FW: The challenge of "luminaries"

Wed Aug 22 00:44:55 PDT 2007

Hi Peggy.  Thanks for stimulating such a nice discussion.

In your initial post, Peggy, you said that you were thinking that perhaps,
in the future, you might talk to luminaries before hand.  I am curious:  did
the luminary who said they were unhappy with the 'new-age' circle and the
questions that seemed to be about nothing, well, did this luminary identify
him/herself to you in advance as special, as a luminary who merited special
attention?  How would you know who to give this special treatment to, in
advance?. . . .

I am sitting with other questions.

Is there some insights anyone can share related to what it might mean if
someone sees a gathering of his/her peers, someone is attracted to an event
because the topic and the reputation of the spaceholders has beckoned them
and then these individuals don't quick click with the event?  Must an event
please all the people all the time?  Must luminaries always be left happy?
Does it say something about the success or failure of an event if one, two,
several participants chose to not enter open space?  We can't please all of
the people all of the time.  Should OS please all of the people all of the
time?  Is there something about the adaptive energy of those who who up at a
gathering of their professional peers, talking about the future of their
profession, and these people aren't interested in being in open space, to
listening with open space hearts and minds? Maybe there is a larger arc at
play here, Peggy.  Maybe these luminaries are not in sync with some central
energy underlying the invitation, the questions, the conversations?  Maybe
the luminaries didn't fit in because they didn't fit in.

I know there is lots of wisdom in luminaries and sometimes I want to benefit
from their wisdom even if I am frustrated that they approach their ego in
old paradigm kind of ways. And sometimes, well, sometimes they didn't blend
in because, well, they didn't blend in.

I have been redundant.

I am wondering, Peggy, how you feel about the OS media event?  Do you feel
something important was lost because your luminary felt disengaged?  I
invite you to think carefully, both about the event and the field you and
Stephen are leading in your inquiry around journalism.  Somehow, I find
myself thinking, wishing-to-believe?, that the field was served just exactly
right by the event, and part of the perfection was in what happened to that
luminary.

Maybe it is too late and I am babbling and not saying anything?

