Open Space being badly defined

Kaliya * identitywoman at gmail.com
Wed Jun 10 09:29:31 PDT 2009


On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 11:51 PM, Holger Nauheimer (Change Facilitation) <
holger at change-facilitation.org> wrote:

> Hi Kaliya,
>
> although I don't want to interfere with this particular Wikipedia article,


Why not?


> Iam not very happy with your edition. Let me explain, and let us try to
> find
> some common ground:
>
> 1. Bar Camps are derived from Open Space Technology. They are a crude
> adaptation of the principles and leave out a couple of essential elements
> of
> OST. But they are still self-organized meetings (with less of magic, I
> agree)
>
> 2. I have never attended a Bar Camp where somebody claimed that this was ON
> OST. People say, "this is a Bar Camp."


I agree AND BarCamp's are lame...most people have negative experiences and
it gives the whole field of participant driven events a bad name.


>
>
> 3. I believe that it is good that principles of self-organization
> ("un-conference") have entered into other areas of life and society,
> whether
> one calls it OST, Bar Camp, World Café etc. I don't care much for the
> names,
> as long a meeting is about passion and responsibility. In this sense,
> Harrison, and all we followers have contributed to a better world, or at
> least, to better meetings.
>
> 4. The way you phrased it in your revision ("FooCamp derived some of its
> process from Open Space Technology but left out key elements like having
> the
> agenda making process facilitated and leaving out sharing the 4 principles
> of Open Space and Law of Two feet that help frame how people act throughout
> the day. Closing wrap-up the "evening news" of how the day went was also
> left out. Since BarCamp is a "replication" of FooCamp it also changed -
> making yet farther removed from the original method.") focuses on the
> differences and leaves a kind of negative imprint.


YES! THAT WAS THE POINT.
I have been to both (FooCamp - twice [in my other life in the technical
world focused on online digital identity I "rate" high enough to be invited
to them] - the original BarCamp and several camps since organized by techie
geeks who wave their arms and sort of hope for it to happen).  I have had
and watch others have negative experiences (and less then fully realized
potential of these gatherings) cause they left out key important parts and
"think" they are doing it well and as if those key elements don't matter.


> But it is great that
> people do Bar Camps, isn't it? We, as an OST movement shouldn't try to
> distinguish us from the Bar Camp movement but rather looking more at the
> common ground.


I completely disagree.
 I think we need to be clear our method has key things that are good,
essential and not to be forgotten and encourage ADOPTION OF THESE things.


> That will give OST also a greater exposure. Many young people
> know Bar Camps but they don't know OST. So here is a chance to be a
> "missionary" and tell them - you can do even more with some simple
> procedures.
>
> 5. I propose (but leave it up to you) to rephrase this particular article
> in
> the following way: "FooCamps and BarCamps are based on a simplified
> variation of Open Space Technology (OST), leaving out some key elements
> like
> the 4 principles and the Law of the Two Feet but maintaining the
> self-organizing character of OST. Other than in classical conference
> formats, BarCamps and OST rely on the passion and the responsibility of the
> participants, putting them into the driver's seat."


Sure - make the edit then.


>
>
> 6. I agree with your remarks on the article on Open-space meetings and have
> just entered the following comment into the discussion:
> "I believe this article is redundant and confusing and should be either
> deleted or merged with [[Open Space Technology]]. What would be reason to
> keep this one? Open Space meetings don't exist. There is Open Space
> Technology, and there are meetings that are done in an Open Space like
> style. But this is too fuzzy for a single article."
>

Great.

*
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