OpenSpace-Online® E-BOOK - Already more than 47,000 downloads!

[July 8, 2010] Since January 2005 more than 47,000 people from around the globe have downloaded our cost-free and regularly updated OpenSpace-Online® E-BOOK (PDF). Over the time more and more organizations provide the E-BOOK download-link at their websites. The E-BOOK contains extensive information about our worldwide unique OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Collaboration Technology (methodology, application-fields, experiences, effects, potential, testimonials and user-feedback).

Please feel free to include this link into your website and/or forward the E-BOOK or link to colleagues, friends, customers, or to other organizations. We would be equally grateful for your recommendation and extend our thanks in advance for your efforts and support!

E-BOOK in English: >> www.OpenSpace-Online.com/OpenSpace-Online_eBook_en.pdf
E-BOOK in German: >> www.OpenSpace-Online.com/OpenSpace-Online_eBook_de.pdf

Further important milestone completed: Launch of OpenSpace-Online® Version 3.0

[June 15, 2009] Our team has a further good reason to celebrate. Exactly 10 years after the "deep flash of inspiration" for a complete "Real-Time Change Empowerment System" and more than seven years after launching the first version of the OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Collaboration Technology, we can offer our worldwide customers from business and society the new OpenSpace-Online® 3.0 version. Especially larger companies and larger organizations will benefit from the enhancement of our "Do-it-yourself conference system".

Please read via the following what OpenSpace-Online® Version 3.0 makes special and what it makes a worldwide unique technology: >> Further information

World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneer 2010 Canditate

[May 25, 2009] A further wonderful surprise and huge honor is OpenSpace-Online's nomination as a World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneer 2010 Candidate. The Technology Pioneers Community is one of the most widely recognized initiatives of the World Economic Forum. To be selected as a Technology Pioneer, a company must be involved in the development of technology innovation and have the potential for long-term impact on business and society. In addition, it must demonstrate visionary leadership, show the signs of being a long-standing market leader, and its technology must be proven. Past recipients of the recognition include Google, Business Objects and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.

Website: >> www.weforum.org/techpioneers

Tech Awards 2009 Nominee (USA)

[May 15, 2009] OpenSpace-Online® has been nominated for the TECH AWARDS 2009. This prize, is an international awards program of The Tech Museum of Innovation (USA), honors innovators from around the world who are creatively applying proven technology to benefit humanity. Fifteen Laureates in five categories will be honored in Silicon Valley, California in November 2009. Five Laureates will each be awarded a cash prize of $50,000 USD. The Tech Awards program was launched in November 2000. The concept for the awards was inspired in part by the State of the Future report, published by the Millennium Project of the American Council of the United Nations University.

Website: >> www.techawards.org

B.A.U.M. and OpenSpace-Online cooperate on "Holistic Sustainable Business"

[March 2, 2009] To advance the idea of "Holistic Sustainable Business" and to help more and more organizations in society, the economy, and politics to actively make the change with strong partners, OpenSpace-Online GmbH and B.A.U.M. e.V. have entered into a long-term cooperation, which will have an effect far beyond Germany. We are very happy about this!

>> Further information about this cooperation
>> www.baumev.de

International Award for Gabriela Ender: Ashoka Fellow 2008

[November 14, 2008] Gabriela Ender, founder and CEO of OpenSpace-Online GmbH - The Power of People!, has been accepted into the international Ashoka Fellowship Support Network as >> Ashoka Fellow 2008 <<. Ashoka is the largest organization in the world for supporting social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded in 1980 by Bill Drayton, USA. The Harvard Center for Public Leadership rates Drayton as one of the "20 Best Leaders" of the USA. The best-known member of the Ashoka-network is the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus. In almost 70 countries, around 2000 Ashoka Fellows work to promote social and sustainable change in fields such as health, education & youth, economic development, environmental protection, regional and urban development, citizen participation, and human rights. At the beginning of 2008, Gabriela Ender was invited by Ashoka to take part in a multi-level, national and international selection process. She has been through a very intense seven-month process, including a practical OpenSpace-Online® project for Ashoka. Gabriela was able to win against around 300 competitors throughout Germany. Worldwide, more than 7,000 candidates were evaluated.

Konstanze Frischen, Managing Director of Ashoka in Germany and Vice President of Ashoka International says: "Gabriela Ender has been selected by Ashoka because she has developed a unique communication system that brings people together across borders and allows them to jointly come up with constructive solutions to their problems. With OpenSpace-Online she makes a significant contribution to helping social organisations and businesses cope with change – she allows these institutions to make more effective and democratic decisions by involving all stakeholders."

>> Gabriela's Fellow profile at Ashoka webpage (in German)

Update: On November 19, 2008, Gabriela Ender has been formally honored as Ashoka Fellow 2008 at Ashoka's Award Ceremony in Munich. If you want, watch Gabriela's video portrait (currently only in German):


Ashoka Fellow 2008 - Gabriela Ender - MyVideo

Paradigm Shift for Responsible Business and Civil Society

[October 19, 2008] Following the success of the first VISION SUMMIT in 2007, the second VISION SUMMIT will focus on the central theme of SOCIAL BUSINESS. On November 1st and 2nd - 2008, up to 800 participants from the business world, politics and civil society will meet in the auditorium of the FU (Freie Universität) in Berlin.

