Wendy nails some nice inquiry into the nature of Open Space practice:
What i have been working on links directly to Open Space practice. How to be Open Space rather than do Open Space. How to open more…and then more…and then more…How to be ever more present in the moment, more able to authentically issue and accept invitation…How to sit and hold this raw and tender heart without closing, without giving in to fear of judgement or blame, without attachment to any outcomes or reactions…How to be more absolutely direct in relating to the world, with actions springing from deep connection of intuition, heart, mind and body.
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I’ve been giving some thought to the home of the Open Space Technology practitioner community, openspaceworld.org. A few years ago Michael Herman and I reconstituted this site as a wiki with the intention that it would then be open to be edited by the community, and cared for by the community as well.
Alas, it seems that this did not take as well as we had hoped and constant spamming meant that we had to close the editing function. You can still have a password if you like, and edit to your heart’s content, but it’s one more step away from accessibility. And the result is that a small group of us, and mostly Michael, end up taking care of the site which was not the original intention of building the wiki
And so I’m wondering if there are examples out there of great sites that act as centres of gravity for communities of practice. The Appreciative Inquiry Commons comes to mind, as does The World Cafe site, two communities of practice I orbit within. I’d like ours to be collaborative as well as “heftier.” And not spammable.
So, thoughts?
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My friend Kerry Napuk sent me the invitation to the OSonOS in the UK, slated for September 30th in London. It is being dedicated to the memory of Colin Morley who was an Open Space facilitator and who died in the July 7 bombings in London. Here is the invitation:
We would be very pleased if you could join us for the second OsonOS UK on September 30, 2005 at the NATFHE Conference Centre, 27 Britannia Street, London. Conversation will begin promptly at 10.00 a.m. and will be over when it’s over. A good lunch and refreshments are provided in the cost of �35 per person.
In order to set-up the event and finalise the catering, please let us know NOW, as numbers are limited, if you can join us by contacting Kerry Napuk, Open Futures, 10 West Savile Road, Edinburgh EH16 5NG, telephone 0131 668 4377 or email k@napuk.demon.co.uk .
Best of luck to my British colleagues in their gathering. I wish I could be there with them.
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Dig it, from my comments:
thank, chris, for this beautiful description of ‘a life of invitation’! maybe the space of ‘authentic presence’ exerts both great magnetism (drawing towards, inviting) and great radiance (pouring forth, offering) because it’s the space where ‘we’ are ‘not-two’– going through the doors that open we find our self in a place we’ve always known (you know this rumi verse?: “I have lived on the lip/of insanity, wanting to know reasons,/knocking on a door. It opens./I’ve been knocking from the inside!”) and even when we are not yet ‘in that same space or entering it,’ not yet resonant, it seems that being in proximity to someone who very much is (as i imagine Trungpa was; even the words he left behind have gravitational force) can tune us in, blow a sweetness under the door that makes us willing to fling it open. and while it does make sense to me that it’s not an exceptional capacity, that it’s available to all, and our birthright–that also it is still kind of extra-ordinary, and that’s why the way involves Practice(s), willingness, the discipline of paying attention.
Amazing, my friends who stop by here and gift me with their thoughts! Like “blow a sweetness under the door that makes us want to fling it open…” You know how to get my attention Christy!
And in response to your other invitation about the Seattle BlogWalk, I wish I could come down for that but September 2 is my partner’s birthday and there are far more important things afoot…