It seems strange to go to an Open Space conference and then complain about the format. I try to help the sponsors to make the invitations clear about what people can expect from the format; it seems to work especially well when sponsors undertsand the process themselves and are able to add some bits about what could come of such a novel idea. Good invitations also remind people to prepare for the format: come with your questions and curiosity and prepare to listen and learn from unexpected places...that sort of thing.
<br><br>I have no doubt Peggy that you and Stephen prepared a great invitation and, as you say, the event is something of a known quantity by now. So that makes it even stranger when someone tells me at the end that they spent a whole day not enjoying themselves. I'm not even sure what I can do with feedback like
that.other than shrug and accept the fact that some people will have miserable days regardless of what we can do for them.<br><br>The flip side of course is that I have experienced many luminaries who just thrive in Open Space. These include Cabinet ministers and other politicians, noted speakers and authors and others who usually find themselves at the podium rather than in the audience. My favourite was Lyman Orton, the founder of the Orton Foundation. I was working with his foundation last year on an Open Space. He wanted to say a few remarks at the beginning of the action planning day, and being the founder, the organizer was pretty insistent that I give him time. I did so and was glad for it. He was so jazzed on Open Space that he basically opened the action day such that all I had to was walk into the circle and invite folks to get down to it. His invitation to action was stirring and he concluded his remarks by writing a session topic himself and putting it on the wall. Not much I can do with that kind of feedback either, except get out of the way.
<br><br>Cheers,<br><br>Chris<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 8/19/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Peggy Holman</b> <<a href="mailto:peggy@opencirclecompany.com">peggy@opencirclecompany.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div vlink="blue" link="blue" bgcolor="white" lang="EN-US">
<div>Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I do think the personal
touch, from someone, matters. That's what I took from Ralph and Deborah's
stories. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>BTW, there was a facebook for the event. The roster is here: <a href="http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/index.php/Jtm-dc-roster" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/index.php/Jtm-dc-roster
</a>;
participants got bios and pictures in advance. I've been doing that with
quite a few events and it does a great job of giving people a heads up on who is
in the room.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>appreciatively,</div><span class="sg">
<div>Peggy</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
</span><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="q">
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
<b>From:</b>
<a title="hhowen@verizon.net" href="mailto:hhowen@verizon.net" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Harrison Owen</a>
</div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>To:</b> <a title="OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a>
</div></span><div><span class="e" id="q_1147f1bdd060fae0_4">
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, August 19, 2007 8:08
AM</div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Subject:</b> [OSLIST] FW: The challenge of
"luminaries"</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;">Deborah – I think
your idea of a "facebook" sent out in advance is a great one. And it would
avoid doing a "round the circle" at the beginning, which I personally find
less than useful for two reasons. First it delays the actual start when people
go to work – and this is the most important consideration for me. Secondly,
all those names and needs/wants/desires badly confuses this old mind. After
the first two or three I just hit "overload." For our up coming OSONOS
by the Sea I sent out a full participant list and invited people to add
whatever information/requests they might want. Some people chose to remain a
mystery (great!) and others wrote a whole bunch. How much of this actually
gets read I don't know, but a number of folks said it was useful and fun.
