"Do-it-yourself User-Guide" for Organizers of Single OpenSpace-Online® Conferences (ASP)
(April 2010)
Here are some important considerations as you begin planning for an OpenSpace-Online® Real-time Conference!
Although software installation is very fast and easy, overall planning for the online meeting should be done with the same amount of care that you would use for a face-to-face live event. Sufficient preparation time is very important. Planning and preparation may take a few days or several weeks, depending on the number of participants, the degree of experience of the organizer, and the complexity of the project. But one thing is always true in our experience: the better organizers plan for the conference and prepare their participants, the better the full potential of this online method can be realized.
Current Information
We are just in the process of changing and re-designing our online conference booking system in our website.
For individual pricing and consultation requests regarding your planned OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Conference, please use the following email address in the meantime. Please describe your request as specifically as possible (application, number of participants, desired date) and send us your complete contact information including telephone number and website. We will be back to you as soon as possible (not later than in four days).
Thank you very much for your interest. We look forward to hearing from you!
These User Guide is intended to give you a detailed overview of the preparations you need to make for organizing a successful OpenSpace-Online® Real-time Conference.
Via the online conference booking system of our website you are able to book single conferences for 15 to 125 participants. Please note: If you use our 1, 2 or 3years license system you can run conferences also for smaller groups.
Further questions
If you have any further questions on the preparation and execution of an OpenSpace-Online® conference, simply send an e-mail to our support team at: support@OpenSpace-Online.com
Copyright and Trademark
The OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Conference System is an international trademarked product of the OpenSpace-Online GmbH, Germany. All Rights Reserved. Please respect as well the copyright of all OpenSpace-Online® texts and OpenSpace-Online® graphics. Thank you!
1. Possible applications and Outcomes
The OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Methodology can be very useful for companies, organizations, universities, or cities interested in sustainable and integrated development. OpenSpace-Online® helps groups build a shared, collaborative design of the future, whether it be in the area of economics, politics, society, research or education or in dialogue about the process of constant change and new challenges. It’s a unique and powerful bridge between almost all kinds of offline and online activities.
For example, do you want to ...
... increase the participation of employees, students, or citizens? ... promote integration, motivation, learning, and commitment? ... improve your internal and external communication? ... immediately react to current questions and problems? ... enable sustainable decision making? ... establish proactive and participative communication? ... allow groups to confer in real-time over great distances? ... minimize travel, time and organizational costs? ... improve the goal and results oriented work of your team? ... achieve synergy effects between offline events and online events? ... carry out completely new customer commitment measures? ... maintain and intensify international relations? ... optimize your knowledge management? ... operate multifaceted stakeholder management? ... support the development of Learning Organizations? ... to make a significant contribution to reduce climate change?
You can certainly think of several useful and quite exciting possible uses.
2. Clarify Basic Conditions and Define Objectives
OpenSpace-Online® can be implemented almost universally. The highly secure and data protected real-time Internet method provides a great deal of freedom for individual responsibility and at the same time a clear, methodical structure. The combination of freedom within a framework offers unique support for independent and results-oriented collaboration across the entire group.
In order to exploit the entire potential of this conferencing method, we recommend clarifying the general conditions and the objective of your planned event for each new OpenSpace-Online® conference. This will ensure that you are always able to select the suitable conference variant (CLASSIC or SPECIAL), choose an appropriate title for your event and formulate an accurate text for your invitation.
The better you know the complexity of your field of activity, your current situation and all groups of people involved, the more successfully you can plan and realize your OpenSpace-Online® event and the more you can support sustainable further work. Please ask yourself the following questions:
CONTEXT
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What is the context of our activity?
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How much progress is feasible and how much are we willing to change?
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How much leeway do we actually have? What are the boundaries where change is not possible?
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What are our basic conditions?
OBJECTIVES
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What do we want to achieve? Where are we trying to get?
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Do we want to encourage exchange, community, diversity and creativity, or should the online conference also support us in achieving specific goals for our work in progress? (conference variant)
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Do we conceive of our event as a launch event, and/or is it part of an existing process of communication
PARTICIPANTS
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Which people, which stakeholder groups and which areas do we want to reach?
