OpenSpace

Update: Some of us met after the Interwiki Workshop and agreed to organize a RecentChangesCamp in Portland in late January or early February that would use Open Space Technology as it is written as an experiment to see how much of it can be used at WikiSym 2006. The idea is to have it be as low cost as possible.

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For future WikiSyms it would be great to see how we could use more Open Space. Join us for the OpenSpace on Wiki BOF, convened by TedErnst Monday at 14:15 in the lobby outside the California room.

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Open Space Technology is a way of running meetings or conferences (see http://openspaceworld.org, http://www.communitywiki.org/en/OpenSpace, or http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?OpenSpaceTechnology). Many people feel it makes them much more producive and happy when a conference is run this way.

So, what does it mean to approach a standard conference like WikiSym from an OpenSpace perspective? The Law of Two Feet is a big part of this for me. The Law of Two Feet is more like the Law of Gravity than the Seatbelt Law. You can try to break it, but you sure as heck better take it into account. For me the Law of Two Feet says that if I'm not learning or growing or contributing, I have a responsibility to myself (and others) to do something about it. This might mean refocusing internally or it might mean speaking up or it might mean moving my body somewhere else.

Another aspect of OpenSpace is that sessions are convened by anyone, simply by posting them on the AgendaWall. The birds of a feather sessions (BOFs) for WikiSym are like this. Please feel free to convene one of your own at any time.

Or you might just see me in the pool or in a comfy chair somewhere. Please feel free to stop by on the way to wherever you're going. If something juicy comes up, we can document it as if it was a real part of the conference, which of course it is. :-)

By the way, our WikiVanning is close to an actual open space event. Check out our work there as well.

Moved thoughts about academic and community nature of this converence moved to CommunityAcademic

OpenSpaceSessionNotes