For the past two years, I have been active in the Art of Hosting fellowship. This is a global community of practitioners dedicated to uncovering the new and emerging forms of meaningful conversation and organizational shape. Together we have been conducting trainings, working together on projects and deeply learning our patterns. Several of our mates in this fellowship have been working hard to bring about an online presence for our work, and today it went live. So I introduce to you the brand new Art of Hosting site, a place that describes what we are doing, how we are doing …
Just a poem that came to me today, a day in which I’m opening space here in Prince George: The sense of things I have seen the texture of space felt the sound of silence, falling in a wide open offering tasted hesitancy and the sweetness of light touching time we sense into the most astonishing places together, you and I into the tight cracking of possibility screaming for release we let the humour of despair rest on our tongues, choke our eyes with tears and scour our nostrils with tendrils of acrid smoke. we walk together in circles dizzy …
I have just finished posting a collection of 21 stories of Open Space events I have facilitated over the past 6 years. Most of these stories are about community-based events in Aboriginal communities here in Canada, but I believe they have lessons about the practice of Open Space that are more widely applicable in different settings and for unconferences too. I hope you may find the collection useful. [tags]unconference[/tags]
Kevin Kelly on the meaning of Wikipedia, from Edge.org The bottom-up hive mind will always take us much further that seems possible. It keeps surprising us. In this regard, the Wikipedia truly is exhibit A, impure as it is, because it is something that is impossible in theory, and only possible in practice. It proves the dumb thing is smarter than we think. At that same time, the bottom-up hive mind will never take us to our end goal. We are too impatient. So we add design and top down control to get where we want to go. That is …
Blogging live from an Open Space at the University of British Columbia. It’s a beautiful day here on Point Grey in Vancouver and most of the groups are working outside. With a garden and a view like that, who could blame them? More photos here.