a way forward?

Sat Nov 21 21:46:43 PST 2009

What an interesting interpretation of Harrison's responses.

I don't remember reading that Harrison says this (OSLIST) is the only  
way, just that its the only thing he is likely to participate in.  I  
don't recall his dunning any of the various expansions.  It makes me  
wonder if you are feeling that you specifically need his blessing to  
do whatever you want to do.  Or maybe it is just that you feel sad  
that not all of us (especially Harrison perhaps?) want to do what you  
want to do.

One of the more interesting aspects to me of Open Space and my sense  
of Harrison's relationship to it is that it is totally free to all of  
us and totally free for any of us to take it and run with it in any  
way we like.

So Tree, I hope you take what you want to do and run with it.  What  
keeps coming up for me is that perhaps what's needed is to give your  
own self permission.

Use what's useful, discard the rest

Denise

On Nov 21, 2009, at 6:15 PM, Tree Fitzpatrick wrote:

> First, a copyedit:  I am a member of the Open Space Institute/US  
> (OSI/US) board.  Our name is OSI/US. . . remember when Xerox tried  
> to stop people from referring to photocopies as xeroxes because  
> they wanted to protect their 'ownership' of the name 'xerox, i.e.  
> they didnot want 'xerox' to enter the popular lexicon. . . At our  
> recent, three-day, face-to-face OSI/US board retreat (stay tuned  
> folks. . . we did lots of great work and will be sharing more with  
> this list and the Open Space Ning as time goes by. . ), we realized  
> that we would like people in the worldwide OS community to stop  
> using the 'A' . . We are OSI/US.
>
> I would like openspaceworld.org to belong to one or more of the  
> Open Space Institutes instead of to someone individually. Would you  
> be willing to pass the baton of ownership?  I am talking  
> individually. I have not discussed this in any conversation, online  
> or otherwise. . .but as I have watched the oslist discussions. . .  
> and I see Harrison's recalcitrance to supporting OS's online  
> evolution -- which is is wholly free to do -- Harrison, like  
> everyone else in OS, lives by the law of two feet --  I think many  
> on this list give Harrison unacknowledge rank and privilege. . his  
> word can appear, to many, as dictums and pronouncements . . . and  
> the power and respect he has earned tends to block the OS  
> community, I believe, from seeing new possibilites. . . we all  
> kinds get mired in an almost cult of honoring Harrison's  
> pronounements. . . I wish he would be more open to the evolution of  
> OS . . but he is entitled to his opinions, of course. . .
>
> anyway. . . it occurred to me that maybe the existing Open Space  
> Institutes could form an NGO and the NGO could take over  
> responsibility for the website. . .
>
> Harrison's insistence that the oslist is the best way only means it  
> is the best way for him. And I am pretty sure Harrison would agree  
> that he is not to be followed unquestionable like a god or icon.   
> We collectively invent and re-event this experiment in OS . .  
> refusing to consider moving beyond this list reminds me that twenty  
> years ago, every single person I knew said they would never get a  
> cell phone.  Insisting that the oslist is the only way and the best  
> way, esp. coming from the most powerful voice on this list,  
> Harrison, is, culturally, very narrowminded.
>
> On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 11:51 AM, Michael Herman  
> <michael at michaelherman.com> wrote:
> more from birgitt williams' chapter in tales from open space, from  
> her list of "key ingredients", in the spirit of finding deeper  
> understanding AND nitty-gritty technical moves for getting on with  
> our work, on the web and in the world:
>
> ...here is what I believe the key ingredients are to sustaining the  
> new and ever renewing after an Open Space event.
> Language. We found that many assumptions/miscommunications occurred  
> because we didn't take the time to teach one another our  
> "language." Most notable were differences in language of senior  
> staff who kept referring to the global picture, supervisory staff  
> who dealt with meeting goals and objectives, and front-line staff  
> who talked about what faced them minute by minute. We all still are  
> passionate about different things based on our role, but we've  
> tried to teach each other our language.
>
>
> why did i not pull the plug on the websites last night?  why did i  
> not quit the list?  it's the same reason that i have not made other  
> major changes in the site(s) for a couple of years now.  and it has  
> much to do with what birgitt says about these differences in global  
> vision and minute-to-minute.
>
> it's worth noticing, i think, that when we talk about  
> openspaceworld.org on the oslist or elsewhere, almost everyone  
> talks about new tools, blogs and nings and wikis.  i'm a willing  
> participant in those conversations.
>
> AND... there is another conversation that i almost never have with  
> anyone... it starts out like this:  "...but what will i do with the  