More than 50 pioneers (inclusive Prof. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) of the SOCIAL BUSINESS sector have confirmed to speak or lead workshops (speaker-profils). Also OpenSpace-Online CEO Gabriela Ender (TOP 10 World Changer 2006), progressive thinker and enabler of a new "Holistic Return on Investment" dimension in civil society, business and politics, has confirmed to take part in a panel discussion about the topic „How the media deal with paradigm shifts – the case of Social Business".

Organizer of the Vision Summit 2008 are the GENISIS Institute for Social Business and Impact Strategies and the Foundation Entrepreneurship. All plenary sessions will provide simultaneous translations for non-german speakers.

>> www.visionsummit.org
>> Click here and download the complete program (PDF)

The Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics - Barack Obama among the 25 nominations of 2008 -

[August 14, 2008] Two years ago Gabriela Ender was among the "Top 10 World Changer 2006 Award" winners. This year, Barack Obama is among the 25 nominations. The nomination text of the jury: "US Presidential nominee, Barack Obama has taken basic organizing theory that he learned in Chicago & combined it with an Internet campaign to create an exquisite organization. The main difference is the semi-autonomous "cell" organizing. This approach has allowed him to: raise hundreds of millions of dollars online through millions of donors. He is the first raised more money and mobilized more people than any campaign in history. His campaign has raised about $350 million to date from 1.7 million donors, mostly in contributions of $200 or less."

If you want, go to the PoliticsOnline website and choose your world changer favorite 2008:
>> www.politicsonline.com/content/main/specialreports/2008/top10_2008/vote.asp

Germans "Network Towns of the Future" uses OpenSpace-Online®

[May 27, 2008] Representatives of "Netzwerk Zukunftsstädte" www.netzwerk-zukunftsstaedte.de, an initiative of Deutscher Städte- und Gemeindebund, German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB) www.dstgb.de and Deutsche Telekom AG www.telekom.de, have participated in a three-hour OpenSpace-Online® conference. The focus of the event was the development of new ideas and proposals, a lively exchange on many different network themes, the establishment of contacts and the conclusion of agreements on cooperations amongst those taking part. "We consciously chose the OpenSpace-Online® conference method. With it we are able to provide an open, interdisciplinary and at the same time solution-oriented real-time exchange of ideas and experience, as well as stimulating intensive forms of collaboration with the participation of many different experts," said the spokesman for the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, Franz-Reinhard Habbel.

>> See the report (in German) on this online event

The second year in row, NEULAND supports worldwide online community event

[April 28, 2008] This year again, as in 2007, the company NEULAND will be the financial supporter for an international real-time online exchange of the global face-to-face open space (OST) community worldwide by using the OpenSpace-Online® Internet Conference Methodology.

A very warm THANK YOU to NEULAND!

>> www.neuland-world.com/openspace/

INNOVATION PRIZE 2008 Award for OpenSpace-Online® Methodology

[March 20, 2008] The INNOVATION PRIZE 2008 of the German "Initiative Mittelstand" www.imittelstand.de has awarded the OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Methodology as one of the most innovative and appropriate solutions for small and medium-sized businesses in the "knowledge management" category. The award meets the requirements of small and medium-sized businesses for practically relevant knowledge and the transfer of information in the field of ITC, and gives small and medium-sized enterprises stimuli for increasing their competitiveness. A top-class jury of scientists, industry experts and specialised journalists had a record number of applications to assess this year.

Our notification letter stated: "We congratulate you most sincerely on this outstanding success! This is an achievement of which you can be proud as over 1600 applications were submitted." Perfectly wonderful, we are very pleased! >> PRESS RELEASE

Historical Exhibition on Female Computer Pioneers

[March 10, 2008] 2008 is the Year of Mathematics in Germany. Since eight years, Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research promotes a specific discipline of science each year. On the occasion of this "celebration year" the German Women Museum in Bonn has organized a historical exhibition on famous mathematician's and IT-pioneers of the past and present. The exhibition starts with Hypathia (reputed to be the first mathematician's, 4th century) and it ends with an information board about Gabriela Ender as the developer of the (r)evolutionary OpenSpace-Online® Internet method. The exhibition is open for visitors until April 13, 2008. The "Women Museum" in Bonner was founded in 1981 and it was worldwide the first museum focusing on famous women.

>> www.frauenmuseum.de

OpenSpace-Online® makes the "First German Online Climate Summit" possible

[November 06, 2007] The "First German Online Climate Summit" will be held on December 4, 2007 under the patronage of the president of the Federal Environmental Agency, Prof. Dr. Troge. The event will be held by the Deutscher Städte- und Gemeindebund (German Association of Towns and Municipalities), www.dstgb.de in cooperation with OpenSpace-Online GmbH and with financial support from Cisco Systems, Inc., www.gruene-it.org.