On 8/19/07, Peggy Holman <peggy at opencirclecompany.com> wrote:
>
>  Thanks everyone for your thoughts.  I do think the personal touch, from
> someone, matters.  That's what I took from Ralph and Deborah's stories.
>
> BTW, there was a facebook for the event.  The roster is here:
> http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/index.php/Jtm-dc-roster; participants got
> bios and pictures in advance.  I've been doing that with quite a few events
> and it does a great job of giving people a heads up on who is in the room.
>
> appreciatively,
> Peggy
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
> *To:* OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> *Sent:* Sunday, August 19, 2007 8:08 AM
> *Subject:* [OSLIST] FW: The challenge of "luminaries"
>
>  Deborah – I think your idea of a "facebook" sent out in advance is a
> great one. And it would avoid doing a "round the circle" at the beginning,
> which I personally find less than useful for two reasons. First it delays
> the actual start when people go to work – and this is the most important
> consideration for me. Secondly, all those names and needs/wants/desires
> badly confuses this old mind. After the first two or three I just hit
> "overload."  For our up coming OSONOS by the Sea I sent out a full
> participant list and invited people to add whatever information/requests
> they might want. Some people chose to remain a mystery (great!) and others
> wrote a whole bunch. How much of this actually gets read I don't know, but a
> number of folks said it was useful and fun. Since email addresses were also
> included, the party started early, which was wonderful.
>
>
>
> I am a little less enthusiastic about special guided tours done by the
> facilitator – though it is certainly a nice idea. I find one of the great
> things about an Open Space is the speed with which new comers are included –
> some of this just happens on its own, and in other cases participants will
> notice a stranger looking a little lost and take them under their wing. I
> really like that as it serves to build and bond the community. If the lost
> guest is "important" having some "just plain folk" do the job can be
> wonderful. And who knows a useful connection could be made. At most I (as
> the facilitator) might suggest to one of the "older" participants that "so
> and so" looks a little lost – maybe you could take them on a tour – sort of
> thing. That way I can hold the space and members of the community take
> active responsibility for the inclusion. Win/Win – I think.
>
>
>
> Harrison
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Deborah
> Hartmann
> *Sent:* Sunday, August 19, 2007 10:34 AM
> *To:* OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> *Subject:* Re: The challenge of "luminaries"
>
>
>
> Hello Kerry:
>
> > address their presence during the introduction
>
> I hesitate to address the presence of particular people during the
> introduction. I see it as a "democratizing circle" and as such, I strive to
> communicate the message that we are all equals, and so we are equally
> responsible for our experience of the event. No matter whether we specify
> that "luminaries" are equal to everyone else, we's negate this by simply
> naming them and not everyone else!
>
> Here's an idea: Something that emerged at RoCoCo was a round of "needs and
> offers", though it happened too late, in the opinion of many. We went around
> the circle stating what we needed (ideas, collaborators, hardware, software)
> and our offers (some offered skills, resources, collaborative sites, and
> others answered just-stated needs, ex: "I have an old computer like that,
> let's talk"). This would allow luminaries to introduce themselves, equally
> with others, allow them (if they choose) to align themselves as members of
> this OST event's "people". I think attendance at this activity would need to
> be voluntary, as it takes some time and perhaps people would rather network
> informally. This would have been useful to us, as we had decided not to call
> out any particular participants in the opening.
>
> I'm not sure where this fits... we thought that if we'd done this at the
> start, people would have had an idea of who was there and how they could
> help them. Ex: If I'd know people from the citizen journalism movement were
> present, I would have posted a session: how is Citizen Journalism changing
> the face of news? But as it was, I only discovered their presence
> afterwards.
>
> Ideas: Perhaps, do it as part of a social the prior evening, before we
> open the space? Another idea was a "needs and offers" wiki page or wall -
> the problem being that using the wall for this removes the human face from
> the transaction. We could encourage people to do this at registration, so we
> could browse the list of who's coming and their needs/offers (sometimes this
> happens with BarCamps). Hey, could a facebook group be used for this?!! This
> activity would have been particularly useful for our type of OST - it was
> not so much a "themed" event as a "community gathering" event - a particular
> flavour of OST I'm seeing a lot in the Tech community now. "The right
> people" are the ones who want to be part of the community, in general - and
> it's often a big surprise what interests and skills they bring! It's as if a
> "community gathering" OST is simply a coalescence at a particular time/place
> of a continual OST event which is the community itself.
>
> deb
>
> kerry napuk wrote:
>
> Hi Peggy
>
> When faced with "luminaries," experts, speakers et al, maybe it would help
> to address their presence during the introduction.  A facilitator could note
> their valued participation and opportunity to be on equal terms with an
> audience, experiencing the need to discuss and exchange views rather than be
> lectured at.
>
> It might even be fun!
>
> Cheers
>
> Kerry
> Edinburgh
> www.openfutures.com
>
> *
> *
> ==========================================================
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> ------------------------------
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
> view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>
> To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> Deborah Hartmann
>
> Agile Process Coach
>
> deborah.hartmann.net
>
> mobile: 416 996 4337
>
>
>
> "Learn the principle,
>
> abide by the principle, and
>
> dissolve the principle."
>
> -- Bruce Lee
>
> * * ==========================================================
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To
> subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
> oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
> OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist* * ==========================================================
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To
> subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
> oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
> OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
>
> * * ==========================================================
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To
> subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
> oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
> OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
>

-- 
Love rays,
Tree Fitzpatrick

http://thecultureoflove.blogspot.com/

. . . the great and incalculable grace of love, which says, with Augustine,
"I want you to be," without being able to give any particular reason for
such supreme and unsurpassable affirmation.  -- Hannah Arendt

1335 Montecito Ave Apt. 35
Mountain View, California 94043
(650) 967-9260

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

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20070822/740b5f53/attachment-0016.htm>