[OSList] What's the difference between BarCamp and OST?

Wed Aug 24 07:54:05 PDT 2016

Who says the Brits don’t have a sense of humor? “Self-Organizing in a pure form is like a beautiful

soft hand moving in the morning sun. OST is a light and fragrant hand cream. Bar Camp is an arctic glove.” – Or is this poetry?

ho

Winter Address

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

301-365-2093

Summer Address

189 Beaucauire Ave

Camden, ME 04843

207 763-3261

Websites

www.openspaceworld.com

www.ho-image.com

From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of paul levy via OSList
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2016 7:43 AM
To: Barry Owen; World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] What's the difference between BarCamp and OST?

Dear all

Bar Camp, along with many similar processes, is an attempt to open space. Compared to OST it contains more intervention (facilitation and control) and that "one more thing to do" can limit space opening because space tends to open more effectively for emergent self-organisation when we do one thing less - minimal intervention. 

OST tends towards minimum intervention (especially when we stop fussing over where the pens go and stop adding little bits of dogmatic facilitation to it).

Everything ultimately is self-organisation, but it depends on which self or selves are doing the organising.

Self-Organizing in a pure form is like a beautiful

soft hand moving in the morning sun. OST is a light and fragrant hand cream. Bar Camp is an arctic glove.

Warm wishes 

Paul Levy 

On Wednesday, 24 August 2016, Barry Owen via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

I could write a veritable book about my experiences with BarCamp here in nashville, TN in the past 6 years.

It's pseudo self organization at best . . . There's a tip of the hat to unconference at the beginning as folks arrive and are invited to write down "Things they want to Learn" and "things they want to teach".

The "organizers" then fill the schedule while the participants mingle, and the event starts (as aforementioned) with a very brief introduction.

Most sessions are "teaching" and not open dialog and many are pre-loaded speakers who were specifically invited to come with all expenses paid.   

my understanding is that BarCamp was initially designed as a "Technology Conference" for computer Geeks, so perhaps it 'works" better with Geeks. Using it for other other purposes (Organizational Development/transformation etc) is an unintended use of the original format.

So - I think BarCamp serves the intended purpose well - and I believe some misguided folks are attempting to plug a square hole with a round peg thinking that it's interchangeable with OST

My 2 cents 

This ain't Open Space!

Barry Owen
Real Estate Strategist

Founder/Principal Broker

Pareto Realty, LLC  <http://www.merriam-webster.com/audio.php?file=bixpar02&word=Pareto&text=%5Cp%C9%99-%3CSPAN%20class%3Dunicode%3E%CB%88%3C%2FSPAN%3Er%C4%81-(%3CSPAN%20class%3Dunicode%3E%CB%8C%3C%2FSPAN%3E)t%C5%8D%5C> \pə-ˈrā-(ˌ)tō\

The Vital Few

4012 Hillsboro Pike #5

Nashville, TN 37215 

Office: 615-502-2080

Connect: 615-568-2123

 <http://twitter.com/#!/barryowen> Twitter,  <http://www.facebook.com/barryo06> Facebook,  <http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=15553654&trk=tab_pro> Linkedin

WhyJoinParetoRealty.com <http://whyjoinparetorealty.com/> 

ParetoRealty.com <http://paretorealty.com/> 

BarryOwensBlog.com <http://barryowensblog.com/> 

On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 4:53 PM, Amanda Bucklow via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','oslist at lists.openspacetech.org');> > wrote:

I had never heard of BarCamp. I was smiling too as I read Martin’s response. If anyone mentions it to me, I will just roll my eyes :-)

Amanda

Amanda Bucklow

Independent Commercial Mediator

On 23 Aug 2016, at 20:51, Eva P Svensson via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','oslist at lists.openspacetech.org');> > wrote:

Martin,

I smile when I read your text - I can almost feel your irritation over comparing OST with Barcamp :-)

Thank you all who had answered - I now think that I will not ever say that it’s like OST, but that they had borrowed a few thing but got them backwards…(oops)

