I am really fascinated by the way the techie/geek community has apparently discovered OS. Wonderful! And now I am waiting for the first group to fully understand what a marvelous vehicle OS is for "real work" -- as in creating a system and such.
Personally I have had only one such experience, and that was more than a few years ago, but it was potent. The scene was that a company needed to create a piece of software for a rather esoteric manufacturing process. I can't even remember what they called the process, let alone what it did. In any event it was definitely something for which off the shelf software would do nothing. Pure custom job, so to speak. Custom design is never cheap and the management was in a truly hard place. They really could not afford to do it, and they really couldn't afford not to do it. I don't remember how I got involved, but the best part was that everybody had run out of options, which removed any necessity to "sell" Open Space. They were desperate. To make a long story short, we invited everybody who cared about this venture, which turned out to be a lot of people, and not just the usual suspects. Two and one half days later, they had the package or at least enough of a working model so that they knew where they were going and how to get there. The costs were so ridiculously low that nobody could believe it, and beyond the actual software they also had what in any other situation would be called a co-design team composed of all interested parties. This really paid off when it came to working out the bugs because the package belonged to everybody which meant that the normal blame/shame game never happened. I can't remember the company or even any of the people -- but I surely remember the gathering, and it seems to me that it is about time to do it all again. Might even make some real money if you could regularly slice 50-80% off of development time! :-) Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Diana Larsen Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 12:13 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: The perfect follow-up On Tuesday I opened two days of space for Agile Open Northwest 2007, a new all-open space conference for people involved in developing software using a group of methods and approaches called "Agile." From the comments I heard during the OS and in the closing circle, everyone had a lovely, energizing and satisfying time. I did too, except I belong to the Agile community and, as space holder, couldn't/ didn't attend any of the luscious sessions everyone else proposed. So, I fully experienced the rationale behind the suggestion that we don't hold space for our own communities and organizations. I _really_ wanted to attend some of the sessions. (e.g., a view of organizational change through Dr. Suess' "Green Eggs & Ham"...oh mama!...on popular demand, the host offered it twice!) And, I was involved full-time as a space holder, question bouncer ("I understand...and what would you like to have happen about that?"), facilities liaison, picker-upper, tea sipper, etc., etc. I laughed as I re-read Ralph's list of things to do while holding space. What do I do? Among things already mentioned, I read this list. I also felt like a flower as the butterflies would flit over to me, land, say a few words, and fly away again. And, I have received the perfect gift to follow my space-holding experience. The opportunity to attend another open space tomorrow as a participant! Thank you, Brendan, Ted and other organizers of RecentChanges Camp! You have perfect timing for me. I look forward to sitting in sessions with more of "my people," geeks and community builders. :-) Diana Diana Larsen 503-288-3550 www.futureworksconsulting.com co-author, "Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great!" Amazon Best Books of 2006 Top Ten Editors' Picks: computer & internet http://tinyurl.com/ynacvb * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist