[OSList] Any stories/experiences to share abt BIG online OSTs

Thu Dec 30 08:22:27 PST 2021

Thanks Lucas, thanks Jamie for your input and ideas.
I am writing a first proposal right now and will recommend dividing it into several “smaller” OSTs either simultaneous or one after the other. Great idea Jamie to connect to YIP, I do have some connections to them. We have also talked about training some of the youth so that would be another option which would also spread knowledge about OST in the schools!
I will keep you posted and share if things start moving.
All the best
THomas

Från: lucas at qiqochat.com <lucas at qiqochat.com>
Skickat: den 22 december 2021 14:51
Till: World wide Open Space Technology email list <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
Kopia: Thomas Herrmann <thomas at openspaceconsulting.com>
Ämne: Re: [OSList] Any stories/experiences to share abt BIG online OSTs

Hi Thomas,

Here are two options for how to divide the OST:
I think that people on the OSLIST will have experience with OS events with 1000+ people.  I don't have any recommendations for the size of an opening or how (or whether) it should be divided.  The largest OST on QiqoChat has been 450 registered and 350 present in the opening; it went well without dividing it into smaller openings.  Here are some options for how to divide it if you want to:

  *   Divide the whole group into many smaller OSTs of 150 people that happen at the same time or happen at different times.  If they happen at different times, all groups can work together to build a single book of proceedings, filling in the gaps or expanding on themes identified by the previous group.  Although I think this would be the way to make significant, intentional, steady progress on a topic, I don't expect that many people will read the book of proceedings before showing up.
  *   You could choose to not divide the group and have everyone in a single event.  There would be duplicate topics, so there would be a need to spend extra time letting participants merge them.  When 500 people show up for the same discussion/session in the same Zoom meeting, you can use Zoom's breakout rooms inside that Zoom meeting and all rooms would be about that one topic and would make their own path through the topic and pop out at the end at different places.  Then you can convene all together at the end of their session to discuss themes that emerged from that one discussion/session.  This takes work, but hey if it's an important topic, it's worth doing.  I'm guessing that 2 hours might be needed per session for this format.  Using a tool (like GroupMap or Slido) to identify themes among 500 people when they all reconvene seems like a good idea rather than asking everyone to type into the Zoom chat.  This "theme aggregation" phase of a session would be much better if it had a trained facilitator.  I'm very curious what would happen with this format!
Here are two tech limitations that are useful to think about when planning:
1. How to let everyone participate in the opening.
Zoom has a max of 1000 people in a single meeting, so if you have more than that in a single opening, then you can have the Zoom meeting streaming to YouTube live and then embed YouTube live into the event webpage.  Participants can move between them.  When they want to announce a session, they can go into Zoom so that they can be heard by everyone else.  If there are close to 1000 people who are in the Zoom meeting, then people should know to leave to make room for other people.  This is similar to the "fishbowl" liberating structures method for smaller conversations.

2. How many people can edit the agenda at the same time.
Google Sheets is a good option for standardizing/streamlining the agenda creation process.  Sometimes a more free-flowing agenda creation process with a whiteboard tool like Miro creates a more "free" feeling, but I think that the free-ness could get chaotic with so many people, and that more structure with so many people will help the event stay productive.  With Google Sheets, there is a maximum of 100 simultaneous editors.  People who are not editing should just look at the read-only version.  Here are instructions<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WaA4nALTcZNBkSMsq8PGJ42sIsRGVU_pfvXLXZjGLzs/edit#heading=h.h31kh4g4sukk> for how to create two versions - one for editing and one that is read-only with unlimited viewers.

Some thoughts from the OST User Guide about using computers to identify themes in a large book of proceedings:
Harrison mentions using computers to identify themes in the OST User Guide, version 2:
"One of the more promising innovation comes from a relatively new family of software called  natural language analyzers.... The new software begins to capture some of the subtleties of language, making it possible (with some help) to identify emerging themes in large bodies of text.... Identifying these themes has, in practice, been a very powerful way to detect linkages and organizational flow points that may then be capitalized upon in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness.... intelligence from the computer is advisory only.  Real people on the ground have to make the decision as to whether or not some theme is actually useful or just a shadow artifact."  He goes on to mention how another tool could theoretically connect those themes to resources across the Internet for further reading.  "Of course, none of this has ever been done, so it may all be in the realm of puresscience fiction.  But the pieces are there, and sooner or later somebody will put them all togehter.  How about you?"

It will be amazing to see what happens however you do it.  Please keep us posted!

Lucas Cioffi
QiqoChat | Lead Software Engineer
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On Tue, Dec 21, 2021 at 11:16 AM Thomas Herrmann via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org<mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
Hi
I have a client who is curious to have a large meeting, maybe OST with up to 2400 participants. Youth from schools in one of Swedens major cities, topic around democracy, inclusion, participation etc. I know large groups have been working together in Qiqo and other software, but sooo large?! A possibility of course is to divide into some “smaller” meetings…
Any experiences? Ideas? Out there?
All the best to you all ❤
Thomas Herrmann
Open Space Consulting AB

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