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Field: education / sustainability / participation / communication / e-learning

Conference title: "Internationale und interdiszplinäre OpenSpace-Online® Vernetzungskonferenz - Global Learning & Shaping the Future"

As project manager of Positive Nett-Works Association Hannover - Berlin, I am preparing a worldwide network for the cocreation and co-edition of a multilingual and multidisciplinary Global Learning Online Environment for the worldwide application in schools. I chose Global Education Week (17-23 Nov 2003), organized by the European Council in 38 countries, as international opportunity for making our activities known, and inviting networkers, NGOs, teachers, learners and working in associated fields in the frame of an online conference. My aim as conference organizer was getting to know interesting projects , detect content and strategic commons, in order to initiate international networking activities with our project, but also between the other participants.

My invitation to an OpenSpace-Online® Realtime-Conference (18 Nov 2003) attracted extraordinary attention and broad distribution. The majority of the participants learned about the event from newsletters and mailing lists, and did not know each other before the meeting. In the sense of Open Space philosophy, dedicated individuals with a common interest were meeting with open minds, but also expectation in some form of concrete effects.

My conclusion as organizer:
The event has brought about fantastic conceptual and networking cooperation progress. Besides the participants, this is truly due to the OpenSpace-Online® conference format: It provided full freedom to the participants for bringing in their personal themes, and to express their personal experiences, interests and focal activities. Even when thoughts were not followed in the dialogue thread, the extensive documentation reflects all input, interests, contacts, and ideas for future cooperation. - a great work resource, reflected in this final comment by a participant, experienced in UN circles for 20 years, and head of an NGO with consultative status to the UN: "When are we having the next discussion, and can we include the UN?"

Concerning the conference format, participants and myself appreciated foremost:

->	the simple conference-booking, software installation and conference know-how
->	the fast technical support all around the clock
->	the high dialogue velocity, which produced high information content
->	the surprisingly personal atmosphere; the participants would have enjoyed to discuss for more than 3 hours
->	the possibility of giving informal commentary, and individual address of participants, without disturbing the overall dialogue thread
->	the extensive documentation, offering all dialogue threads, short summaries of sessions, all adresses and email contacts, further, as total document, a great wealth of information about the thematic fields, knowledge, worlds, backgrounds and interests of the participants. This is a potential for post conference cooperation and exchange unparalleled in Face2Face conferences.

Eric Schneider, December 2003