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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Stella – Wonderful addition to the discussion. Space/Time fabric for sure—the warp and woof of Open Space! Which set me thinking once again (another bad sign </span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Wingdings;color:#1F497D'>J</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>) – all about why the 5<sup>th</sup> Principle remained a hidden quantity for so long. All the other Principles share a common characteristic of indeterminacy. In advance, we simply don’t know who is coming, what will happen, when it will start… but as long as Open Space is understood to be primarily and method and an event, we do know (or at least hope we know) WHERE it will take place. Once you cross that magic portal called the venue door all that certainty vanishes. If Open Space is in fact a natural phenomenon with multiple (and indeterminate) appearances in our daily lives you just can’t tell where it will pop up! NOW we need the 5<sup>th</sup> Principle!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Crossing that door, for me, is the natural and necessary next step in our Open Space journey. Doubtless there will always be “events” – but I think we will come to understand them as mere sideshows to the main attraction -- the opening of space in the world around us. All of which brings us to an interesting question. Do we want to be players?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I mean – when space opens naturally are there things that we might do or be which will enable that space to be more vibrant and productive? I guess that might sound a little vague, but I think we will find many very concrete applications. For example I was talking to a friend the other day who happened to be in the middle of Tiananmen Square for all the excitement. She is an American who speaks fluent Chinese, and her Chinese friends had invited here to join them as a “democracy expert.” There in the midst of all that swirling activity (talk about Open Space) she spoke to an expanding circle of folks and apparently they were entranced, not having heard too much about Democracy in positive terms recently. Good and exciting – but what if she had taken what we now know about “facilitating Open Space” and used that to convert a lecture/discussion situation into an experiential occasion – Doing Democracy, not just talking about it? And how could she do that?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Pretty simple I think – Start by asking the group members to back up and expand the circle, open the space… and then invite them to look around that circle into the eyes of strangers and friends… well you could fill in the rest. Would it work? What would the effect be? Who knows??? But we didn’t have a clue what was really going to happen the first time we opened space 25 years ago. That’s what made it fun and exciting. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Some folks have been asking a while back about what’s next after Open Space. The answer may well be – A lot more Open Space. I think the door is now open… Coming?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Harrison <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Harrison Owen<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>7808 River Falls Dr.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Potomac, MD 20854<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>USA<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Phone 301-365-2093<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>www.openspaceworld.com<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:#1F497D'>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:<a href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org">http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Stella Duffy<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, May 30, 2011 4:41 AM<br><b>To:</b> oslist@lists.openspacetech.org<br><b>Subject:</b> [OSList] Re : The 5th Principle - Why I think it is Important (Harrison Owen)<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>The 5th Principle is not only important, it’s vital.<br>In 1905, Hermann Minkowski, a mathematical physicist (who taught Einstein) realised that the understanding of time needed space to define it, and that the understanding of space needed time to define it. He created the concept of spacetime – the 3 dimensions of space combined with the 4th dimension of time.<br>It can be written like this : (+, +, +, <i>) or like this : (</i>-, -, -, +).<br>He published his paper on this idea in 1908.<br>Using Minkowski’s concept of spacetime, Einstein made the leap from the Special Theory of Relativity to the General Theory of Relativity. Acknowledging the place/space is vital. <br><br>In a marvellous piece of synchronicity, I’m about to leave for the Hay Literature Festival to discuss this concept, and the story I wrote based on this concept, in a panel with two writers and three physicists. The story is called Everything is Moving, Everything is Joined – both because that is a physical/physics-based truth, and because Ralph Copleman wrote the piece called Everything is Moving that was posted here last year and I loved it so much. <br><br>Stella x</span> <o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>