hi everyone.
are others familiar with david graeber? his story is in a prominent place in
today's local newspaper in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a small and pretty
conservative city.
he's being published everywhere and apparently is considered by academic's
in high places to be among the "most promising young anthropologists."
and, Yale University has just denied him tenure.
here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Graeber
for me, he's pointing to open space and the ideas that come with it. his
"Anarchy in the 21st Century" is particularly interesting.
john
http://circlesofchange.com participatory learning & leadership in Haiti
http://johnengle.net Open Space facilitation
email: j...@johnengle.net
telephone: 202-236-6532
P.O. Box 337
Hershey, PA 17033
From: Zelle Nelson <ze...@knowplacelikehome.com>
Reply-To: OSLIST <osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu>
To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu
Subject: Re: academic conferences?
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2005 20:35:45 -0400
Hi Ted,
We've done two different modifications/additions to Open Space to provide
opportunities to those who wish to present information (primarily one-way
communication) at an Open Space meeting or conference (which thrives in
two-way or multiple person communication).
One is invite one-way communication in conjunction with regular Open Space
topics and provide designated topic postings labeled as one-way
communication sessions or idea presentation topics or storytelling topics.
These topics are posted like any other Open Space topic, but we used a
different shaped Post-it note (it looked like a flower) to indicate to the
marketplace that topics with the special post-it indicated one-way
communication. People who needed special equipment to give their
presentation made arrangements before the meeting to have the necessary
equipment available. We also set aside a specific breakout room to
accommodate any equipment needs. What happened during most of the one-way
communication topics, was that the speaker would talk for half the session
and then open the topic up for discussion that continued on like most Open
Space topics do. Another phenomenon was that when speakers did not allow
for discussion, most people used there two feet and left after it was clear
that there would be no discussion forthcoming.
Another way we set things up was an Open Space for a corporate client in
which Open Space was used to hold their semi-annual meeting which
traditionally included an outside supplier providing content for review.
Prior to the group experiencing Open Space, the supplier would give Power
Point presentations - most including over 100 slides of data.
The Open Space was a two day event with the first day dedicated to
interacting with the supplier. The second day was to focus on team
interaction and communication. Our clients and the suppliers were free to
post any topic during any session just as in regular OS. We asked the 3
suppliers attending the meeting each to post their topic (planned as a
one-way communication session) multiple times during the Open Space. We
arranged the multiple sessions on the same topic to ensure that each member
of our client's team would have an opportunity to listen to the crucial
information provided by the suppliers, while still having the freedom of
the Law of Two Feet.
The day before the Open Space began we learned that one of the suppliers
scheduled to attend the meeting could not make it. He did however arrange a
time to call into our meeting, go over his Power Point slides by phone,
with our client contact taking care of advancing each slide as the supplier
finished what he wanted to say. The only time the supplier could call in
was after we were to open the space.
So on the day, we didn't really know what would happen. We opened the space
as usual, had time for one session and then took a break from Open Space so
that the whole 40 person client team, along with the supplier's two
colleagues could experience the 100+ slide Power Point presentation. The
supplier began his presentation and slowly people began to leave the room.
The law of two feet had been introduced and people used it. The suppliers
always gave copies of their presentations to our client's team members, so
sitting through the actual presentation was not as valuable as informal
conversations, using the time to check voicemail and email, or just taking
a break. By the time the presentation was over there were about 10 people
still in the room. As always the supplier encouraged questions throughout,
and again asked for questions at the end. There were a few along the way
and one or two questions at the end.
We then moved back into OS sessions. After seeing what had happened to
their colleague, the two suppliers who were on site did something they had
not ever done with the limited time they had in front of their client. They
sat down and talked with them, answered questions and really got to know
for the first time who their clients really were. The same happened for our
client's team members. One of the suppliers extended his trip to stay for
the second day to experience more Open Space.
At the end of most every Open Space we ask in the closing circle, "What
worked? What didn't? and How could we improve for next time?"
Most everyone rated the meeting a 10 out of 10 and those that didn't rated
it a 9 out of 10 because of the power point presentation they had sat
through. Both our client and the suppliers remarked at how much they had
gained from sitting down and really talking. One woman on our client's team
said, "I wouldn't do half the job I do without the data you (the suppliers)
provide in your Power Point deck. It's like a Bible for me. But, the depth
of information and the level of questions I could ask being in Open Space
made the data so much more valuable. I really got a chance to ask the
questions I wanted to ask, and I felt like I wasn't taking up other's time.
It was fantastic!"
The two ways we created to allow for one-way communication to be present
during Open Space really worked well.
Hope this helps.
with grace and love,
Zelle
************
Zelle Nelson
Engaging the Soul at Work/Know Place Like Home/State of Grace Document
www.stateofgracedocument.com
ze...@maureenandzelle.com
office - 001.828.693.0802
mobile - 001.847.951.7030
Isle of Skye
2021 Greenville Hwy
Flat Rock, NC 28731
USA
Ted Ernst wrote:
So I've posted a bit about my travels in the WikiVan to WikiSym. Don't
remember if I talked about my plan to be in open space at a non-open space
conference. We've now finished a day and a half and I've realized that
there's a function to conferences that I wasn't aware of, the academic
conference with juried paper presentations. In this case the wiki
community can be definied as including both academics and non-academics
(free software developers, corportate developers, community organizer
administrators, etc). I find open space to be fantastic for
collaboratoion, wihch is what wiki is so good at, so open space would seem
to be a great fit. Pure open space doesn't give you that scheduled paper
talk from a selectifly chosen paper. And this is seen as important for
academic careers (I think). Anyone had any experience with this type of
situation/mixture/requirements of academics?
I had a great conversation today with the chair of the program committee.
I didn't seek him out but have been very open with my thoughts on the
conference wiki and he came to see me. I found him extremely supportive
of the idea of opening more space. The Birds of a Feather times
(evenings) are really open space by another name, and this evening people
are going like gangbusters, hours after the official program ended. Very
cool. Anyway, he's very open to working out a way that non-corporate,
non-academics can get a much reduced rate (this conf is $450 for me!) and
he's open to having more open space, in some fashion at least. Would be
great to pass on some stories to him from this list (or point me to the
archives or website if stuff is already there).
Thanks!
peace,
ted
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