I have found the conversation on "modified open space" incredibly rich with learning for me and for that I thank every one of you who contributed. I also love it when we have a really good conversation on the list, certainly giving me the sense of "virtual community".
For me, at this point in the conversation, I think I would be preferred to be thought of as a "purist" (only because no one has ever called me "pure" before and I kind of like to try new identities :-) --actually my best friend Michelle once gave me a wonderful dreamcatcher that had two white beads on it. There had been three. They stood for purity. Her husband said that she shouldn't get this dream catcher for me because one of the beads was broken. She smiled and thought it was quite alright---it was for Birgitt after all :-)) Okay, humour aside. The following is where my own thinking and being is at regarding "modified open space", the position I will come from for now, until some learning or other causes me to think differently. I will hold tight to a position that Open Space Technology is or is not---there is no modified Open Space Technology. This whole wonderful universe is Open Space. Within that is chaos and the formation of order. It is my belief that at some point in our future, as a human species, we will really be able to be emergent in our way of organizing ourselves and we will be able to not only cope with vast amounts of chaos, but to actually embrace it. Highly evolved beings today, in increasing numbers can already do so. Some beings are still at a stage in their evolution of needing a lot of order in order to survive and live. There are a growing number of human beings who no longer need this, and yet who are not yet evolved to a point where they can free-float in chaos for long periods of time. I personally am expanding my ability to free-float in chaos for ever increasing periods of time, but I recognize that I am not able to do so for these long periods of time without "a touchstone" to ground me. I am recognizing that the amount of "touchstone" that increasing numbers of us need is definitely not a bunch of rules and definitely not a command and control situation of organization, but IS STRONGLY CONNECTED TO SACRED GEOMETRY. Okay, that is my personal opinion based on my personal experience. So, what is SACRED GEOMETRY to me in this??? Some archetypal need being met??? For me, this is where Open Space TECHNOLOGY comes in at this point in our evolution as a human species. If we assume that everything IS in OPEN SPACE, then what we are doing with Open Space Technology is NOT CREATING OPEN SPACE (how arrogant I was when I had those thoughts---only yesterday) but simply bounding some of that great wonderful juicy universal open space with a circle, which is an element of sacred geometry. With that simple bounding of the circle, we as human beings that need a "touchstone" in the midst of the chaos can GROUND ourselves enough to stay out of FEAR mode and allow our inherent creativity, innovation, wonder, imagination, zest for life unfold and emerge. Looked at this way, the circle is created with the "givens" including theme for that particular space, the four principles, and the one law. Period. The circle may be quite large or quite small, it matters not. Only that the givens that help to bound the space are reflective of the truth of the organization. And when the givens are truthfully stated, the space bounded for wonder, creativity, imagination, and innovation has the chance of being a container for Safe Space----only because it is about truth (and truth is such a rare commodity in our organizations and yet truth is a significant component of the way of Spirit). For me, there is integrity (a whole) in this. It IS. It cannot be modified. Integrity IS. So, is there room for great diversity and creativity? For sure!!! The number of "givens" about doing Open Space Technology are kept to their simplest form. So long as we stay true to the integrity of Open Space Technology, we will each have our own style and use it in creative ways.With the integrity in place, it is still Open Space Technology, for which Harrison Owen should be given credit. Is there room to learn from Open Space Technology and use those learnings to create something different. For sure!!! Just don't call it Open Space. Or, if you really are using all of Harrison's development and just naming it differently, courtesy calls for acknowledging Harrison's work and saying you revamped it. Just because it isn't copy righted doesn't mean that the rules about plagarism don't apply. There is just enough chaos within the circle bounded by Open Space Technology for us to get really "juiced" with creativity and hope, but not "fried" by too much chaos. There is more chaos immediately surrounding the circle bounded by Open Space Technology. We can also go there and create and birth the new, including the new bounding for another Open Space. So....how does that sound?? With great gratitude to each of you for being you, Birgitt