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Open Space Resources

March 11, 2006 By Facilitation, Open Space

As I have been updating my website and moving things around I have finally gotten to re-organizing the Open Space Resources page.   The page now contains resources on the nuts and bolts of of Open Space and deeper learning organized by practice area.   There are also links to articles, books, stories and internet resources to support practice and learning about Open Space.

I’ll continue to update the page (having it in a wiki makes that a LOT easier) and I’ll be adding a lot more stories of my own.   I’m also looking at giving that page it’s own RSS feed soe folks can track changes.   Feel free to stop by and use what you can.

RIP Ali Farka Toure

March 11, 2006 By Uncategorized 2 Comments

Ali Farka Toure has died.

I missed seeing him play, but have loved his music since first hearing it.   He was a blues player and a griot and a link to a deep source.

mp3: Ali Farka Toure – Allah Uya

MySpace and the needs of youth

March 10, 2006 By Youth 3 Comments

My buddy Jon Husband today blogged a fascinating piece by danah boyd on why and how youth are using MySpace. Her conclusion…

Youth are not creating digital publics to scare parents – they are doing so because they need youth space, a place to gather and see and be seen by peers. Publics are critical to the coming-of-age narrative because they provide the framework for building cultural knowledge. Restricting youth to controlled spaces typically results in rebellion and the destruction of trust. Of course, for a parent, letting go and allowing youth to navigate risks is terrifying. Unfortunately, it’s necessary for youth to mature.

Youth are in constant need of spaces, both physical and virtual, and it is the practice of western societies to generally deny them those spaces for reasons of trust and control. I’m interested in how youth are creating space despite the efforts of adults to prevent them for having it.

I’ve written before about the Aboriginal youth I know who are a part of Building Our Legacy Together, a network dedicated to staying connected, supporting each other’s work for bringing a new community-based youth leadership voice to Aboriginal communities in BC. These guys are meeting online all the time, mostly using MSN and other forums and through various websites and message boards.

Any one working with youth networks needs to know how these modes work and needs to find ways of supporting and participating with them.

A world of invitation

March 9, 2006 By Being 2 Comments

Sitting in Books and Company in Prince George. An older man is sitting in the window seat drinking tea and reading. Another comes up to him with a cup of coffee and points at the chessboard.
“Hello Joe,” he says. “Want a game?”

“Oh hello,” says Joe, looking up. “I’d love a game.”

There is warmth in the rhythm and cadence of the exchange, these two men at 5:00 in the afternoon, wanting to pass the time of day in each other’s company. Such an affectionate exchange, from two men who clearly have the hardest days of their lives behind them, who have discovered and embraced chance encouters with friends in coffee shops and spontaneous games of chess.

This is the purest practice of invitation. An honest gesture, reaching out and an honest embrace of the intention and willing ness to enagage, held so elegantly in the simplcity of two lines of dialogue.
This is the world I want a part of. Old men, friendship, invitation and play.

Love at work

March 9, 2006 By Being

Euan Semple, recently liberated wage slave, has a lovely post on love and work:

Where did all this come from, where did the idea that the most powerfully motivating force in the world had nothing to do with business? We spend most of our adult lives in the workplace and at work we bring about the most important and long lasting changes to our society and our planet – and yet we are not encouraged to talk in terms of love. OK we just about get away with “loving our job” our “loving success” but start talking about loving colleagues or loving customers and you’ll have people running for the door. And yet isn’t this what makes great people and great places tick. A deep sense of connection with each other, a depth of purpose beyond the every day that sees customers as more than merely stepping stones on the way to returning that value to the shareholders?…

Maybe love does have a place in business after all. Maybe more and more of us will start to have the courage to begin to talk about what really matters to us about work and our relationships with each other and to push back the sterile language of business that we have been trained to accept. Maybe we will realise that accepting love into the workplace reminds us of the original purpose of work – not to maximise shareholder value but to come together to do good things, to help each other and hopefully to make the world a better place.

To which all I can say is “yes!”