[OSList] "Parallel" Open Space at XP2014 Rome?

Fri Apr 25 09:00:37 PDT 2014

I agree with Chris on this.

It saddens me when people become dogmatically purist about, of all things,
open space. Also the distaste for programmed conference is outdated and
childish. Open Space itself has changed the deeper orientation many people
have to scheduled events; often an programmed event can begin with an
opening circle and contain a wonderful interplay between planned and
emergent content.

I remember as three day conference I co-facilitated many years ago that
contained an open space day on day 2. It worked perfectly and even inspired
the way day 3 was more formally presented. Many of those day 3
presentations were wonderful and came alive partly because of their dance
with day 2. (Full story here
http://rationalmadness.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/stories-of-open-space-2-open-space-boats/
)

The resulting proceedings, published in a book are still on sale on
Amazon.com to this day.

Each year I am co-designer of an event in the UK called The Critical
Incident. here we don't run open space in parallel to a programmed
conference - we weave the two formats together. Some sessions are
preplanned, others arise out of a marketplace opened at the start of the
day in opening circle format. That event has been running since 2006 and
the alchemy between planned and emergent is energising, unpredictable and
wonderful. (Full story here:
http://rationalmadness.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/stories-of-open-space-4-dotted-open-space/
)

I believe open space purism, when it becomes fixed and dogmatic, generalist
and prescriptive, no matter how well intentioned, damaged open space in the
world, limiting it, and is also a bit hypocritical.

Play with it. It's about play and interplay and the dance of planned and
emergent. This almost religious distaste some have for planning and
scheduling is silly, even childish. Planning can often be a deeper and
longer-term form of emergence. Sometimes the circle opens weeks before a
gathering, and sometimes potential begins to reveal THROUGH a programme.

Perhaps those who don't think these blended forms work, are bringing a
purist mindset that creates a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sometimes
do it by the book, and sometimes let the in-the-moment book of life suggest
the pace and form.

Open space for opening space...

Paul Levy

On 25 April 2014 07:24, Chris Corrigan <chris.corrigan at gmail.com> wrote:

> In a complex world there are never "nevers". Who knows how it will work or
> not, whether it is correct or not or whether it is just what is needed.
>
> More important than guessing about how it will go will be learning about
> how it went. Perhaps we will hear the story.
>
> Chris
>
> --
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> Harvest Moon Consultants
> www.chriscorrigan.com
>
> *Art of Hosting - Participatory Leadership and Social Collaboration*,
> Bowen Island, BC <http://aohrivendell.withtank.com/> November 11-14,2013
>
> On Apr 24, 2014, at 7:43 PM, Michael Herman <michael at michaelherman.com>
> wrote:
>
> we ran traditional conference, complete with juried papers and such,
> parallel with open space AND parallel with birds of a feather AND parallel
> with working sessions where folks were taking turns writing code for a few
> hours at a time, on a real (pro bono) project that delivered working
> software at the end of the week, at agile/xp universe 2003(?).
>
> a morning of plenary keynotes finished with a slightly abbreviated opening
> explanation to the whole group, then some came to the opening and others
> went elsewhere.  it was kind of chaotic, but at least everyone got to hear
> the explanation of what was happening in the OS track, and once they knew,
> then the bulletin board made complete sense to everyone and it just sort of
> worked.
>
> the way we understood it and reasoned that it would work is that the birds
> of a feather sessions were the topics that many people knew about and so
> anyone could ask a question or post an issue and many people could respond
> and teach something about it.  the juried papers were on those issues where
> a few people had figured out something, studied it deeply, and could now
> teach.  and the open space was for all of the issues around "the future of
> software developement" that really nobody could "know" the answers to yet,
> but that some people could get together and explore.
>
> we thought some of the open space issues might come back in a year or two
> as juried papers.  not sure if that actually happened, but that was the
> reasoning at the time.  eight years later i heard from agile board members
> that what we'd done had been important, so that's my best measure.
>
> m
>
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
> 312-280-7838 (mobile)
>
> http://MichaelHerman.com
> http://OpenSpaceWorld.org
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 9:25 PM, alan at alanhalford.com.au <
> alan at alanhalford.com.au> wrote:
>
>> On the surface looks dodgy!
>> But, who knows the context? Personally i think it fits with the
>> principles and the Law of two feet, in particular 'whatever happens is the
>> only thing that could have'
>> Most importantly the space will be open!!
>> Ciao Bello
>> Alan
>>
>> Alan Halford
>> Facilitator
>> Mediator
>>  www.alanhalford.com.au/
>> 0421 475 252
>>
>>
>>
>> On 25 Apr 2014, at 10:12 am, Daniel Mezick <dan at newtechusa.net> wrote:
>>
>> Open Space includes a theme, and proceedings. It also asks that no other
>> events be going on at the same time.
>>
>>
>> That’s why the XP2014 event in Rome gives me pause. Someone here
>> mentioned that this event is offering a “parallel Open Space”. Wow. Is that
>> right?
>>
>>
>> The last time I checked, the Open Space User’s Guide warned against doing
>> this. It warns against running anything else *while the Open Space event
>> is going on*. And that’s what makes me wonder about the so-called XP2014
>> “parallel Open Space” event.
>>
>>
>>
>> To investigate you can examine this link, which shows the schedule:
>>
>> http://www.xp2014.org/program/
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Daniel Mezick, President
>>
>> New Technology Solutions Inc.
>>
>> (203) 915 7248 (cell)
>>
>> Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog<http://newtechusa.net/blog/>.
>> Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>.
>>
>> Examine my new book:  The Culture Game
>> <http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for the
>> Agile Manager.
>>
>> Explore Agile Team Training<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/>and
>> Coaching. <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>
>>
>> Explore the Agile Boston <http://newtechusa.net//user-groups/ma/>
>> Community.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> OSList mailing list
>> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
>> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
>> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
>> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> OSList mailing list
>> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
>> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
>> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
>> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20140425/00ad7b7b/attachment-0008.htm>