Since email addresses were also included, the party started early, which was
wonderful.</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;">I am a little less
enthusiastic about special guided tours done by the facilitator – though it is
certainly a nice idea. I find one of the great things about an Open Space is
the speed with which new comers are included – some of this just happens on
its own, and in other cases participants will notice a stranger looking a
little lost and take them under their wing. I really like that as it serves to
build and bond the community. If the lost guest is "important" having some
"just plain folk" do the job can be wonderful. And who knows a useful
connection could be made. At most I (as the facilitator) might suggest to one
of the "older" participants that "so and so" looks a little lost – maybe you
could take them on a tour – sort of thing. That way I can hold the space and
members of the community take active responsibility for the inclusion. Win/Win
– I think.</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;">Harrison</span></font><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;">
</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;" align="center"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext;">
<hr align="center" size="2" width="100%">
</span></font></div>
<p><b><font color="black" face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; color: windowtext; font-family: Tahoma;">From:</span></font></b><font color="black" face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: windowtext; font-family: Tahoma;">
OSLIST [mailto:<a href="mailto:OSLIST@">OSLIST@</a><a href="http://LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a>] <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">
On Behalf Of </span></b>Deborah Hartmann<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Sunday, August 19, 2007 10:34
AM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> OSLIST@<a href="http://LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">
Subject:</span></b> Re: The challenge of
"luminaries"</span></font><font color="black"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></font></p></div>
<p><font color="#333399" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="#333399" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hello Kerry:<br><br>> address their presence during
the introduction<br><br>I hesitate to address the presence of particular
people during the introduction. I see it as a "democratizing circle" and as
such, I strive to communicate the message that we are all equals, and so we
are equally responsible for our experience of the event. No matter whether we
specify that "luminaries" are equal to everyone else, we's negate this by
simply naming them and not everyone else!<br><br>Here's an idea: Something
that emerged at RoCoCo was a round of "needs and offers", though it happened
too late, in the opinion of many. We went around the circle stating what we
needed (ideas, collaborators, hardware, software) and our offers (some offered
skills, resources, collaborative sites, and others answered just-stated needs,
ex: "I have an old computer like that, let's talk"). This would allow
luminaries to introduce themselves, equally with others, allow them (if they
choose) to align themselves as members of this OST event's "people". I think
attendance at this activity would need to be voluntary, as it takes some time
and perhaps people would rather network informally. This would have been
useful to us, as we had decided not to call out any particular participants in
the opening.<br><br>I'm not sure where this fits... we thought that if we'd
done this at the start, people would have had an idea of who was there and how
they could help them. Ex: If I'd know people from the citizen journalism
movement were present, I would have posted a session: how is Citizen
Journalism changing the face of news? But as it was, I only discovered their
presence afterwards. <br><br>Ideas: Perhaps, do it as part of a social the
prior evening, before we open the space? Another idea was a "needs and offers"
wiki page or wall - the problem being that using the wall for this removes the
human face from the transaction. We could encourage people to do this at
registration, so we could browse the list of who's coming and their
needs/offers (sometimes this happens with BarCamps). Hey, could a facebook
group be used for this?!! This activity would have been particularly useful
for our type of OST - it was not so much a "themed" event as a "community
gathering" event - a particular flavour of OST I'm seeing a lot in the Tech
community now. "The right people" are the ones who want to be part of the
community, in general - and it's often a big surprise what interests and
skills they bring! It's as if a "community gathering" OST is simply a
coalescence at a particular time/place of a continual OST event which is the
community itself.<br><br>deb<br><br>kerry napuk wrote:
</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><font color="#333399" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hi Peggy <br><br>When faced
with "luminaries," experts, speakers et al, maybe it would help to address
their presence during the introduction. A facilitator could note their
valued participation and opportunity to be on equal terms with an audience,
experiencing the need to discuss and exchange views rather than be lectured
at. <br><br>It might even be fun! <br><br>Cheers <br><br>Kerry <br>Edinburgh
<br><a href="http://www.openfutures.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">www.openfutures.com</a> <br><br>*
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<p style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><font color="#333399" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p><pre><font color="#333399" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
-- </span></font></pre><pre><font color="#333399" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></font></pre><pre><font color="#333399" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Deborah Hartmann
</span></font></pre><pre><font color="#333399" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Agile Process Coach</span></font></pre><pre><font color="#333399" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
<a href="http://deborah.hartmann.net" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">deborah.hartmann.net</a></span></font></pre><pre><font color="#333399" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
mobile: <span onmouseup="SetCallButtonPressed(this, 0,0)" onmousedown="SetCallButtonPressed(this, 1,0)" onmouseover="SetCallButton(this, 1,0);skype_active=CheckCallButton(this);" onmouseout="SetCallButton(this, 0,0);HideSkypeMenu();" class="skype_tb_injection" id="__skype_highlight_id">
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></font></pre><pre><font color="#333399" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">"Learn the principle, </span></font></pre><pre><font color="#333399" face="Courier New" size="2">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">abide by the principle, and </span></font></pre><pre><font color="#333399" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">dissolve the principle." </span></font></pre><pre><font color="#333399" face="Courier New" size="2">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">-- Bruce Lee</span></font></pre></div>*
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