Some of you recall the OS-inspired experiment I hosted last December on the
theme of "Online Dialogue and Deliberation," using the MaestroConference and
Hackpad platforms. This month, building upon that experience, I am hosting
an engagement on behalf of the National Dialogue Network (NDN). As you know,
NDN was recipient of an NCDD Catalyst Award earlier this year and its
mission is to create an infrastructure for national conversations supported
by a wide variety of independent conveners. The first iteration of such a
conversation-on the theme of "Poverty/Wealth in America"- will run from Sep
2-Oct 13.
Via a virtual "open space" conversation during June, we are looking to
engage the wisdom of the facilitation community and others who find the NDN
project compelling. Our calling question is: What would you like to discuss
now to insure a successful national conversation on "Poverty/Wealth in
America" this Fall? I hope you will consider joining us!
Here is a link for a more detailed invite
<http://surveygizmolibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/library/95644/NDNCycle22013OpenS
paceDialogueinvitation.pdf> to our June virtual "open space" conversation
in support of this national dialogue initiative. One can also simply click
here to register <http://www.bit.ly/ndn2013osregister> and get started
right away.
A bit more context and process info.
Anyone who cares about the prospect of a national dialogue on Poverty/Wealth
in America is welcome to participate in this June engagement. Right now,
the NDN team would particularly like some support as it crafts a set of
"core materials" designed to be used by a wide variety of individuals and
organizations that we hope will choose to convene conversations all over the
country, between Sep 2-Oct 13, in whatever form they choose.
Our June engagement will take place in multiple venues:
. Online via Hackpad
. On the phone via a pair of two-hour MaestroConference calls on
6/18 and 6/25, from 4:30-6:30pm Pacific, which will also include our opening
and closing circles.
. Live in whatever form participants wish to convene them,
especially during the week between the two Maestro calls.
There is also a survey to provide feedback and input on the "core
materials." Participants can engage in as many of these offerings as they
wish. While we hope that many will choose to be on the two Maestro calls,
they are optional.
Our "online marketplace" is already open and some topics have been
initiated. We plan to invite topics to be proposed for the "on-live" (i.e.
Maestro and other voice-based) conversations shortly as well. Obviously this
is a rather "impure" take on the OS form, since the "opening circle" will
take place on 6/18. Unlike last December, when we tried to offer a fairly
literal translation of the in-person process, the idea this time is to take
advantage of the things that virtual engagements do best, e.g. expanding and
compressing time, and allowing for information to be taken in by
participants on their own time.
If anyone wants to discuss the merits of this approach, I invite you to do
so as part of the engagement itself! The Hackpads are open and links are
provided once you register for the engagement via MaestroConference here
<http://www.bit.ly/ndn2013osregister> . Again, don't worry if you don't plan
to be on the calls, although we would love for you to join us for the whole
nine yards to more fully evaluate this "open space" experiment.
Regards,