[OSList] OSONOS Whenever, Wherever, with Whomsoever

[Harold Shinsato]

Michael,

With trepidation I continue this conversation despite the sense that 
we're alone in a circle and everyone else on the list are using the law 
of de-lete. I hope you don't mind if I reflect back a few of your 
statements.

"What if anyone could indeed convene an osonos?"

I don't get your question. Anyone can indeed convene an OSonOS.

"what if the notes from all of these osonos events were posted to this 
one site?  ...so that the W came to denote ALL of our work IN open space 
ON open space?  wouldn't this be a gem of a demonstration that we are 
living our practice and inviting anyone to join us as colleagues, not 
just as trainees?"

It sounds like you're saying if you do an OSonOS and you don't post to 
"this one site", then you're not living the practice (i.e. out of 
integrity) and you are inviting people as trainees. Will you explain 
these sentiments? I'm not getting it.

"[...] we insist on having this annual keynote event?"

My head spins and my heart hurts reading this statement. First of all, 
the word "insist" connotes some kind of pushiness. Like it's being 
imposed. For me what Phelim did in London was a wonderful and beautiful 
expression of love and passion for Open Space - and for advancing this 
powerful dialogic practice in the U.K. and in the world. Phelim, the 
volunteers, and all the attendees of both the WOSonOS and the "road 
show" of Open Space events leading up to the event made great sacrifices 
and from my perspective were gloriously successful - despite the 
postfacto criticisms. If anything, I think the intensity of the 
criticisms are evidence of how much the London WOSonOS succeeded! We're 
riding a big wave in the aftermath of that event!

My own desire to support Suzanne Daigle to hold this event again in 
Florida in 2013 has absolutely nothing to do with the word "insist". I 
wish you could understand how it stings when I hear that word - but 
obviously it expresses some part of your experience. Will you say more 
from your heart what's behind choosing that word?

Secondly, it sounds like a very harsh judgement for the WOSonOS to be 
called a "keynote" event - like it's evidence that our community is out 
of integrity since obviously Open Space is all about not having keynotes 
(a sentiment I don't actually share). Do in fact all Open Space on Open 
Space events need to be equal? If someone wants to hold an Open Space on 
Open Space event just for those who speak Hawaiian - and they call it a 
Hawaiian Open Space on Open Space (HOSonOS) - is that a problem? The 
World Open Space community has been holding these WOSonOS's for decades 
so it seems pretty clear we *like* to do these events. Your call to kill 
them off deeply saddens me - and yet I sense this conversation is 
critical. I hope you don't mind me sharing from the heart how I am 
hearing your words, and if I am mishearing you I will work hard to keep 
my mind and heart open.

     Peace,
     Harold


On 10/23/12 5:49 PM, Michael Herman wrote:
> Harold, you said: But I'd be saddened if we somehow forbid the "W". It 
> feels like closing, not opening space.
> What if instead we agreed to stretch the W, Harold?  What if anyone 
> could indeed convene an osonos?  what if anyone could indeed convene 
> an osonos gathering and what if it was as simple as posting an 
> invitation to the oslist and to a website shared by all osonos events? 
>  what if the notes from all of these osonos events were posted to this 
> one site?  ...so that the W came to denote ALL of our work IN open 
> space ON open space?  wouldn't this be a gem of a demonstration that 
> we are living our practice and inviting anyone to join us as 
> colleagues, not just as trainees?  what if learning open space came to 
> mean buy the book, try it out, and find an osonos gathering to process 
> it with others who cared about open space?  what if there were than 
> many osonos's happening all around the world?
>
> maintaining this special label on one annual event feels an awful lot 
> like the preferential treatment other groups give to the keynote 
> speaker.  often it's quite and interesting talk, people spend a lot of 
> energy choosing these people and setting up a big room and podium and 
> screens and such... but we know they're missing something magical, 
> because everyone is not talking with everyone.
>
> how can we be sure that we're not missing something amazing because we 
> insist on having this annual keynote event?  and asking if there were 
> any other offers to host is a bit misleading, because the structure of 
> the process precludes most from even considering it.  I was actually 
> thinking about convening one, but given the invitation presentation 
> hoopla, my plan was to offer to do all the admin details if harrison 
> would reserve that camden church again.  but suzanned called me before 
> i could call harrison.  the point is the habit/structure we have makes 
> many things impossible to consider, in the same way that a keynote 
> speaker makes it hard (not impossible, but harder) for people to 
> connect with others who share their passion.  we can't assume that 
> because everyone is listening to the speaker politely that they all 
> care or that they don't have other, greater passions and gifts to offer.
>
> m
>


-- 
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20121024/2d525535/attachment-0008.htm>