Unconferences

Sun Sep 5 17:49:22 PDT 2010

Work? Well - pre-arranged sessions. 8 tables to set up. Somebody to tell you
where to sit and what to do. Presentations to prepare..

ho 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

Phone 301-365-2093

www.openspaceworld.com

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

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From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Annamarie
Pluhar
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2010 7:04 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Unconferences

Hello Harrison, 

As always a cogent and interesting response. More or less what I expected.
Except that what I experienced seemed to me to be less work than the opening
circle, statement of principles and law,  and then opening of the
marketplace. So I'm not clear about how OS is less work than an
unconference. 

To Kari's question.  The unconference I attended had maybe 15 round tables
holding 8 people apiece.  People sat where ever.  Traditional introductions
(we may have gone around the room?), and thank you's to organizers.
Statement of the four time periods and an invitation to convene a group if
you wanted. The wall was outside  in the hall.  It became apparent to me
that for each time session there was at least one person who had a prepared
talk by prearrangement. I learned some stuff but certainly didn't feel
permission to leave a session if I was uninterested.  It was all about
Twitter and therefore many people had their heads into their iphones and
such as they twittered about what was happening. That's a different way of
attending.

Happy Labor Day eve.  In Southern Vermont we are feeling the beginning of
fall. 

Annamarie Pluhar

Pluhar Consulting

Results through effective group process

http://www.pluharconsulting.com

802.451.1941

802.579.5975 (cell)

On Sep 5, 2010, at 9:32 AM, Harrison Owen wrote:

Annamarie - Unconferences have been around for a bit and as I remember some
of the earliest unconferencers included the likes of Michael Herman. So if
there is a problem for the OS community I would guess that it is at least
partially self-inflicted J But personally I don't see much of a problem.
Actually I see it as part of a much larger grand natural experiment in which
we all are learning how to operate most successfully in a self organizing
world (the only one we have, I think). In this context there is no "one
right way" - but surely there are better and more effective ways. The name
of the game is finding these "ways" and the means is multiple  experiments.
I would take Unconference to be one such experiment. Measured against the
simplicity of what might be called "classic Open Space" (sit in a circle,
create a bulletin board, open a marketplace - Go to work) I find the
Unconference to be overdone. In short they are working much too hard! This
isn't wrong, just inefficient. However, measured against the standard
conference, an Unconference is truly a breath of fresh air. In conversations
with unconferencers I suggest that they have made a very good start - and
now why not think of one more (maybe many more) things not to do? If we (I)
have learned anything in this adventure it is that organizing a self
organizing system is a questionable undertaking involving a great deal of
unnecessary work. To say the least.

Harrison

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

Phone 301-365-2093

www.openspaceworld.com

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Annamarie
Pluhar
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2010 8:21 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Unconferences

Hi everyone, 

DIana's posting of how the Agile community is embracing OS reminds me to ask
this community about "unconferences."  I've not seen a discussion of them
but maybe there was one predating my joining of the list.

I've been to one "unconference" and was told about another by a colleague
who understands OS. Neither had the careful opening that I think is the core
of making OS work. I have had people say "Oh I've been to an Open Space
meeting" and when I probed, discovered that it was an "unconference" not OS.

Have other encountered this? And is this a problem for OS? 

Happy Sunday morning. 

Annamarie Pluhar

Pluhar Consulting

Results through effective group process

http://www.pluharconsulting.com

802.451.1941

802.579.5975 (cell)

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