<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=4>Dictionaries seem to vary. It seems that the germane definition here would be a shift. If you use it in a religious sense you get penance but really a penance is an exercise in atoning for an original mistake or the taking of a wrong direction. <BR>
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I would suspect that the literal sense of the word is more useful to us which is to say a 'shift'. Open space represents a real shift in mindset and an opening to possibilities not yet seen. <BR>
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There is no need, I think, to attach the negative connotations which it has perhaps acquired through historic use of the word, rather than what the original greek means.<BR>
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Meta seems to refer to underlying or fundamental processes. <BR>
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There is a member of the Open Space community who has a title in her organization of Manager of Metalearning. Pretty cool, right?<BR>
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Esther<BR>
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Esther Ewing<BR>
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