> powerpoint presentation that laurel doersam contributed before she  
> died?  what will i do with joelle's (and peggy's) STORIES  
> newsletters?  what about peggy's old, original ost website hosted  
> at the meta network?  and osonos proceedings from ten years ago,  
> not all of which are in the form of a simple document.  yes, of  
> course, all these things can be archived on a server out there  
> forever, but how can they be kept accessible?
>
> the longer we go on, the more history we create.  i think this  
> history says as much about who we are as a community and a practice  
> as any of the newest tools.  if a leader comes to a site like osw  
> and can see that we are looking out for laurel's presentation and  
> peggy's original site, i think that on some level that will assure  
> them that we are not slash and burn sorts of folks.  leaders need  
> to know, and i think we need to show the world, that open space is  
> not about destroying existing structures and leaders in our  
> devotion to whatever is new and emergent.
>
> to continually bring our history forward gets more and more  
> technically challenging as time goes on.  there are more and more  
> files and formats to migrate, or to bury.  there is no perfect  
> solution.  and no perfect technology.  nor are my technical skills  
> all not that deep.
>
> until some of this stuff was raised in april, i didn't know how,  
> technically, to make more space in the openspaceworld.org site.  in  
> response to inquiries from osi-usa, i did some more studying and  
> learned how i could create whole new spaces, technically they'd be  
> sub-domains, with addresses like osi- 
> usa.openspaceworld.org ...these spaces would have their own ftp  
> access, own passwords, and whatever group was using a space like  
> this could own and manage their stuff totally for themselves and  
> others.
>
> i gulped.  i didn't really want to be in the website business in  
> the first place, and this was deeper still.
>
> since osi-usa was the only group i knew of that was actively  
> thinking about developing something new, i shared this new option  
> with them.  i thought we might learn our way into how to manage  
> such an arrangement together, then offer it to everyone else.   
> obviously, we haven't pursued this option yet, but the offer still  
> stands.
>
> kaliya, i didn't offer this option to you, individually, because  
> i'd already tried to follow up with you on these things and i took  
> your short or non- replies as an indication that you'd moved on to  
> other things.  when you have taken your complaints to the list, or  
> to osi-usa board members, rather than to me personally, it makes it  
> harder for me to get to know you better and learn to trust you as a  
> working partner.  in april, the conversation started because osi- 
> usa emailed me and asked me to comment on what you'd sent to them.   
> because they brought the question to me, i made my offer of new  
> working space to them.  at that time they were the ones talking  
> about creating a site for themselves.
>
> if you want to develop these new things, i am glad to provide  
> hosting space under the openspaceworld.org umbrella, in one or more  
> subdomains.  you can have your own space(s), own password(s), ftp  
> access.  all of the history that is osw can continue on it's merry  
> terrible way and your new functions will benefit reap whatever  
> benefits might accrue from being part of the highly-ranked main  
> site.  but more than that, once your stuff is up and running, ways  
> to connect our history with our future might be easier for both of  
> us to see.
>
> if harrison is committed to hanging around oslist for the duration,  
> i guess my favorite place to rest in all of this is in the design  
> of the main home page of osw.  the 22 langauges (21 plus farsi  
> coming soon) matter to me.  the links to other sites like world map  
> and os-online and ning, too.  that page is where i'd like to  
> continue to be able to play.  everyting behind that, blog, wikis,  
> resources, videos, laurel's presentation, and the like -- as long  
> as i know it's to be well cared for, i would gladly give all of  
> that up to the new system.  i just want to be able to continue to  
> take a leading role in shaping that one front page, cuz i get such  
> a charge out of adding another link, another big chunk of space  
> opening, like adding links to research and ning this week.
>
> please give me a call if you want to explore any of this together.
>
> m
>
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
>
> http://www.michaelherman.com
> http://www.ronanparktrail.com
> http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
> http://www.openspaceworld.org
>
> 312-280-7838 (mobile)
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> -- 
> Love rays,
> Tree Fitzpatrick  (check out my new address)
>
>
> . . . the great and incalculable grace of love, which says, with  
> Augustine, "I want you to be," without being able to give any  
> particular reason for such supreme and unsurpassable affirmation.   
> -- Hannah Arendt
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