Latin American OS).    At first, the 
students just milled around in disbelief;  in its 80 years, the University 
had never given unstructured time to it´s students during a school 
day.  Finally a few first year students began to sit down and  talk in 
several of the meeting spaces.  The facilitator served as "convener" until 
a student or teacher agreed to take that role over.   Then, little by 
little, all the meeting rooms and overflow rooms were filled by students 
from all four years, faculty and even staff that had also been 
invited.  There was a core of 10-15 students in almost all of the groups 
and a VERY large number of roving bands (3-5) of bumblebees (we call them 
hummingbirds) that went from group to group and participated in many.  By 
midday things wound down (as we suspected) and a total of over 500 people 
had participated. In each group the facilitator and the student or faculty 
"convener" then went and posted their results to the Univ. Intranet.

In the afternoon, the sessions were moved to the six dormitory blocks (a 
kind of mini OS around dormitory-relevant topics chosen from the original 
list of 24).  Small groups began to organize around the topics and at the 
close of the afternoon those results were also posted on the Intranet but 
also a strategic plan was begun for each dormitory and actions and 
responsibilities were agreed upon.  A central consolidating committee was 
also self-selected that included students from all four years and six 
dormitories, faculty and staff, and they will consolidate all of the 
information from the OS on the Intranet, into a series of proposals to 
bring to the University.  The President of the University publicly thanked 
all the participants and agreed to consider and respond to each one with 
the same responsibility with which they were developed.   Other followups 
are being planned also.

We left the school the next day with tearfull goodbyes (both from the 
students and from us). In the days that followed the event we have received 
many emails that have related how things are changing already.  I think the 
most moving one was from the president of the Alumni Association (who also 
participated and who´s psychorigidity was very prominant at the beginning) 
and said, in the close of his letter:  "I can now say the the words ´How 
can we....´  have become the symbol of the future of this University".

It was the strangest OS we have ever done and not very "kosher"...but it 
worked.  If there was one lesson we learned, it was:  "Dare to try 
something different".

Warm regards,

Gil


     **************************************
     AMAUTA INTERNATIONAL, LLC
  Gilbert Brenson-Lazan - Socio-Gerente
   Tel: (+57-1) 345-2724 - Fax: 345-2072
U.S. Voice Mail and Fax: (206) 888-4386
          e-mail: <gbl at amauta.org>
         website: <http://amauta.org>
         *********************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20020205/4aadf241/attachment-0016.htm>