Open Space/World Café online - discussions that matter

Open Space and World Cafe have become synonyms of processes for discussions that matter, empowering participants to take care of their business and creating as a post effect new relationships between participants. In entities with global reach and the drive for cost reduction travelling to one location has been reduced. To begin this discussion regarding its relevance in Online Dispute Resolution processes, please respond to the following questions:

Will Open Space and World Cafe work online?
What are the preconditions for an effective online Open Space or World Café event?
What other questions will arise?

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Moderator Bios:

J. ARTHUR VASCONCELOS Master of Science in Management, Sloan, MIT. He is an organization and business Mediator. President of MEDIARCOM European Mediation Association. Open Space training with Boscop in Berlin. E-mail: vasconcelos@alum.mit.edu

KATIAN CARIA Master in European Studies. She is a Mediator in civil and family matters, a behavioral trainer and business coach. International experience in several fields as a manager. Open Space training with Boscop in Berlin. E-mail: katian@caria.com.pt

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Permalink Reply by J. Arthur Vasconcelos on October 28, 2011 at 2:11pm

Great post Jeff! Thank you. Open Space works as a large mediated discussion. I agree that younger generations are more keen and more adept to seeing and using online options of face to face interactions. Do you know of any attempt to get Open Space online?

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Aresty on October 28, 2011 at 3:23pm

No - I'm certainly interested. It's really a question of to what purpose would the open community serve? If I remember correctly, the 'cafe' I was involved with focused on answering a question - what are the new terms of engagement for the networked economy - or something like that. I mean, the entire occupy wall street movement could be put into an open cafe kind of setting, linking the different geographical locations with each other - so that the cities and movement aren't separated because of geography for example.

I guess the point is - to what end? the idea behind ODR is to get people to resolve conflict with each other. The times I"ve seen open cafe utilitized, it is at a much broader level of engaging different elements of society with each other around the need to build public consensus. ODR at a public policy level - maybe that's where this could play out.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Warters on October 28, 2011 at 4:21pm

Hi folks. I don't think this has been mentioned yet, so I'll point out that there is a German company that has created software available online at OpenSpace-Online.com that provides for an Open Space setup in digital space. You pay per use based on your group's needs or get a license. I recall it being rather pricey when I last looked at it. I've never participated fully in a session, but it looks good from a distance. Heres' their basic framework: