This page comes from QuestionsAboutPurpose.

OpenSpaceWorld currently comes in three flavors. The descriptions below make some distinctions between the COM, ORG and NET sites. The main reason for starting this one is to make a place where many many more projects and experiments can be tested in a much messier, less structured and perhaps less intimidating environment, a place made more for playing than promotion. NetSpaceDevelopment? supports and invites the working group that is needed to support and invite the future of the NET and ORG sites.

.NET is under construction ...and it is all about posting project and conference work. It is NOT OpenSpaceWorldORG? and as such it welcomes a different group of people. It's not yet a place to learn about OST... it's a place to look into practicing OST, by convening project or conference workgroups here, and documenting the work of developing a project or extending a conference online, over time. Once there is more practicing going on here, there will be more to show off and the welcome can get warmer.

We need not make .NET a space to talk about OST, which would replace, rather than extend, what is happening on OSWorldORG:OpenSpaceEmail, OpenSpaceWorldORG?, Iberia, Haiti, etc. Iberia might do talking about and demonstrating simultaneously, but that's only because Iberians don't have the other spaces that we do in English. In English, we will have to grow the practice space and then let it merge into and inform the many many pages of stuff about OST. --MichaelHerman


MORE... recently posted to the OSWorldORG:OSLIST...

...once you visit (the ORG and NET wiki websites), you are fully involved. there is no formal joining. there is no password required. there are no security checkpoints. there is no web development skill required. there is only passion and responsibility. they are simple pages that any (english reader) can view. what's more, any viewer can click the 'edit' link at the bottom of almost every page and add/edit the text of those pages. no coding required. just simple english and the ability to click the 'edit' link and the 'save' button when finished. it's really quite a marvel. once you are there, you CAN contribute. once there, you are deciding about contributing on every page you view. you can choose as consciously or unconsciously as you like. you can set lots of limits on your contribution or can jump in with reckless abandon. once there you have many choices, in a law of two clicks sort of way. you ARE in!

at the ORG site... which TELLS stories ABOUT open space... anyone can read. anyone can refer others. anyone can click the 'edit' link at the bottom of any page and add a bit of text. That text might be correcting a misspelling, cleaning up the formatting AND/OR adding a story soundbite, an ost explanation soundbite, their own contact info, their own notes and toolbox resources, etc. There are only a handful of pages there that are not yet totally open for editing. These pages hold the rest of the place together, preserve an easy-to-navigate structure, and require a higher level of familiarity with that structure to edit them effectively. as the number of people with that higher level of famaliarity and understanding increases, these core pages can be opened to more editing.

at the NET site... which is intended to SHOW how we work in open space, by archiving our actions... anyone can use the space to support their own local group's work in openspace. anyone can post their public/community proceedings. anyone can invite their participants to post proceedings. anyone can allow community groups to make their own ongoing openspace websites WITHIN the osw.net space. anyone can invite their participants to manage ongoing action plans and the crafting of new ost invitations right there in this space. and as some of us venture to contribute in this way, all of us can watch and learn and in some cases perhaps collaborate. i think this is really quite revolutionary.

it is also possible that we can convene our own ost-community projects there. i think this is where the OSONOS proceedings will be posted this year. last year's were posted at the ORG wiki site. some simultaneous and followup conversatoins were posted there, as well. but we need not have a whole conference to make a community project anymore. all it takes is an OSLIST invitation announcement and the starting of a project page at the NET site.

these sites are being shaped by those who show up in them. those who show up are really able to understand how the sites work. by showing up, they learn how to implement their suggestions directly, for themselves. they also learn to understand and appreciate the history and existing structures that hold the sites together. this understanding and appreciating, technical skill and personal responsibility, is absolutely essential as our community and websites continue to unfold.

the more people who will come play, the less work i'll have to do to keep them clean and clear and inviting.