Want to see a glimpse of what the General Assembly Open Space process might look like? See this day-long Open Space meeting condensed to thirty seconds.
Of course, GA is longer, bigger and more complex, but the point is the same.
I think the point is that participants self-select which break out into the groups they want, but there are maximum room sizes at GA and the ushers will be there to insure no group is too large.
A one day Open Space at the Tate Modern, viewed by a time lapse camera. (YouTube)
Hi Scott
I’m one of the OSGA 07 planners, and can offer a couple of clarifications about this version of Open Space that we’ve crafted given the challenges of the conference space and the huge numbers of potential participants.
Thursday morning at 10:30, everyone will gather in one of ten large rooms. To make it easy to divide thousands of people into groups, all GA participants have been randomly assigned for this session. OS facilitators in each room will lead the group in the process of proposing topics.
It is likely more topics will be proposed than the 120 session spaces assigned. So in each large gathering, ten topics will be selected – again at random – and given one of the available slots.
This schedule will be available in print before the 2:45 program slot. Everyone at GA can chose any of these sessions Thursday and Friday.
What of all the topics that weren’t drawn out f the hat? Conveners can chose to hold those sessions less formally, posting a notice on a special buletin board in the message area. Facilitators will have information packets on how to do these sessions. Most importantly, reports turned in from these sessions will be treated just the same as the reports from the scheduled sessions.
That’s the front end. Saturday’s convergence sessions are another whole story.
We’ve opened a blog for conversations and questions about the OS at http://ga-ost.blogspot.com/
No one we can find has ever tried this with this large a group in a confined space. Keep in mind the famous dictum of Open Space – be prepared to be surprised!
Thanks!