Back home from New Zealand with a head full of memories. Lots will be unfolding there in the next little while, and I’ll keep you abreast of developments there. In the meantime, I’d like to draw your attention to two things happening in North America in the next few months. First, John Engle, who is back in the States from Haiti, is convening a conference in Washington DC on April 30 and June 1 called The Do-Gooder’s Exchange. From the invitation: As you already know, the gap between the world�s rich and poor continues to grow. This gathering is for …
Nelson, New Zealand Just completed a 1.5 day OST training workshop here in Nelson with 9 folks from this region and Tauranga, The Bay of Plenty, on the north island. One of the outcomes from the gathering, and following on from the Te TauIhu economic summit, has been the establishment of a local network of indigenous practitioners here in Aotearoa. We have already set up a web page at OpenSpaceWorld.NET where projects can unfold.
Nelson, New Zealand Blogging on a sunny fall afternoon from Te Tau Ihu, or the Top of the South Island region of New Zealand. The beautiful weather here – including a brisk warm wind off the Tasman Sea coming over the light blue waters of Nelson Bay – kind of nicely reflects my mood at the moment. I was invited here to facilitate a day of Open Space for an Maori economic summit which brought together entrepreneurs, iwi trusts, government folks and Pakehea (or non-Maori) businesses for the tourism, and resource sectors. Our day in Open Space was yesterday and …
I’m heading off to New Zealand for 10 days, so blogging might be light. I’ve collected another ten intereting links for your perusal. So here is the latest edition of Parking Lot linkage: The Open Space of Democracy (not THAT Open Space, but a cool read nonetheless) by Terry Tempest Williams Speaking Differently: Deconstruction/Meditative Thinking as the Heart of “the Faculty of Observing” via wood s lot (and where does he find this stuff! Thanks Mark…) Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web via MeFi. Lose yourself in this for a while. Introduction to Calculus. Just what I need. A …
We’re really humming now. Harrison Owen replied to my stories post on the OSLIST with these comments, among others: This is interesting soup indeed. I think the real positive here is the emphasis on Story Telling. For 40 odd years, ever since the days when I presumed to be an academic delving into the mysteries of myth, ritual and culture in the ancient near east — I have felt that we (all of us humanoids) are essentially story-tellers, it is the way we make meaning and communicate meaning (as in the natural first question of a new person — “What’s …