Camps. Gatherings & Un-conferences

Fri Aug 25 22:42:42 PDT 2006

i can add that i facilitated here in chicago, 2002 i think, what i
think was the first agile/xp open space, which ran concurrently with
other sessions. the way we storied it was that 'birds of a feather'
groups would run at lunches and be convened on issues that by
definition were old enough that many felt expert enough and involved
enough with to get together on their own and talk about.  the main
conference topics were for leaders to bring new stuff, they'd done
extensive work on, and were juried in.  then the open space was for
the 'future of software' ...the stuff that nobody'd been able to study
yet.

the opening was concurrent, on first afternoon of main conference.
the morning of that day was 3-4 keynoters... for whole group...
followed by 10 minutes of me giving brief opening notes... law of two
feet and other things, in addition to theme as mentioned above.  it
was concurrent and not what it would have been had we had all 300 at
once in open space, but we got about 1/3 of the folks in for the
openign and others drifted through.  seemed to work for people.  i
know some people went out of there and tried open space in other
places.

can't recall, diana, you were there, yes?  and i know somebody went
back to germany and started running a java users group with os, after
the whole board resigned.  and i learned a lot about wiki from that
group and went on to use that software in trainings around the world,
and also at my site and openspaceworld.org.  so it definitely worked
for me.

the thing i remember, too, about taht one is that because of the
concurrent thing, not as many people were coming to session as some
people wished.  one guy came up to tell me that nobody had come to his
session.  i reassured him that something might still happen on it...
that it was important to make the invitaiton and see what came...
whenever it came... that somebody might yet find him at lunch or
dinner that day or the next... and at just taht moment another guy
walked up and said "hey, how did your session go... i wanted to come
but got stuck elsewhere... do you want to have lunch?"  classic open
space moment!  perfect timing!  (now you've got me using the
exclamation points, justin <grin>)

michael

On 8/25/06, Justin T. Sampson <justin at krasama.com> wrote:
> On 8/25/06, Diana Larsen <dlarsen at futureworksconsulting.com> wrote:
>
> > As the person who opened and held the Space at Agile 2006.
>
> Oh! I didn't know that; but perhaps if I did, I would have been
> more delicate, and as a result would have learned less. :) Thank
> you for holding the Open Space, and thank you for being frank in
> your response!
>
> > Everything you heard was true. (Lots of reasons I won't go into
> > here.) With all its challenges, it still managed to be the most
> > valuable part of the conference for a number of conference goers
> > -- they told me so. However, it was largely invisible to many
> > others, especially those who had never experienced it before and
> > didn't think to seek it out.
>
> Yes. We just had our monthly BayXP meeting here in San Francisco
> on Wednesday of this week (for non-techies, "XP" is a subculture
> in the "Agile" movement in the software industry, hence the
> connection with the Agile 2006 conference where Diana opened and
> held an Open Space session) -- the topic was Agile 2006, with four
> people having attended the conference.
>
> One who hadn't attended mentioned that he had heard something
> about the Open Space being less satisfying, so we took up that
> topic briefly toward the end of the evening. One who had attended
> the conference both this year and in previous years was able to
> offer some comparisons, such as the "second class" comment; he
> said that previously the Open Space sessions had also run
> concurrently with the rest of the conference, but the opening
> circle in particular had been a distinct "stop the conference"
> kind of event, whereas this year it was concurrent with other
> planned sessions.
>
> But along the lines of your observation, one of the other
> attendees mentioned that the most meaningful session for him at
> this year's conference was in fact one of those held in Open
> Space. He described further that the convener of that session, the
> author of the book that was the topic of the session, was actually
> 30 minutes "late", but someone else who had read the book and had
> brought detailed notes stepped right up and started a lively
> conversation that led very naturally into more advanced topics
> when the author did arrive.
>
> > Some of us had already planned to hold an all Open Space event
> > on Agile topics in the NW (there's already one in Europe), and
> > that experience solidified our determination.
>
> Wonderful! Let me know how I can help. :)
>
> > That's partly why I'm asking the question. The term "Open Space"
> > in some circles is becoming associated with mildly satisfying
> > group discussions that don't go through the program review
> > process and, therefore, are of dubious value. I'd like to sneak
> > up on those folks with the real power of self-organization. So,
> > I'm seeking some sheep's clothing in which to hide my wolf. :-)
>
> I think "Open Space on Agile Topics" would be a terrific name!
> Maybe it's time to reclaim the name, as Harrison tried to do with
> his letter to Nature?
>
> Cheers,
> Justin
>
> P.S. I seem to be using exclamation points more than usual lately;
> I'm on a bit of a learning high, here and elsewhere. :)
>
> *
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-- 

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Ave #1105
Chicago IL 60610 USA
Phone: 312-280-7838
michael at michaelherman.com

skype: globalchicago

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.openspaceworld.org

Inviting Leadership ...getting
the most important things done in
the easiest possible ways.

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