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Do the future participants know each other, or will they meet for the first time online?
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Will internal groups be participating, or is it a public event?
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Will the conference be domestic or international?
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Will people of different cultural backgrounds be taking part?
PLANNING
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Does it make sense to integrate other involved individuals (e.g. internal IT-Administrators) or participants into the planning of the event?
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Could it make sense to hold a “small” OpenSpace-Online® event first to prepare the “larger” online conference?
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Do we want to achieve synergy between offline events and online events? How could an online event fit together with other events?
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Is the event planned as a follow-up?
LOGISTICS
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What will the conference language be?
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What time and what day will best suit our group of participants?
What do we have clearly to communicate to participants before the event?
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How do we want to follow up on the OpenSpace-Online®?
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What can we do after the conference to keep up the energy generated there and ensure that the group can continue to work on its ideas and implement them?
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Do we want to inform outside parties about our activities and results?
2.1. Assess the nature of the IT Infrastructure of the Participants (of the Organization)
Well before the OpenSpace-Online® conference, be sure to determine whether the participants will be using their own decentralized computers and installing the necessary software themselves, or whether there are restrictions on the use and / or installation of third-party software due to a company network system, for example. If there are restrictions, it must be clear beforehand who will be responsible for installing the conference software (e.g. the administrator of a company network). Please check technical prerequisites: >>www.OpenSpace-Online.com/en/prerequisites.php
3. Choose a Title
Once you have defined the framework and the objective of your event, you are in an ideal position to choose an optimum title. The title of your OpenSpace-Online® conference is always VERY IMPORTANT - it can benefit the orientation and success of your event substantially. Titles can invite, thrill, encourage, challenge, reconcile, accelerate, activate. A title can reinforce community feeling, expand horizons and soften ossified dogmas. Questions can provoke curiosity and spur participation.
Please note that a title can also be formulated such that, in spite of its author’s very good intentions, the success of the event is impeded or even prevented entirely. Moreover, our technology limits the length of the title to a maximum of 130 characters!
Considering the importance of the title as a frame for the conference, it is wise to include others in this decision, such as the champion, sponsor, planning team members, or other key stakeholders. A number of tips are presented below which may help you choose an optimum title to achieve your objective:
3.1. How about a question?
For instance, ask an open question, or at least leave as large a sphere as possible open for discussions. Questions spark off a conscious or unconscious “search process.” Well-posed questions almost automatically invite participants to join others in thinking about and working on an issue. Choose the best title for your objectives according to the following criteria:
• solution-oriented and energetic • resource-oriented and resource-augmenting • future-oriented and visionary • group-oriented • Promotes individual responsibility • Affirming, optimistic and positive
The following is an example of a conference title successful for one company:
"How can we jointly develop promising products in order to achieve a decisive and sustainable competitive advantage?"
3.2. CAREFUL ! We strongly advise against • "Yes-No" and "Either-Or" questions • restrictive preliminary assumptions • negative formulations and suppositions •
foregone conclusions
4. Select a Conference Variant
Once you have defined your framework, your objectives and the title of your event, you are in an ideal position to select the suitable conference variant, and to compose your invitation to arouse interest in OpenSpace-Online®. Make the subsequent selection of the conference variant during the process of online booking. Here are the most important features of the two variants:
4.1. OpenSpace-Online® CLASSIC
The CLASSIC is particularly well-suited for dialogue and times when "divergence, variety, and exchange" are of primary interest. For example, this conference variant can promote ongoing team processes, accelerate innovation and creativity, support the communication of networks in regard to the event, or be used for lively publicity work.
4.2. OpenSpace-Online® SPECIAL
The OpenSpace-Online® SPECIAL variant includes all the features of the CLASSIC variant plus an additional feature. In this variant, a prioritization phase takes place after the open session phase. During the prioritization phase, all topics and results processed up to that point are prioritized by the participants and processed further. The HOT-issues of the day are expanded together. Work groups are formed within the online conference and first steps can be agreed upon immediately for further work. The SPECIAL variant is well-suited for projects where goals need to be set and result-oriented work must be achieved after the meeting.
