Fitting open space into a research conference

Mon Dec 3 16:24:39 PST 2007

Hi Deborah,

thanks! This was very interesting; there is a fair overlap between Agile 
and the OOPSLA folks.

> XPdays NorthAmerica:
> -----------------------
> We used to run the Opening Circle in parallel to a tutorial. When we 
> stopped doing that, the complexion of the event changed. It felt more 
> like a party, there was more flow between OS and tutorials, because 
> poeple understood the rules of engagement in the (very new to them) 
> Open Space area. Now, these are small events, 30 to 50 people.
Not sure I understand. By having the opening circle before the tutorial 
(so everyone could attend) people got more comfortable with open space 
and it all worked out better? Things got more fluid?

> Agile conferences:
> ------------------
> At Agile2006 (1100 participants) the Opening Circle was run opposite 
> about twelve other tracks. Turnout was small (20 people?) and very 
> disappointing for some of us who attended - we felt OS hadn't been 
> given the attention it needed at that event, to let it really energise 
> people. Mind you, some great sessions still took place! However, in my 
> opinion, this is an antipattern. Making the Opening Circle more of a 
> plenary event (maybe only putting one or two events opposite it?) 
> might help. Some of us would like to see the whole event opened with 
> the Opening Circle, but it's a real conundrum, with 1600 people 
> expected at our next event. Multiple, concurrent Opening Circles might 
> be fun! We'll see what this year's committee has in mind - I'm not on it.
This was one of my biggest worries that too many competing events drain 
the open space not because people value it less but simply because they 
don't know what it is! And how beneficial/enjoyable it could be to them.

So that's why I'm pulling out a whole open space day before the core 
conference and in parallel to workshops and tutorials. (At OOPSLA 
workshops/tutorials run Sun + Mon, the core conference runs Tue to Thu.) 
My hope is I can build up interest before the conference that people 
already put down Monday as their open space day. To help them with this, 
I'm trying to get recognized research leaders to "sign up" to hold 
sessions at the Monday open space day. We want to pre-organize that on a 
wiki. I'm not an open space facilitator, I'm just a participant, and I'm 
probably quite clueless about the effects of all this. Does anything 
speak against the wiki build-up, effectively having an early version of 
the wall/open space schedule on a wiki before you see on a wall at the 
conference?

Cheers,
Dirk

>
> Communications Esther Matte wrote:
>> Hello again Dirk,
>>
>> Woke up this morning wondering if it would work to have the wall 
>> divided in three parts: the individual scheduled events grouped on 
>> say the left part of the wall and the rest open to topics people will 
>> put up, the right side being reserved for "new topics" after the 
>> opening on the Monday. You would open the space on the Monday, and 
>> then people would self-manage for the rest of the week, and closing 
>> on the last day.
>>
>> I can see this working in my head with break-out rooms, at least a 
>> few for discussions, and one for the News Room and posted reports so 
>> that anyone can walk in and read if they wish to, even while someone 
>> is presenting in the main hall. Now in real life... any thoughts anyone?
>>
>> Cheers from snow-stormed Verchères :-)
>>
>> Esther
>>
>> At 23:00 2007-12-01, you wrote:
>>> Hello everyone,
>>>
>>> I'm involved with a variety of research conferences and would like 
>>> to better understand how you can fit open space into a research 
>>> conference with a set time-grid and competing events. I searched the 
>>> OSList archives and the web but didn't find anything so I hope it is 
>>> ok to ask here. (And a pointer to a previous discussion would be a 
>>> perfect and much appreciated answer.)
>>>
>>> The research conferences I'm involved in typically have a fixed time 
>>> grid with two morning slots of 90min (30min coffee break in 
>>> between), lunch, and two afternoon slots of 90min (also 30min coffee 
>>> break in between). We have had open space at two such conferences 
>>> now, and in both cases it worked, but open space remained in 
>>> competition with "the regular program" i.e. set talks. We tried to 
>>> schedule the open space opening and ending to be without competing 
>>> event but that made them very early (late) i.e. at 8am and at 5pm. 
>>> The reason open space worked was certainly the excellent 
>>> facilitators we got, but also the enthusiasm of folks at these about 
>>> 100 people conferences.
>>>
>>> I'm trying to bring this now to a much larger research conference, 
>>> which has > 1000 people attending. I only have control over "my 
>>> track" but that track has considerable influence. Open space is 
>>> viewed as an experiment as it has never been done before at this 
>>> conference. I get one day with no competing events (Monday) and then 
>>> three days of the main conference (Tue-Thu) with lots of competing 
>>> events. On Monday we can structure the day the way we want it, on 
>>> Tue-Thu we have the aforementioned 90min sessions with coffee breaks 
>>> and lunch in between. Typical problems I expect and wonder how to 
>>> deal with them:
>>>
>>> - plenty of folks who attend don't know much about open space
>>> - many folks will show up in the middle of the day or just 30min 
>>> late not knowing how it works expecting to participate
>>> - the competing events will make people come and go in a disruptive 
>>> way (but maybe that's just the law of the two feet :-)
>>>
>>> This year (2008), we have two specific additional challenges
>>>
>>> - we have no idea how many people will actually show up for the open 
>>> space part
>>> - space is at a premium, we may have to share a large hall so I 
>>> wonder whether that's disruptive as well
>>>
>>> Also, does it make sense to have open space afternoons (rather than 
>>> full days)? I'm thinking of reducing event competition by having 
>>> open space in the afternoon only on the three busy days 
>>> Tuesday-Thursday.
>>>
>>> The event will take place in Oct 2008 and we'll try to be smart 
>>> about it until then to take some of the guesswork out of the 
>>> equation. I.e. early engagement like inquiring about expected open 
>>> space participation at registration time.
>>>
>>> Also, I'm a big fan of wikis, and intend to build up buzz and 
>>> pre-organization on a wiki leading up to the conference itself.
>>>
>>> Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>>>
>>> Dirk
>>>
>>>
>>> PS: We will be looking for a facilitator. Obviously, this is a paid 
>>> job, though the research conference itself is not rich. Here a first 
>>> blurp:
>>>
>>> Open Space Facilitation Engagement Oct 2008 Nashville TN
>>>
>>> For OOPSLA 2008, we are looking for an experienced open space 
>>> facilitator near Nashville, TN. Your engagement will be to 
>>> facilitate one full (and hopefully intense) day of open space + 
>>> several half days. Part of the job is explaining open space to those 
>>> who don't know it yet---which we expect to be many as this is the 
>>> first attempt of having open space at OOPSLA. OOPSLA is a >1000 
>>> people computer science (research) conference, but we expect a 
>>> significantly smaller number of people to participate in the open 
>>> space part only (current estimate is between 100 and 300). Location 
>>> is Nashville Convention Center, time and date is October 2008, with 
>>> initial and occasional consultations before then to prepare for the 
>>> meeting. For further questions, please contact Dirk Riehle, 
>>> dirk at riehle.org
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Phone: + 1 (650) 215 3459
>>> Web: http://www.riehle.org
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
> -- 
>
> Deborah Hartmann
> Agile Process Improvement Coach
> Lead Editor for InfoQ.com/Agile
> deborah.hartmann.net
> 416.996.4337
>
> "My advice is to do it by the book,
> get good at the practices,
> then do as you will.
> Many people want to skip to step three.
> How do they know? " -- Ron Jeffries 
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Web: http://www.riehle.org

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