Chicago ALT.NET tries an Open Space
In the next meeting of the Chicago ALT.NET users group we will try an Open Space format — or rather maybe I should say a format with some characteristics of Open Spaces given our time and space constraints.
If you haven't been to a meeting held in this format, maybe you think this sounds crazy. I'd encourage you to see it for yourself. The meeting will be on March 11th.
Open Space
6:00 pm
Pizza and networking time
6:30 pm
This month we will have an Open Space-inspired meeting. Open Spaces are considered an effective meeting layout to find solutions to problems that would benefit from a wide range of opinions.
We don't have enough time to do a full-blown Open Spaces event so we will cut some corners. Here's the plan:
- If you have a software development issue (code, design, process, human, etc) that you can't seem to figure out on your own or within your immediate team, bring to the meeting.
- We will have a few minutes for participants to announce their problem and put on the board
- Since we only have time for one session, we all will vote to choose the issue we will discuss
- The issue "author" is expected to facilitate and stir the discussion
- The group can decide the format of the session (panel, fishbowl, moderated, etc)
If the session, for whatever reason, ends too soon we can pick another issue to discuss.
So, come ready with some issue, willing to participate in the discussions, or even just to watch others tackle the problem.