5. Define the Conference Duration
The ONLINE-BOOKING-AREA at our website (www.OpenSpace-Online.com/oso_en/data/to_asp.php) gives organizers of SINGLE conferences the opportunity to book online conferences of varying duration (2.0 to 7.5 hours). The methodical procedure of an OpenSpace-Online® conference is always the same, only the individual phases are extended or shortened depending on the desired overall duration of the event. When groups are working according to this procedure for the first time we recommend a total duration of at least three and not more than five hours. For groups who are acquainted with the procedure or who work regularly with OpenSpace-Online®, it may certainly be very good to select a very short or a longer conference. In the table below you will find various overall lengths of OpenSpace-Online® conferences in hours and minutes, and the resulting workshop and break lengths of both types: For Organizers of single conferences (which run via our server) the integrated phases are built in to the program and cannot be changed.
(Hint: OpenSpace-Online® Licensees, who purchase a 1, 2 or 3 years SERVER License for unlimited conferences during the license period, can change the durations of single integrated components.)
Please note, that a FOYER-CHAT for MEETING and GREETING BEFORE CONFERENCE START belongs to each
conference (without extra costs).
The FOYER-CHAT opens automatically 30 minutes before conference start within the registration area of the conference. According to experience, the FOYER-CHAT is a very useful meeting point for greeting and meeting BEFORE conference start. Our tip: invite your participants to log-in at an early stage for meeting and greeting in the FOYER-CHAT.
IMPORTANT NOTE: this informal foyer chat will not be saved and will not become part of the conference documentation.
In the ONLINE-BOOKING-AREA it is possible to select any desired configuration and display the corresponding conference prices immediately.
6. Compose an Invitation & Identify Number of Participants
OpenSpace-Online® conferences can be quickly and conveniently booked. This allows you first to send an invitation to conference participants and then wait for their acceptance before booking an OpenSpace-Online® conference. If after booking you find that you need more User-IDs for further participants, it is no problem to order these not later than 48 hours before conference start by paying with a credit-card (via PayPal). If it happens that fewer people have participated in a conference than you expected, you will receive a credit for each person who did not log on to the conference. This credit shall be deducted from the cost of your next booked conference.
The following points are intended to support you and to make suggestions about how to compose the best invitation possible. Your invitation carries the clear SCOPE of your event, serves to orient the participants, prepares them for the topic and encourages them to get involved or sometimes not. Benefit from our experience and use it to compose your own, individual invitation
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Tell who the organizer is and what target audience you are addressing.
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At the core of your invitation, explain why and for what purpose you are holding this event. Outline briefly "WHERE WE ARE COMING FROM", "WHERE WE ARE NOW" and "WHERE WE ARE GOING".
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Express the value you place on participation, exchange and involvement, and emphasize that each individual can make an important contribution to the further development of the project as a whole. "Whoever comes are the right people."
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Express trust and show through your text that there is plenty of room for new ideas or initiatives and that the process is open.
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List resources and potential paths which could support even after the OpenSpace-Online® conference.
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Describe briefly the OpenSpace-Online® conference method (see below) you have selected. Indicate, however, that the event is a self-contained real-time conference and that attendance is required for the duration of the event. Express that the participants do not require any methodical instructions. The only thing that matters is interest in the topic of this conference!
Recommended text for your invitation:
What is OpenSpace-Online®?
It is an high-ranking awarded Internet Real-Time Conferencing Technology, that takes place in text-based, successive phases, where up to 125 persons can simultaneously work on a major subject that is current and important to them. The participants work together in a goal and solution-oriented manner. No "human" online moderator is needed during the real-time event. A virtual facilitator guides all participants simply through the process of the conference. The participants themselves are the experts. They meet because of a shared interest in a major theme and together develop new ideas and solutions with their knowledge, their questions, their suggestions, and their dedication. OpenSpace-Online® meetings are highly confidential, well-structured, completely self-managed by organizers, user-friendly and provide an instantly downloadable conference-documentation for each participant. The documentation provides an ideal basis for further work, as it contains all contents, results, and arrangements made during the conference and can be immediately used in either digital or printed form. OpenSpace-Online® makes a significant and sustainable contribution to enable co-creative excellence and to empower organizations to cope with change, social responsibility and environmental protection. For more information visit the software presentation or download the OpenSpace-Online® E-BOOK. Software-Presentation: <www.OpenSpace-Online.com/en/presentation.php> E-BOOK: <www.OpenSpace-Online.com/OpenSpace-Online_eBook_en.pdf>
(This text paragraph is available for you inEnglishand inGerman)
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In your invitation, e.g., under "The Essentials in Brief", present an overview of the most important features of your event (title, date, time zone, organizer, participants invited, conference method, time to begin logging in, joint conference start, duration, end of the conference, registration deadline, any fees charged for participation, how to register, etc.).
