On the openness of the word open (was: OST and Open Forums) (long)

[Artur Silva]

Summary

In this post I will discuss ONLY some linguistic
questions about the use of the word "open" to qualify
another name, be it "forum" or "space" or... Will try
to prove that the fact that someone uses the word
"open" doesn't mean that the space is necessarily
opened, and sometimes it is even more closed that it
was before the word open was used. I don't want to
criticize anything or anybody - only to make something
clear in my mind. This post is uninteresting and you
may delete it. If you decide to read it, it will be at
your own risk ;-)

Intro

The recent dialog on "Open Forum" and specially the
URL that Jeff sent us, and a previous observation from
Harrison asking if when the WSF used the expression
"Open Space" they were referring to OST or not were at
the basis of this post. But some other uses of the
word "open" will be addressed.

What is an open forum?
----------------------

To understand this please read the page that Jeff
referred to, specially under "Forum".

http://www.democracyinnovations.org/openforums.html>

As it is correctly stated a "forum" (in the Greek
sense of "Agora") is open (and democratic) by
definition. It may be a space of dialog or a space of
discussion, but is open.

When I read the "rules" that are superimposed to a
forum in the meeting method referred as "Open Forum"
-and without commenting on the interest of the method
that is NOT my point - what I found interesting is
that if I should give a name to the method I would
never have called it "Open Forum", as a forum is
always open and this one is less open that the Greek
sense. So I would call it something like "Structured
Forum" or similar.

Hence, my first point: if someone uses the word "open"
to qualify "something", that "something" is not
necessarily more open than it was before. In this
particular case it is more structured and than less
open than the Greek sense of "forum". Probably very
useful as it has been pointed. But IMHO has the wrong
name.

"Open Space" is not necessarily OST

If someone claims that he is "opening the space" or
uses "open space" that doesn't mean necessarily that
the space is open and even less that OST is being
used.

The use of "Open Space" by the WSF was not referring
to OST but to a general method of holding meetings
with more participation and less "paper
presentations". Indeed they intended to be more close
to a "forum" (Greek sense) then the traditional
conventions or Congresses. Curiously enough in WSF the
"F" means "forum" ;-)

"OST" is not necessarily OST

That is a bit more complex. But in our days OST begins
to be known out of the OST practitioner's community.
This is good but has also some negative consequences.
And the expression "Open Space" and even in some cases
"OPEN SPACE TECHNOLOGY" are used
by some people that know nothing about it except the
name - that sound very coll (and open).

Sometime ago I heard about a meeting ("CP week", held
in the USA) where they claimed that OST was used only
because they seated in a circle and asked participants
to add issues to a large majority of "issues" that
were prepared in advance and presented by the
organizers themselves. See what I mean? With the name
OST in fact all had been created  before the event.
Probably even the conclusions...

And now what? Now, nothing! I don't believe in
certifications, and I am afraid that this is a
necessary price for (Harrison's) fame... It is only
interesting for us to be aware of what is happening.

More Open Spaces

All that reminded me of some searches I made in the
Internet when I first discovered "Open Space". I was
using a search engine then in use, and made searches
for "Open Space" in English and for translations into
the Latin languages. The majority of the results
informed me of some "Open Space" where I could buy
something...

Since then I am very careful any time I see that some
space is open... Many "Open Spaces" are indeed closed
ones.

What happens with the word "open" is probably also
true of many other words. What do you think when
someone says to you that he is "honestly speaking"?

Are you still with me? If so, bye, bye - as this is

The END!

Have a nice weak end

Artur






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