[OSList] Open Space flip charts, signage and proceedings

Fri Sep 23 04:55:48 PDT 2011

...the larder balloons were 5 times the size of the fat free for the 
breakout sessions, it was fun! One day, we will do another bilingual one 
together...
...just returned from a three day os with action planning with an 
it-agile outfit searching for ways to make their work and travel more 
compatible with family life. The venue was in Timmendorf, a baltic sea 
resort where I lived in 1945 to 1949 having my first encounter with the 
open seas as a grade school kid...
The participants reported about all kinds of os events they had been to 
but never with an introduction nor a topic and certainly no action 
planning...and never more than a day...hmmm
have a great weekend
mmp

On 23.09.2011 13:46, Harrison Owen wrote:
> Michael -- Thank you for the memory! 2108 participants as I recall. And I
> loved your typo. "We had larder balloons to float the posters,
> butterflies..."
>
> "Larder balloons" -- I guess they must have been fat ones?
>
> And GO Agile!
>
> Harrison
>
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Dr.
> Potomac, MD 20854
> USA
>
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>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
> [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Michael M
> Pannwitz
> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 4:35 AM
> To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
> Subject: Re: [OSList] Open Space flip charts, signage and proceedings
>
> Dear Daniel,
> in an ost event with 2108 folks we used balloons. Instead of A,B,C we
> used 1,2,3 etc ... there were 50 parallel sessions so we would have run
> out of letters and it seemed to work well to tell folks 1-20 is over
> there, 21 to 35 in the other tent, etc.
> We tied the balloons to little cotton bags filled with sand... that
> allowed for great mobility.
> Since we had far more than the expected 150 issues (50 breakout spaces
> and three starting times for groups), exactly 232, we needed to create
> additional balloons (we had helium tanks on the premise to blow up new
> ones), number them and hand them out... participants then created new
> spaces (in this event we had only a few chairs and 2000 cushions and
> some beer tent benches, which worked wonderfully, very flexible).
> We had larder balloons to float the posters, butterflies...
>
> Have fun
> greetings from Berlin
>
> Look here for pictures of the 2108 event in two huge beer-tents in
> southern Germany
>>
> http://www.boscop.org/events/165-jetzt-meine-leidenschaft-meine-verantwortun
> g-ueber-die-tagung-hinaus
>
> klick on the picture in the right upper corner and see 88 pictures
>
> On 23.09.2011 05:40, Daniel Mezick wrote:
>> On 9/29 in Boston, we (Agile Boston) are producing an event called Agile
>> Day 2011 Boston. We have about 250 people coming.
>>
>> See http://newtechusa.net/user-groups/ma/agileday2011/
>>
>> The event includes an Open Space in the afternoon. We are planning full
>> proceedings. The proceedings are to be delivered in PDF format not later
>> than 48 hours after the event.
>>
>> We are taking a shot at experimenting with some small improvements that
>> may prove useful for OST practitioners.
>>
>> Here is the list of things we are trying:
>>
>> 1. Helium Balloons for Session Location Signage. We are using helium
>> balloons as the session-meeting-space signage. The balloons are marked
>> A,B,C,D etc and then tied to chairs or easels. The letters and colors
>> make it simple to use expansive convention spaces (no walls or corners)
>> for OST and point people to session spots from very far away. "See that
>> green balloon marked G way over yonder? That's your session!" Etc.
>> Chairs can get moved around and the spot for meeting is still clearly
>> marked and visible from far away. That's the idea anyway !
>>
>> 2. Yardsticks on Flipcharts. We know this one works. This technique
>> originated with the Agile Boston group, which has done 6 Open Spaces so
>> far. The technique allows the use of use flip charts in a session
>> without the need for an easel. The flip chart goes on a chair instead.
>> The technique goes like this:
>>
>> a. Get a flip chart, a yardstick, and some duct tape
>>
>> b. Affix yardstick to back of flip chart with duct tape, to make a
>> backbone for the flip chart. Let 1/2 inch of yardstick protrude at
>> bottom. This creates a little foot or anchor.
>>
>> c. Now place flip chart on chair. Back of chair supports yardstick,
>> yardstick supports flip-chart. The yardstick makes the flip chart rigid.
>> The 1/2 inch foot cushes into the chair seat cushion and keeps the
>> flip-chart upright and easy to write on when seated.
>>
>>
>> 3. Searchable PDF Proceedings.
>> We are producing a high-quality, searchable, transcribed PDF of the Open
>> Space proceedings. At least 100 pages worth. Up to this point few if any
>> Open Spaces in Agile conferences are producing any proceedings. Those
>> that are, are not producing a searchable file. Rather, the proceedings
>> contain copies of proceedings forms, or scanned images. We are aiming at
>> producing a searchable PDF by using a transcription service to convert
>> scanned images to text to render said text searchable in a delivered PDF.
>>
>> Steps
>>
>> a. At the event and before, make it very plain that conveners are
>> expected to make free-hand, paper-form-based proceedings happen. Provide
>> forms and pens but do not force anything further per se
>>
>> b. When a convened session is over, conveners are expected to go to
>> Newsroom with freehand forms filled out, to hand over.
>>
>> c. Volunteers rush to meet and serve convener, bench-checking the
>> handwritten form, photographing any artifacts generated on flip-charts,
>> and finally, sending the convener on his or her way thereafter.
>>
>> d. Copy of proceedings-form is made, gets posted immediately in Breaking
>> News. Original gets scanned, sent to transcribers by email and filed.
>> Said transcribers send back RTF file. RTF file is inserted into PDF and
>> is now searchable etc. JPG artifacts are added as needed per session.
>>
>> e. The completed searchable PDF is posted on a public share, free to
>> anyone in the world who has the link.
>>
>> f. Expected latency is no more than 48 hours per 200 pages of
>> proceedings generated
>>
>> We expect 20 sessions per round over 3 rounds of 50 minutes each in this
>> afternoon event. We expect 230++ people so we expect 60 or 70 sessions
>> to document.
>>
>> We plan to post a full experience report here after the event, to let
>> you know how it goes, what we learned etc. We welcome and strongly
>> encourage suggestions, historical information about similar stuff people
>> have tried, specific guidance and so on. The event is in one week.
>>
>> Dan
>>
>> --
>> Daniel Mezick, President
>> New Technology Solutions Inc.
>> (203) 915 7248 (cell)
>> AgileDay2011 Sept 29!<http://newtechusa.net/user-groups/ma/agileday2011/>
>>
>> Bio<http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>, Blog
>> <http://newtechusa.net/blog/>, Twitter
> <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>,
>> Team Training<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/>,
>> Team Coaching<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>
>> Agile Boston!<http://newtechusa.net//user-groups/ma/>
>>
>>
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-- 
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org	www.boscop.org

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