[OSList] The role of session transcribers, this is my oslist session invite.

[Chris Corrigan]

Last year in a large open space where we paid deep attention to the documentation (http://addressingstigma.ning.com) one of the conveners said "I see what you're doing…this is just a massive document collaboration process."  

Even though the remark was said as a kind of tender complaint at how much work the conveners and note takers did, it was an affirmation to me that we got it right with the level of documentation we required.  I can't count how many hands and voices were a part of the final product, which included documents, video and a graphic harvest.  Close to every one of the 150 people in attendance I would guess.  And that made us very very happy, because many of those voices are traditionally marginalized by the system we were working with.

Chris



On 2012-10-24, at 1:29 PM, Lisa Heft wrote:

> i know that so many people have never had the experience of receiving notes after discussions - and that some people use the notes for deeper reflection post-event.
> Some organizations turn them into work-sheets for projects, some return six months later to re-convene a group of people who cared about something.
> Some groups give everyone their Book of Proceedings and then a smaller sub-group has fun going over it to look for patterns and new ideas inspired by the notes.
> Some individuals do not look at the notes at all - but I have found that many people do - especially if it is in the form of a Book of Proceedings rather than individual posted notes on wiki for example.
> And yes, some people do not feel they need to take notes at all, and that is fine.
> 
> When I see multiple people taking notes I invite them to add their notes together, or I take a photo of their mind-maps and put that into the Book - and even if someone creates poetry or a drawing during the meeting I feel that is 'the work' as well so I put that into the Book as well. 
> 
> I am always seeking (with Open Space and with other processes) easy ways for participants to self-document so that the wisdom shared in one little group is shared across all the groups - so that if one little discussion group has a discovery that knowledge is not limited to that small group who went to that particular discussion, but instead informs the whole.
> 
> That is why I appreciate people having written up notes as much as they have from the WOSonOS and other events where I have been a participant. I want to learn from more than the little groups I was able to get to.
> 
> And I want to see who attended each group - because possibly I may want to invite people interested in a topic to explore further post-event (when I am a participant) or when I consult with an organization sometimes the client sees topics in the Book that had high interest and wishes to re-convene people interested in it. And so on. 
> 
> I have found that it is useful to put a live Newsroom in the Open Space meeting room (as happened at the WOSonOS - gracefully coordinated by Kirsty & Company) - and wonderful Kas has improved my understanding of how to show in the room what notes are outstanding and which are completed - so participants can see that as they go throughout their discussions. I find that giving participants back a Book of Proceedings - with some photos to remind them of a body-sense of their passion and engagement - is something many participants really like. I am not always the one who does the documentation with a client and of course documentation design always depends on how much overall meeting time there is, as well as ways of inviting non-burdensome / collective co-responsibility documentation. Sometimes documentation - especially for a short meeting - is as simple as a list of what topics were posted and who attended each discussion plus a list of participant contact / networking information.
> 
> Yes - the notes are as detailed as whomever takes the notes. But I like the co-responsibility of participants actively sharing what they are learning and as Harrison says - most notes give the general thrust and content of that session. 
> 
> And for example a science conference I facilitated was a great opportunity for people to share knowledge across disciplines and they are very interested in reading each others' notes - and surprised that so much information comes into an informal writing as they are so used to academic papers. And at another conference I facilitated, participants really appreciate a Book of Proceedings because they can show their funders about their retreat or conference and can use the Book to generate conversations back at the office. It also can give people in organizations some leverage in showing what convening groups in dialogue can be and how productive such a convening can be - so they get a bit more support for doing more of that in their organization.
> 
> Just some things I have observed about session notes...
> 
> Lisa
> 
> 
> 
> On Oct 24, 2012, at 8:11 AM, Harrison Owen wrote:
> 
>> Kari – It has always seemed to me that the real value of the notes from various sessions was/is just to alert anybody-interested in the general thrust and content of that session. Any similarity between OS Reports and formal, edited, officially sanctioned minutes is purely co-incidental. I always tried to label the “Proceedings” DRAFT, back in the days when we had hard copy – just to make the point that it is all a work in progress. But the good news is that -- should you be interested, but not quite understand – you have the name (and usually email) of the author. Talk to themJ
>>  
>> Harrison
> 
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