Comments on: What’s the difference between Open Spaces and BarCamps? http://blog.aptivate.org/2009/12/22/whats-the-difference-between-open-spaces-and-barcamps/ International I.T. Development Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:21:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.6 By: Chris Corrigan http://blog.aptivate.org/2009/12/22/whats-the-difference-between-open-spaces-and-barcamps/comment-page-1/#comment-189 Chris Corrigan Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:46:44 +0000 http://blog.aptivate.org/?p=225#comment-189 That doesn't sound very different from the myriad of Open Space events I have conducted where the emphasis has been on learning, hanging out, developing relationships and discovering new things. I'm not sure what you think Open Space IS (simple really, a self-organized gathering using Harrison Owen's four principles and one law), but I think the major difference is that we just call things differently. If I was answering the question, I would say that BarCamp is a specific application of Open Space Technology (although that might not be historically accurate). When self-organizing approaches are used repeatedly over time in communities of practice they take on their own characteristics and cultures. This is what has happened with BarCamps. Open Space Technology is an open source process, has been beta tested for ever and has recently jumped from it's practice enclave amongst organizational development practitioners who were interested in self-organization and complex adaptive systems. in the early 2000s along with the rise of social media, people began looking for meeting processes that made participants producers instead of passive consumers. Many stumbled on Open Space (calling it unconferencing) and the ground was set for the application of this methodology. Here's a podcast from 2005 with some of us who are experienced OST facilitators talking about the future of unconferencing: http://www.johnniemoore.com/blog/archives/001019.php. That doesn’t sound very different from the myriad of Open Space events I have conducted where the emphasis has been on learning, hanging out, developing relationships and discovering new things. I’m not sure what you think Open Space IS (simple really, a self-organized gathering using Harrison Owen’s four principles and one law), but I think the major difference is that we just call things differently. If I was answering the question, I would say that BarCamp is a specific application of Open Space Technology (although that might not be historically accurate). When self-organizing approaches are used repeatedly over time in communities of practice they take on their own characteristics and cultures. This is what has happened with BarCamps.

Open Space Technology is an open source process, has been beta tested for ever and has recently jumped from it’s practice enclave amongst organizational development practitioners who were interested in self-organization and complex adaptive systems. in the early 2000s along with the rise of social media, people began looking for meeting processes that made participants producers instead of passive consumers. Many stumbled on Open Space (calling it unconferencing) and the ground was set for the application of this methodology.

Here’s a podcast from 2005 with some of us who are experienced OST facilitators talking about the future of unconferencing: http://www.johnniemoore.com/blog/archives/001019.php.

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