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It is very important, to inform participants with the invitation about the technical prerequisites! By using the following text you are informing your potential participants very well! Simply copy the following text:
Hints for technical preparation and server access test
To participate in an OpenSpace-Online® conference, you will require normal PC operating knowledge, a stable Internet connection and installation of the OpenSpace-Online® conference software. All preparations (inclusive connection test) can be made simply and quickly. A free download of the correct version of this software is available through the Download-Center of the OpenSpace-Online® website at <www.OpenSpace-Online.com/en/download-center.php>. Individuals who are participating in an OpenSpace-Online® conference for the first time should not wait until the day of the conference to begin their preparations. You can quickly and easily test whether a connection can be created between your computer and the OpenSpace-Online server(s) in Berlin, Germany. For this, please click the button "ACCESS TEST" within the blue bar of the conference software. An early test is always recommended if your computer is integrated into a (company) network and/or is operated behind a firewall or similar systems. If your access test is not successful (no connection to the server), it's important to include the IT staff of your organization in good time before the event. If needed, the OpenSpace-Online® software allows proxy-server adjustments, so that normally also organizations with extensive firewalls can use this software easily. If you need technical support, please use this email address: support@OpenSpace-Online.com
The appropriate access data (passwords) for our conference will be sent to each participant by email well in advance of the conference.
(This text paragraph is available for you inEnglishand inGerman)
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Announce that each person will receive the required access data in plenty of time, either shortly after registration or by a certain date.
7. Book a Conference Online
When you have determined the size of the group, the variant of the conference (CLASSIC or SPECIAL), and you know which duration the meeting should have, you are ready to book your conference via the ONLINE BOOKING AREA (currently not available - please see "Current Information" at the top of this page). In this section you have the opportunity to select the online conference which best suits your needs, receive the corresponding pricing information, and then book the conference. This section will be especially helpful if you wish to get an overview of the various conference configurations and their corresponding prices. It is much to your advantage that you are not required to book conferences months in advance. As the host of an OpenSpace-Online® conference, you can accept your own fees for participation or make invitations to conferences at no charge, depending on your individual calculations. Please note that there is an interval of 48 hours between ALL steps for booking, configuration and modification procedures and the OpenSpace-Online® conference itself.
8. Verify Payment Arrangements - Pay the Conference Fee Punctually in Advance
To ensure that your conference takes place on the desired date, keep in mind that all conference and access data for your booked conference can only be confirmed and released once we have received your payment. Payment must be received 48 hours before the conference begins.
We justify this policy due to the fact that our customers have independent access to conference booking and are located all over the world. It would simply not be practical maintain an international system of follow-up invoicing. We prefer to focus our energies on the continued improvement of our services and to keep prices as attractive as possible. You can choose between "payment by bank transfer" in good time before your meeting or regarding payments coming from countries outside of Europe and regarding payments via credit-cards we are working with PayPal (Europe) Ltd <www.paypal.com>, an eBay Company. Note that it can take between a week or a month to set up and verify your PayPal account if you do not already have one. It also can take several days for your transfer to clear into our account. The process is simple and fast once your PayPal account is verified!
SET UP THE CONFERENCE:
After you have booked the conference online, you will receive an eMail from us (within 48 hours) that contains all the necessary information and the access data to your own conference administration area. In this protected area you can set up your conference, i.e. determine the title, starting time and day of the conference, define your supervisor password etc or look at previous or future conferences. After you have set up your conference you will receive an eMail as confirmation which will include all the User-IDs reserved for your participants.