:o)

Eva

Bästa hälsningar

Eva P Svensson

EPS Human Invest AB

Co owner Genuine Contact Group Inc

Medlem i Beyond Performance Group

"Verksamhetsutveckling genom människor skapar långsiktigt välmående företag och organisationer"

Anåsbergsvägen 22, 439 34 ONSALA

Besöksadress; Norra Allégatan 8, Göteborg

Tfn: 0300-615 05, Mobil; 0706- 89 85 50

www.epshumaninvest.se <http://www.epshumaninvest.se/> 

Skype: eva.p.svensson

Facebook sida: EPS Human Invest AB

twitter:@EvaPSvensson

"Jag kan inte lära dig något. Allt jag kan göra är att ställa frågor till dig, och låta dig själv finna svaren." Sokrates

23 aug. 2016 kl. 11:42 skrev Martin Roell via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','oslist at lists.openspacetech.org');> >:

Eva P Svensson via OSList wrote:

Dear friends,
Today I heard a woman talking about setting up a meeting using BarCamp as a method. I asked her to explain to me what it was and when she did that I had a hard time finding the differences between that and Open Space. One thing was that, as she explained it, the time slots were 45 minutes then 15 minutes pause then new 45 minutes and so on. Otherwise it seemed more or less like copy and paste from Open Space. Anyone who knows more about it?
:o)

I have attended a good number of Barcamps and OST meetings, and I
believe I even vented my frustration about BarCamps on this list before. :)

To make a long story short, a few points of how BarCamps are different.
(This may be just my limited sample of Barcamps held in Germany in the
last 4 years.)

* No circle at the beginning
* A ritual "say your name and your three #tags" instead before things
start (stopping the flow, boring the hell out of everyone, etc etc)
* When announcing a session, one asks for a raise of hands to gauge
interest.
* The "Facilitator" then allocates you a room ("thank you for announcing
your session so cutely. Here's a room for you.")
* and sometimes STICKS THE PAPER INTO THE SCHEDULE FOR YOU (you don't
get to choose the room for yourself: they do it for you!)
* Facilitators generally make looong remarks about BARCAMP before things
start and ask for a raise of hands, how many people have attended
BARCAMPS before, and how many (more is better)
* Facilitators inform people that BARCAMP is AMAAAAZING because: YOU GET
TO PARTICPATE! WOW!!1 They make the event more amazing by talking about
how amazing it will be (preventing anyone from getting to work).
* Much of the butterfly conversation is about BARCAMP and how AMAZING it is.
* There is usually no issue, but a "theme" for the event; what gets
posted are not "issues" but "sessions". (In the Barcamps I attended, not
a single session was posted that had a question mark in it.)
* "Sessions" are often teaching, delivered by extroverts

One a more serious note:
Barcamp differs from OST culturally, in the sense that it is often used
for what I'd call "participatory teaching / knowledge sharing events":
In Germany, they seem to become popular with companies now, as a way to
save education budgets ("our staff can now share knowledge with
eachother! Using BARCAMP!! ITS CHEAPER THAN SEMINARS!!!!"), whereas OST
functions... hm, better? more naturally? - as a problem solving...
thing. Or so.

Or, very simply and more personal: Everytime I hear someone say
something along "Barcamp is not so different from Open Space, is it?" I
get quite mad, because I have often seen amazing things happen in Open
Space events, and never seen anything amazing happen in BarCamps.

YMMV.

Martin

-- 
Martin Röll, Görlitzer Str. 25, 01099 Dresden, Germany
+49 178 4984743 <tel:%2B49%20178%204984743> , @martinroell, http://www.roell.net <http://www.roell.net/> 

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','OSList at lists.openspacetech.org');> 
To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org');> 
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','OSList at lists.openspacetech.org');> 
To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org');> 
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','OSList at lists.openspacetech.org');> 
To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org');> 
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20160824/ecbf5a47/attachment.htm>