Camps. Gatherings & Un-conferences

Ted Ernst ted at chicagohumanist.org
Mon Aug 28 11:33:03 PDT 2006


I think Michael's got the history mostly right.  I don't know details.
 Some of these "camps" are being run on extremely low budgets, people
sleeping on office floors and such, as a reaction to the $1000+ per
person exclusive conferences.  And yes, they're using OST.

Gerard and I each have writing to do about our experience last week at
WikiSym, running open space in parallel with papers and such.  I'm
just home today so it'll take a bit of time, but rest assured, we have
some things to talk about. :-)

peace,
ted

On 8/26/06, Michael Herman <michael at michaelherman.com> wrote:
> 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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