SUPERVISOR TOOL:
With the supervisor password you can use the OPTIONAL Supervisor-Tool, which makes it possible for you to lock out individual participants during an online conference or even finish the entire conference prematurely (for more information see EXECUTION OF THE CONFERENCE, item "15. Rights and Responsibilities of the Organizer").
ADDITIONAL USER-IDS:
In case you need more User-IDs, you can also enter this conference administration area and request additional User-IDs until latest 48 hours prior conference start. On the appropriate page you will find an User-ID Booking button to the far right. After booking the additional User-IDs you will receive an eMail with all further passwords.
10. Define the Secret-Code
OpenSpace-Online® is a high encoded conference system. In order to guarantee that ONLY the organizer and his participants are able to read the contents of the conference, a conference Secret-Code has to be exclusively established (defined) BY the OpenSpace-Online® organizer. Please note, that organizers do not have to register the Secret Code anywhere. This code is neither registered nor in any way saved (particularly not by the OpenSpace-Online GmbH). Organizers just have to tell their secret code to their participants. The secret code has to be made available by the organizer to all participants together with the individual User-ID. In other words, each participant will need an unique, personal User-ID plus the one Secret-Code (same for all participants) in order to log in to the conference software. This encryption system makes sure, that only people with the same secret code are able to read the conference contents.
Note to defining the code word: Choose a simple to enter Secret Code, e.g. "sunshine" (of no less than 8, but no more than 16 characters).
Note to log-in: If a participant enters an INCORRECT Secret-Code, the result will be that the other participants will not be able to read his/her name and contributions and that this person can only read encrypted names and contributions of the other participants. A "hint text" of the software shows the solution: In such case, this person has to close the software, to start the software again and to log-in with the CORRECT Secret-Code. That's all.
11. Prepare each participant individually
Please send a registration conformation email with the access data to each single participant approx. ONE WEEK BEFORE conference day. Please give your participants plenty of advanced notification so they have time to read and understand all the information they require, including 1. conference data at a glance, 2. access data (passwords) and 3. Hints for technical preparation and server access test. Even, when you have send the technical information already in your former invitation (before you booked the conference), it important (also as a reminder) to send the technical information at this stage again.
1. Conference data at a glance
• Conference title: xx
• Day and time zone: xx (helpful: www.timeanddate.com)
• Log-in area: opens 3 hours before conference start
• Start of Foyer-Chat: 30 minutes for meeting and greeting before conference start
• Mutual Start of Conference: xx
• Duration of the Conference: approx. xx
• The organizer’s contact address and any other information
2. Access data (passwords)
• Individual User-ID: xx
• General Secret-Code: xx
Please be extra careful to accurately log-in to the conference. We recommend that you cut and paste the individual User-ID and Secret Code to avoid any problems.
3. Hints for technical preparation and server access test
To participate in an OpenSpace-Online® conference, you will require normal PC operating knowledge, a stable Internet connection and installation of the OpenSpace-Online® conference software. All preparations (inclusive connection test) can be made simply and quickly. A free download of the correct version of this software is available through the Download-Center of the OpenSpace-Online® website at <www.OpenSpace-Online.com/en/download-center.php>. Individuals who are participating in an OpenSpace-Online® conference for the first time should not wait until the day of the conference to begin their preparations. You can quickly and easily test whether a connection can be created between your computer and the OpenSpace-Online server(s) in Berlin, Germany. For this, please click the button "ACCESS TEST" within the blue bar of the conference software. An early test is always recommended if your computer is integrated into a (company) network and/or is operated behind a firewall or similar systems. If your access test is not successful (no connection to the server), it's important to include the IT staff of your organization in good time before the event. If needed, the OpenSpace-Online® software allows proxy-server adjustments, so that normally also organizations with extensive firewalls can use this software easily. If you need technical support, please use this email address: support@OpenSpace-Online.com
(This text paragraph is available for you in English and in German)
12. Prepare own participation
In order that all organizers can also participate themselves in the OpenSpace-Online® conference, and are able to download the conference book, they must have the OpenSpace-Online® conference software on their computer in the same way as all other participants.
