chris corrigan and i have just finished a little project that we want to share with you because, after all, it's yours.
let me explain...
in late 2001, i got a bit behind on list emails. then i managed to catch up, all except for what seemed really juicy... all of that self-org and spirit stuff. by the time i got 'round to that stuff, others had already told me it was gold, and sure enough i didn't even make it through the first message before i went cutting and pasting the contents into a word document... which is a long way from my normal read-and-delete sort of mode. did i say this was already 1:00am when i started reading?
well, this stuff kept me gripped for most of the night and all the next day. got to be such a puzzle, fitting so many threads back together into one stream. in the end, i fired off an email to chris, with 80-some pages attached. back and forth, back and forth, again in the middle of the night, he agrees to help check my sanity and prepare this thing for presentation. and something just more than one week and many messages later, we have the following to present to you. the confluence of various forms of midnight madness... and the writing of 37 ost practitioners from around the world. see below for the list of names.
we wrote a bit more of an explanation in a short introduction, minus this gripping little tale, but the rest is all OSLIST... and like they said, the stuff is gold, well yellow, for community, anyway... and seems the perfect simple balance to the user's guide for running short training sessions and browsing the night before openings. something to give new recruits and anxious veterans a dose of the depth that is this practice and this community and this learning list.
all that said, the cover page is attached (manufactured and delivered virus free from this macintosh pilot, i might add). and now the only question is what to do with the rest...
suffice it to say that we didn't find anything obviously incriminating in what we've compiled and we are hoping that it's safe to assume that whatever you do here in front of an audience of 300+ from all continents is already pretty darned public. even so, if you find something here attributed to you that *really* needs fixing (beyond minor typing and spelling stuff that we figure just come with the email territory) then we'll be glad to make it right and reissue. we didn't edit or add to any of your postings, just cleaned up formatting, quoting, etc. and fit them all together.
so you have the cover and the authors list below as your invitation... funny how everything is getting to be an invitation around here...
...i think you can click this link: http://www.globalchicago.net/ost/nonguide5.pdf to download the whole document... which should download in about 1 minute, pdf format, totally virusproof and wonderful. if that doesn't work, try this page http://www.globalchicago.net/ost/nonguide.html.
myself, i'm looking forward to traveling with you all in this new printable/packable form... and if this starts a legal firestorm here, i'm gonna swear i found the thing in a dumpster on 57th street.
so turn on the printer and put on the tea...
with many thanks to all, michael (and chris)
p.s. chris and i considered a little oslist art contest as a way to give this a little more color, but maybe we leave it as a simple invitation to send along any (small) images that you think might fit in somewhere. we'll paste them in as we're able, for a short while... and then it's over and done.
--
Michael Herman
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610
312-280-7838 voice
312-280-7837 fax
http://www.michaelherman.com
...an invitation.
just for the record... the fine print above says: copyright 2002,
open space institute. not for sale. share freely, like good
tea, with friends and colleagues everywhere.
Birgitt Williams, North Carolina, USA mailto:birg...@mindspring.com
Harrison Owen, Maryland, USA mailto:owe...@mindspring.com
Larry Peterson, Ontario, Canada mailto:la...@spiritedorg.com
Winston Kinch, Ontario, Canada mailto:ki...@sympatico.ca
Tim Sullivan, British Columbia, Canada mailto:tim.sulli...@gems5.gov.bc.ca
Nino Novak, Germany mailto:nino.no...@tuebingen.netsurf.de
Kenoli Oleari, California, USA mailto:ken...@igc.org
Chris Corrigan, British Columbia, Canada mailto:ch...@chriscorrigan.com
J. Paul Everett, Washington, USA mailto:jpesee...@aol.com
Joelle Lyons Everett, Washington, USA mailto:jleshel...@aol.com
Jeff Aitken, California, USA mailto:j...@svn.net
Prasad Kaipa, California and India: mailto:pka...@aol.com
Michael Herman, Chicago, USA mailto:mher...@globalchicago.net
Reinhard Kuchenmueller, Munich, Germany mailto:m...@visuelle-protokolle.de
Jim Metcalf, Ontario, Canada mailto:stjoh...@altelco.net
Julie Smith, Alaska, USA mailto:jsm...@mosquitonet.com
Judi Richardson, Nova Scotia, Canada mailto:richa...@akerley.nscc.ns.ca
Glory Ressler, Ontario Canada mailto:on.the.e...@sympatico.ca
John Engle, Haiti: mailto:englej...@hotmail.com
Michael M Pannwitz, Berlin, Germany mailto:mmpa...@snafu.de
Ralph Copleman, New Jersey, USA mailto:ra...@earthdreams.net
Artur Silva, Portugal mailto:artsi...@mail.eunet.pt
Fr Brian Bainbridge, Melbourne, Australia mailto:bria...@mira.net
Florian Fisher, Berlin, Germany mailto:florianfisc...@ff-wey.com
Meg Salter, Ontario, Canada mailto:meg.sal...@sympatico.ca
Peggy Holman, Washington, USA mailto:pe...@opencirclecompany.com
Michael Molenaar, Tilburg, Holland mailto:michael.molen...@wxs.nl
Toni Petrinovich, Washington, USA mailto:sac...@anacortes.net
Eric Lilius, Ontario Canada mailto:elil...@halhinet.on.ca
Eiwor Backelund, Sweden mailto:eiwor.backel...@centerpartiet.se
Chris Weaver, North Carolina, USA mailto:ch...@springbranch.net
Denis Hitchens, Australia mailto:deni...@alphalink.com.au
Tova Averbuch, Israel mailto:averb...@post.tau.ac.il
Ken West, California, USA mailto:z...@cwo.com
Naomi Kahane, Quebec, Canada mailto:ns_k...@alcor.concordia.ca
Bernhard Weber, Austria and Mozambique mailto:wb-traincons...@gmx.net
Robert Chaffe, Victoria, Australia mailto:robert.cha...@nre.vic.gov.au
okay, special bonus... i throw in a bit of the introduction:
Introduction
Like Open Space itself, this document was discovered, not created. Indeed, this conversation has been around for a long time, online and elsewhere. Its discovery and publication here is offered in support of the worldwide conversation and practitioner community that is Open Space Technology.
Paired with Harrison Owen's Open Space Technology, A User's Guide, it seems to form a simple but powerful literary springboard for training workshops and practitioner support groups. Unlike the Guide, however, this Non-Guide doesn't tell you how to 'do' it. What you'll find here are clues and support for the non-doing.
In this way, it is an invitation to go deeper... to invite, to experiment, to reflect and to invite again, deeper and deeper, organizing for yourself(ves) as you go. As you'll see, it's all about the self-organizing spirit that is manifesting everywhere in organizations that work, in open space. And, yes, it's just a conversation, but how does it stir you?
We describe Open Space Technology as the energy of a good coffee break,
the art of finding one more thing to NOT do, an invitation to maximize
learning and contribution, and a simple, powerful way to raise spirit and
catalyze self-organization. For more about OST, see the Appendix,
but for now, suffice it to say that our online practitioner conversations
have been -- and been about -- all of this, and more....
