Why is a grid sometimes useful?
Harrison Owen
hhowen at verizon.net
Tue Aug 4 10:34:34 PDT 2009
Well Jack - No rules, near as I can tell, but it is always good to talk
about effectiveness and workability. And in the case of grids I have always
found them not all that effective and marginally workable. Your point about
the BarCamps makes the case I think. ("At the BarCamp I was part of, it
never occurred to the organisers that they could add another column to the
grid and thereby accommodate another bunch of sessions.") Lack of real open
space --! Not lack of orthodoxy, just lack of room to move about in and
really engage.
Harrison
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From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Jack
Martin Leith
Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 10:29 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Why is a grid sometimes useful?
I'd like to add a couple of points:
1) Why have a "rule" about this? Different events call for different
mechanics.
2) From what I've seen, BarCamps have a grid and no Post-its.
At the BarCamp I was part of, it never occurred to the organisers that they
could add another column to the grid and thereby accommodate another bunch
of sessions.
Best wishes to all,
Jack
Jack Martin Leith
Bristol, United Kingdom
Mobile: 07831 840541 (+44 7831 840541)
Skype: jackmartinleith
email: jack at jackmartinleith.com
www.jackmartinleith.com
2009/8/4 Larry Peterson <larry at spiritedorg.com>
The only "grid" I use is the one I put the post-its on. I prefer the free
form posting of topics on the wall, and maybe some splitting of Day 1 and
Day 2. For me, the chaos at the wall is intentional and if its not there,
then the benefits of being at the "edge of chaos" are not achieved. People
have to use their intuition as well as logic when deciding what topic to
pursue. It is clearly not a traditional agenda.
Larry
Larry Peterson & Associates in Transformation
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
larry at spiritedorg.com 416.653.4829 http://www.spiritedorg.com
<http://www.spiritedorg.com/>
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Jon Harvey
Sent: August-04-09 4:48 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Why is a grid sometimes useful?
Erik
I have mostly created grids using making tape which certainly looks more
like a 'standard' agenda - rows for time slots and columns for places. That
is their main value I think...
However I have experienced several difficulties:
1) Merging and combining discussions becomes a bit constrained
2) You need a big wall - which is often not available
3) I was always left wondering why we had the post-it notes and the
scheduled box on the grid - as they duplicated each other - in effect.
4) If a balloon popped (or escaped - see by blog for a pic!
http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/ ) all the sheets for that session
had to be moved.
So now I favour the freeform - but slightly organised - approach. I choose X
wall spaces (where X is the number of time slots) and ask people to post
their discussions there - attaching the appropriate sticky note (11.00ish
and balloon G). People can consult the wall space at any time and see laid
out, the various sessions that are happening at that time. This can apply to
new people also - if they helped, as need be, to understand what it all
means - which takes 10 seconds in my experience. Merging discussions is also
far easier with this method. It also does not give any spurious 'order' to
the ideas - because they are arranged higgledy-piggledy.
For finding the discussions - I usually opt for large letter shaped balloons
suspended 2m from the floor. If you are sponsoring session D - you go and
get the D balloon and a flip chart and see who turns up. (see
http://www.classiccelebrations.com/images/categories/alphabetletteraballooni
<http://www.classiccelebrations.com/images/categories/alphabetletteraballoon
image.jpg>
mage.jpg for an example)
Hope this helps...
Very best wishes
Jon
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Erik
Fabian
Sent: 04 August 2009 05:08
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: [OSLIST] Why is a grid sometimes useful?
Hello,
I have been thinking about the bulletin board and the debate that happened a
while back on this
list about whether a totally free collage of session postings is somehow
better than OS style events
that use a grid layout that notes time/locations.
I agree that the complete free flowing collage approach has an elegant
appeal but I have been
asking myself a different question...why do some OS style events even use a
grid?
I wonder how did the use of the grid evolve at these events? What is their
value?
I can only speculate on how these event evolved into using a grid (or if
that is how they started out
perhaps) but I have realize one advantage...they allow new participants to
easily to join in with an
event that is already in progress.
When someone shows up late to a public event and encounters a messy session
board it is hard,
without further explanation, for them to understand what is going on, where
it is happening, if it
is happening, and if so when.
The original OS literature I have read usually emphasizes that participants
are present start to
finish. There are many obvious benefits to this but the relevant one here is
that everyone is
present during the original board making. They have some sense of how it
evolved into whatever
mess that it becomes and how it changes as people go about the experience.
It makes sense if the original OS literature isn't accounting late arrivals
that it doesn't need
something like a grid to help late arrivals get oriented quickly.
Thoughts?
Cheerio,
Erik
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