13. Role of an Organizer during the Conference
As you know from the description of the OpenSpace-Online® method, the organizer does not take over ANY particular role or fulfill any specific tasks during the conference. The virtual online facilitator COMOSO, the structured procedure of the conference and the intuitive user menus of the software guide all participants through the event. The system does neither provide a preconceived workshop agenda nor additional talks or individual speeches by organizers or executives during the event. The overall frame and goal of the event has to make clear by the organizers in front of the event (invitation to discuss a special theme, special topics or issues and/or to find new solutions for example). If the organizer also takes part in the conference, he or she is considered to be a conference participant for the duration of the event in the same way as all other individuals who are taking part. This means that he or she can submit a request in the same way as the others and invite the other participants to take part in a discussion or teamwork.
14. Mental Preparation 24 Hours before the Start
If for example the management of a company, a team of organizers or sponsors would like to prepare the participants mentally for the conference theme in a particular manner or would like to introduce themselves once more just before the start of the conference, we recommend sending a corresponding text by email to all participants approximately 24 hours before the start of the conference.
Based on our experience, this is a good opportunity to remind the participants to complete the final technical preparations and log-in well before the start of the conference, as well as to provide instructions on the manner of working during an OpenSpace-Online® conference. The following information is recommended for the latter:
Working in an OpenSpace-Online® real-time conference
In order to participate in an OpenSpace-Online® real-time conference you need no special knowledge about the method prior to the event. A virtual facilitator and the structure of the software itself guides all participants through the simple process of the text-based conference (no video, no audio). The participants themselves are the experts. They bring their shared interest in the theme of the meeting and work together to develop new ideas and solutions with their questions and their suggestions. Conveners of workshops need only to welcome their workshop guests, and then let the discussion happen. It is NOT necessary for people to take notes during the conference. At the end of every OpenSpace-Online® conference each participant receives extensive documentation about the meeting in convenient HTML-format at the press of a button. The report provides the ideal foundation for further work, as it contains all of the contents (except the "foyer-chat" and the "one-to-one-talks" of the café rooms), results, and arrangements made during the meeting. If you are using the SPECIAL variant, the software will guide the group through a final phase of summarizing results, prioritizing, and planning next steps. If you have questions any part of the conference, please click on the question mark "?", which you can find during each phase in the lower blue bar.
(This text paragraph is available for you in English and in German)
15. Rights and Responsibilities of the Organizer
In order that you as an organizer can exercise your "domestic rights", you must also install the OpenSpace-Online® Supervisor-Tool. This additional, OPTIONAL tool makes it possible for you during an online conference to lock out individual participants or even stop the entire conference prematurely. The Supervisor-Tool also helps to get a good overview about the log-in and log-of status of all participants during the conference. The Supervisor-Tool is available for free download under <www.OpenSpace-Online.com/en/download-center.php>. Use of the tool is very simple and intuitive. Nevertheless, any questions you may have can be answered at any time via the online help with one click on the "?" within the software.
16. Code of Values, Conference Etiquette and Protective Measures
The Value Code and the OpenSpace-Online® etiquette were developed to guarantee respectful and uncomplicated communication for organizers and their participants. Additional protective measures have been taken to offer all parties involved as secure and protected a forum as possible to allow them to work together in an individually responsible manner.
17. Thank Participants and Sponsors and Implement Follow-up Agreements
Do not forget to thank the participants, sponsors, and all key stakeholders after the conference! We suggest to send an appropriate eMail not later than 48 hours after the end of the conference to the people. This is also a good opportunity to remind the participants to some highlights of the conference and to implement follow-up agreements.
18. Feedback from Conference Organizers
The team of OpenSpace-Online® is extremely interested in learning from the experiences of conference organizers and their participants and to design further product and organization developments accordingly. Praise, critique and suggestions for improvement are thus more than welcome! Please use the feedback form on our website <www.OpenSpace-Online.com/en/feedback.php> and indicate exactly to what your comments refer. Many thanks in advance!
"Do-it-yourself User-Guide" for Organizers of Single OpenSpace-Online® Conferences (ASP)
1. Possible applications and Outcomes
