"Online Climate Summit" A Learning Opportunity!

Thu Jan 10 06:29:38 PST 2008

Well done Gabriela! And if it turns out that face-to-face Open Space has a
continuing role to play in the program that will be marvelous. I believe
that Open Space has a particular contribution to make in the environmental
area and in fact the media is the message – to use an old phrase from
Marshall McLuhan. 

In simplest terms, groups operating in Open Space have an immediate and
direct experience of consciously working in and through the phenomenon of
Self-Organization – which is the way of all Nature. People become aware
(particularly if effort is made to bring them to awareness) that hugely
complex issues and systems will come to flowing synergy, not by the exercise
of external control – but rather through their own internal process. Which
after all is what self-organization is all about! For 14 billion years, the
natural world has managed to progress in this fashion – until we humanoids
came along and thought we should take charge. Our job, we thought, was to
control nature! And goodness knows we have tried, and now we must face the
consequences of our efforts.

Why we got into this situation is an interesting question, probably caused
by equal parts of Ego, perceived necessity, and the fact that we really
didn’t see any alternatives. The role of Ego has received a lot of attention
and rightfully so. Somewhere along the line Homo sapiens came to the
conclusion that we were the King of the Heap disregarding the fact that our
place in the cosmos is a very small one and we are definitely late comers.
But in all fairness it would seem that there were good reasons to make the
attempt (perceived necessity). The natural world can in fact be an
uncomfortable place what with flooding rivers, hurricanes, typhoons, and odd
meteorites stopping by. Surely we must do something about all that! We could
see the problems so we had to find a fix.

Take the case of rivers. We know that they often flood, and flooding is
deleterious to human communities in the way. The fix seems obvious – build
dams and levies. Control The River! All well and good until that wonderful
day when Old Man River and Mother Nature say, Enough! And all our Flood
Control comes sloshing down around our ears (Think Katrina), creating a
disaster out of a natural event. It turns out that the Flood Plain (where we
built our towns) was there for a purpose. Come the springtime floods, the
waters would spread out quite gently leaving fresh soil and new seeds. It
worked that way for millennia until we applied the “fix” – only to discover
that we are (literally) drowning in a sea of unintended consequences.

But what were the alternatives? Of course we should Take Charge because we
all “know” that the only way things will work is when we get it all
organized. That is what we have been taught. It is what all the books say. 

I believe that the real significance of Open Space is that it provides a
direct experience of the alternative. It is true that many people,
particularly those who have just “heard” about Open Space, find it
counterintuitive, impossible and wrong. It just couldn’t work! Unfortunately
it does – and as it works we are confronted with an alternative way of
working with each other and the world around us. Symbiosis as opposed to
domination. Learning to flow with emerging organization, and trusting that
flow. A very different experience for most, but essential if we are really
going to become an effective part of our environment as opposed to being
antagonists. New learning for sure, but learning that can take us to places
that rational argument will never reach. As we all know, experience is the
best teacher.

I grant you that learning in Open Space may be a little too subtle for many
and too slow for all of us. However, I think it is safe to say that if we do
not take advantage of the OS learning opportunity (along with other similar
opportunities) the day will inevitably come when Mother Nature delivers some
painful lessons which we cannot avoid.

One thing I am quite sure of is that should we choose to resolve our
environmental issues with the same approach that got us into the predicament
in the first place our level of success will be minimal at best. So Thank
you Gabriela for creating the (electronic) Open Space class room, and may
you be successful in opening many more. And of course I know that there are
lots of folks here on OSLIST who will be delighted to help. Me for one.

Harrison   

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, Maryland   20854

Phone 301-365-2093

Skype hhowen

Open Space Training  <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com

Open Space Institute  <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org

Personal website  <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com 

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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Gabriela
Ender
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 4:08 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: "Online Climate Summit" - held on the basis of OpenSpace-Online
(x-posted to Genuine Contact List)

Dear Open Space friends around the globe!

Together with the best wishes for an exciting 2008 I am pleased to inform
you about a very special project:

On December 4, 2007 the "First German Online Climate Summit" was held on the
basis of the OpenSpace-Online Methodology. Patron of the event was the
President of the German Federal Environment Agency, the organizer was the
"Deutsche Städte- und Gemeindebund" (German Association of Towns and
Municipalities), financial support and sponsorship for the project was
provided by Cisco Systems and the concept and technology partner was
OpenSpace-Online GmbH. The aim of this event was to enable an improvement in
the quality of interdisciplinary, open and - at the same time -
result-oriented collaboration, with the involvement of the most important
environmental and climate experts in Germany, while simultaneously starting
a comprehensive information and communication campaign under the motto
"local authorities protecting the climate". The First German Online Climate
Summit was intended to be the kick-off event for fast, unbureaucratic and
forward-looking collaboration over long distances and across borders for
organizations, institutes and universities, as well as public and local
authorities.

For the German Association of Towns and Municipalities the online climate
summit and the use of the OpenSpace-Online method was a resounding success.
They say: "Our intention is to continue the online climate summit in the
coming years, possibly at an international level. The results of the summit
will be included in the face-to-face event "Climate Protection and Energy
Efficiency – Local Authority Strategies for Action and Methods of
Resolution", which will be held by the German Association of Towns and
Municipalities on January 11, 2008 in cooperation with the Federal
Environment Ministry (with the participation of the Minister of the
Environment)."

We have a few more information about the online climate summit at our
website. If you are interested please click here:

< <http://www.openspace-online.com/en/climate-summit2007.php>
http://www.OpenSpace-Online.com/en/climate-summit2007.php>

It looks good, that during the further process an OST conference will play
as well an important part within this project. I will be pleased to inform
you about next Open Space highlights (offline and online) regarding this
project in the future. 

I wish you all a wonderful start for Year 2008 and I look forward to see
many of you in San Francisco this summer!

Gabriela

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
OpenSpace-Online GmbH - The Power of People!
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Winner of the "Top 10 World Changer 2006" Award
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Resselsteig 30, 12209 Berlin, Germany
eMail:  <mailto:contact at OpenSpace-Online.com> contact at OpenSpace-Online.com
website:  <http://www.openspace-online.com/> http://www.OpenSpace-Online.com
phone: +49-(0)30-772 31 69
fax: +49-(0)30-77 39 20 21
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Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg HRB 75583
Managing Director: Gabriela Ender
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