Unconferences

Wed Sep 8 09:08:05 PDT 2010

Interesting also to note that we want so much for people to get the language right, but our language is pretty strange for the common person not involved in facilitation.  "Open Space"  "unconferencing" "barcamp" all of this is useful language for us, helps us to make distinctions between different processes.  But in the end, most people just want to get down to work and hopefully, if we've done well, they're attention is fully on the work and not so much on the process that is being used.

I forgive people deeply for mangling the names of things.  God knowns I'd be helpless in the tech world trying to get all the right terms for things.  And while I too make a point of teaching people what OST actually IS, I also encourage people to experiment in their hosting and facilitation.  The emerging facilitator plays with lots of different things, makes good choices and bad ones, gets things right and makes a hash of other things. I still do too.  To me the confusion about what is OST and what isn't is a sign that the thing has left the coop, that the use of OST has propagated widely amongst people who get it or even half get it.  All of that is a good thing, and in my experience when folks mess with Open Space and get it wrong, participants often correct them.

And on the flip side, let me just say that I have done several standard by the book, orthodox Open Space events and received stinging criticism from people for whom it just wasn't the right thing.  As we have said OST is a halfway technology.  I don't know what it is halfway too, but the more experiments that we have, so more trial and error that goes on, the better.  And if the language and names of things get skewered as a result, I'm not too worried about that.  As long as the best possible work is getting done, what we call it is always secondary for me.

Cheers,

Chris
----
Chris Corrigan
chris at chriscorrigan.com
http://www.chriscorrigan.com

On 2010-09-07, at 7:52 PM, Lisa Heft wrote:

> Hi, Doug (and others) - I should have lifted the words Harold gave for Kaliya's description from his earlier posting and placed them in my posting - rather than simply refer to it. Sorry about that.
> In Harold's earlier posting he mentioned that "Kaliya calls it a bunch of Alpha Geeks rushing at the blank wall to grab the best spots."  
> The words you bolded are mine.  And thank you ;o)
> Lisa
> 
> 
> 
> On Sep 7, 2010, at 7:35 PM, doug wrote:
> 
>> Lisa--
>> 
>> I am not clear--are these words bolded yours or Kaliya's? Either way I like them a lot.
>> 
>> :- Doug.
>> 
>> On Tue, 2010-09-07 at 17:40 -0700, Lisa Heft wrote:
>>> Hi, Annamarie -
>>> Harold, I think Kaliya describes it so beautifully.
>>> From what I am hearing, the word 'unconference' - when used by most people - seems to be a generic term for 'not the usual PowerPoint type of meeting/conference' - started perhaps in the tech communities but is now a term used by others.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> It does not mean Open Space. To everyone.
>>> And just as we often hear of groups using 'Open Space' and then when we ask them to describe it, it's something completely un-Open Space (but just uses a circle, or just uses topic signs on a wall, or something), I hear that in the tech / hybrid / mashup world what often is referred to as Open Space or Unconference is not anything we would call Open Space. 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> So often what I hear is it is not the complete form:
>>> - Opening Circle - invitation and explanation of process, principles and law
>>> - participant-driven co-created agenda (without clustering, without facilitator's 'helping', without voting or elimination of topics, and done at a time-for-everyone speed rather than whoever-thinks-the-fastest speed)
>>> - multiple participant-led discussions around the room (that folks can wander amongst) for multiple session times (without facilitators 'helping', with time enough for not-just-the-quickest-responders to participate, ideally with some sort of participant-generated documentation of the discussions)
>>> - as mentioned above - ideally some sort of participant-documentation component that ultimately becomes a co-created Book of Proceedings (to share more than the moment of talking / to provide data to all, to share knowledge with everyone about what you discovered and learned in the certain sessions you hosted or attended)
>>> - facilitator becoming totally present and completely invisible and holding space - not directive or intervening or traffic controlling - after welcoming/inviting/explaining/opening
>>> - Closing Circle for comment and reflection
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Not squished into too short a time frame, not hybridized or morphed (for this results in different deliverables than the compete OS tool delivers), not cut into pieces, no pressure to present, and ideally welcoming of all kinds of people (quick responders, slow responders, topic convenors, witnesses, established leaders, emergent leaders, folks of lower power or rich difference, and so on).
>>> 
>>> 
>>> So. I hear there are some wonderful facilitators who use true Open Space for tech-based Unconferences / camps. Certainly most 'agilistas' (Agile community) seem to help each other learn Open Space well.
>>> I know some of you folks who specialize in using OS in tech communities / camps / unconferences personally. You are amazing.  You do it so well.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I also hear there are things that sound sort of like it, that are not it, that I wish were not called Open Space. I would love it if the term 'Open Space' were only used for the complete form. I welcome people to do any parts of interactive / dialogic work that work for them - I just like participants and other users to know which tools deliver what - proper naming for understanding proper use of tools.  Just like knowing a hammer is best for some things and when you say hammer you have thought about what it's most useful for and what it's design can deliver. Rather than using it for everything or pulling it apart into components and expecting the same results.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I welcome all experimentation, all stretching, all sharing of different experiences, too.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> What do others think?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Lisa
>>> 
>>> 
> 
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