When is Open Space Not Open Space

[Harrison Owen]

Sounds a little closed to me, Sheila. In fact what it sounds like is
something called The Technology of Participation (TOP)which was created
about 35 years ago by people from ICA. 

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com 
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Sheila
Beauchemin
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 4:22 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: When is Open Space Not Open Space

Hello all,

I'm very new to Open Space and am still feeling my way around.  While 
discussing Open Space with a former colleague (and potential client) 
recently, I was surprized to hear her take on this method.  She was 
familiar with it, and indicated she had indeed delivered two or three Open 
Space sessions - one for about 80 people and another for about 300.  
However, her description of how the events were managed was not strictly 
speaking, "by the book".  Here's what was described:
- all participant were given post-its and asked to identify their topic 
areas and put up on the wall.  Then, these were themed by someone and 
participants were then given 3 votes and asked to place check marks next 
to those items of highest importance to them.  The topics with most ticks 
then became the breakout session topics.
-  these sessions were short - only 2 hours in one example
-  circle was not created
-  results were mixed.

So, my question is...though I am definately all for adapation to meet 
circumstances, when is "Open Space" not open space?  And, how do you 
counter the perception that what was done is what you understand to be OS?

Thanks for any thoughts on this - Sheila

*
*
==========================================================
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