At the recent OSonOSinOZ Peggy Holman posted a topic on "Giving Back". A number of us gathered to look at the dynamic of giving in the context of the OS community. In a wide ranging discussion we touched on a number of key points:
* That open space is embodied with a spirit of generosity * That the process of giving and serving has unexpected benefits personally and for the community * That reciprocity within a spirit of generosity is not an transaction of "I give to you, you give to me" rather like the breath of life it is an act of giving forward, giving unconditionally * That receiving is a more challenging prospect that giving On a practical level, we talked about the generosity of the OSLIST as a key community resource of the OS community. Some questions we wanted to share with our community are * Are there barriers to giving and receiving in the OS community? * Where is our marketplace for giving to care for and strengthen the OS community? * How to us each open space programme/interaction as an invitation to open more space? * How do we model generosity and sharing information? An on a really practical level we identified a couple of things that would make a difference to the care of the community and extending the initiation to open space: * Finding an easy way to navigate to OS stories with similar themes on the OSLIST or in other place * Extending the OS resources into a bigger range of languages - e.g. Haitian, Mandarin How does each of us live in that spirit of generosity, and how do we strengthen our practice of that generous spirit. Anne Pattillo PO Box 683 Wellington Tel: +64 4 4732702