Following up Open Space discussion 22,March 2006
Posted by infomlbunyipau in Uncategorized.trackback
Following the frustrating experience of listening to the Session 6 Open Space discussion I decided that I needed to learn more about it. That is in spite of the fact that I cannot see any possibility of making use of the technique at the moment.
There is definitely a bit of the Butterfly in my learning style. Still it has paid dividens many times in my career. Having discovered the excitement and transformational power of learning collaboratively at the end of my career is not stopping me from wanting to get involved and continue to contribute as best I can.
There is a fascinating amount of material on Open Space technology out there. So If you were new to it too and want to dig a bit deeper you might try some of these links.
Open Space Technology is an article at www.co-intelligence.org that provides a quick overview of the discipline. A couple of Book titles and web links complete the page.
The originator of Open Space technology is Michael Herman who has a website with a Blog which describes the fantastic projects that he and his team are involved with. (Inspirational reading for me)
By way of something completely different I enjoyed the gentle rant at www.linuxjournal.com. Googleing can be fun!!
The Wikipedia article on ‘Open Space Conference’ was not the clearest for me. However the links at the bottom of the article are interesting especially the links to Lisa Heft’s web site which were worth following.
1. Lisa Heft’s article Opening Space for Collaboration and Communication with Open Space Technology not only covers the positive but also looks at pitfalls and dealing with them.
2. The Galley of photographs at bring it all alive for a visual learner like me.
To use Open Space conference technology in a virtual environment the German Change Facilitator Gabriela Ender has developed a web (2.0?) application. It could be a delightful way to work with the geographically dispersed. Possibly a tool for Jay to use to convene an Unconference on Informal Learning and web 2.0 for all the alumini of say InformL Unworkshops 1 to 6. Now that could be a great experience.
You got some bad info. The originator of Open Space is Harrison Owen. It’s a great take on putting a new spin on conversation.
jay
Opps! My mistake. Now I have to work out how that happened. Thanks for the correction.
Now that I have been pointed in the correct direction I found plenty to read at his web site http://www.openspaceworld.com/literature.htm.
One of his early works “Riding the Tiger – Doing business in a transforming world” which contains his Brief user guide is available as a free pdf file.