The goal of this event is to make a new level of interdisciplinary, open, and still goal-oriented cooperation with the most important environmental and climate experts in Germany possible. The online climate summit shall be continued on an international level in the coming years.

>> English event report (inclusive statements from the organizer and participants)
>> German article "Klicken für das Klima" by Alexander Handschuh

Interview with Gabriela Ender, founder and CEO of OpenSpace-Online

[October 01, 2007] The new edition of 'ab40', a print magazine, published quarterly since 1989 in Germany, features a 10page interview with OpenSpace-Online founder Gabriela Ender. 'ab40', www.ab40.de, showcases cultural news, relevant research and interesting ideas. The magazine shares autobiographies of women who care in all kinds of ways: for themselves, for each other, for their families, friends, projects, and for the world at large.

ab40 has just started to present selected articles from the German print as well in English. Here the direct link to the abridged version of the interview:

>> http://www.ab40.de/_go40/pages/4b__07_4.html

Report from the field of Co-Creative Excellence

[July 07, 2007] OpenSpace-Online® supports various goals, different themes, multifaceted application fields and all kinds of learn, work, interest groups and change facilitators. Applications are endless: international new product creation and strategizing; collaboration among team members; building social networks; developing and realizing new and existing projects; evaluation and qualitative research, interdisciplinary stakeholder management; change process facilitation; follow-on and sustaining collaboration after face-to-face events. With our meeting software you open the space for Co-Creative Excellence in Real-Time. The possibilities for application is limited only by the imagination!

Here an application example of how everybody or every organization can use the Do-it-yourself OpenSpace-Online® Methodology to organize and to host a worldwide real-time event with internal or external stakeholder groups. The following case study (including event evaluation) is an event report from a 4,5 hour Worldwide Community Real-Time Internet Conference of almost 100 International Face-to-Face Open Space (OST) Practitioners from 25 countries.

You are warmly invited to download and to forward this 14page EVENT REPORT (PDF) and/or the link to everybody who might be interested.

>> www.OpenSpace-Online.com/event-report_070707.pdf

Our 5th Year Anniversary is Crowned with OpenSpace-Online® Version 2.0

[May 15, 2007] Double Celebration: Exactly five years after realizing the visionary OpenSpace-Online® project, the second software edition of the OpenSpace-Online® Real-time Methodology is completed and internationally available. Seven months after we received the prestigious global award "Top 10 World Changer 2006" this double celebration is setting a next great milestone in the success story of this enterprise.

During the last 5 years we collected all the feedback, wishes and ideas from our organizers and participants from around the world. This fabulous treasure and our ideas and future plans provided the ideal basis to make the worldwide best real-time conferencing method even better. Today we are very happy to have reached all of our current improvements goals.

OpenSpace-Online® in the "The Change Handbook"

- The Change Handbook ~The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems -

[January 2007] OpenSpace-Online® is the only self-contained online-methodology of more than 60 change and participation methods featured in the new second edition of The Change Handbook (editors are Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, and Steven Cady, published by Berrrett-Koehler, USA). Gabriela Ender, originator of the global award winning OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Methodology, belongs to a group of 90 co-authors of this edition.

The Change Handbook (first edition 1999) is an internationally best selling and highly recommended book regarding Whole Systems Change (organizational and community change) and what works. It describes organizational change method's essential concepts and processes and provides advice on when to use each. This book is a masterpiece and a must for all Change Facilitators, Change Enablers, Collaboration Experts and all people who are interested in this subject!

Order your The Change Handbook now at:

Head of The Month November 2006

[November 6, 2006] "Projekt Zukunft", the largest communication and support network of German's Capital Government, chooses Gabriela Ender as the "Head of The Month November 2006". This network is co-chaired by to the Mayor of Berlin and Senator for Economics, Labour and Women’s Issues. "Projekt Zukunft" did an interview with Gabriela Ender about the future of the Internet, e-Democracy and OpenSpace-Online.

>> Please see the interview (in German)

OpenSpace-Online® receives the "Top 10 World Changer 2006" Award

[October 24, 2006] OpenSpace-Online® belongs to the "Top 10 World Changer 2006" Award winner! With this prestigious award, for the seventh year in a row, the World E-Gov Forum and PoliticsOnline recognize the Top 10 pioneers, organizations and companies having the greatest impact on the way the Internet is bringing democracy online. They said, this year marked the toughest year ever for the jury in choosing the 20 finalists.

The jury’s nomination text regarding OpenSpace-Online:

The “do-it-yourself” OpenSpace-Online E- Participation Real-Time Methodology is a powerful philosophy that has the potential to become one of the most earth shifting Internet meeting and conferencing methods in society, politics, education and other fields. OpenSpace-Online was developed by Change Facilitator Gabriela Ender and her team in Germany (1999-2002). The easy to use innovation enables fast collaboration, knowledge-sharing, problem solving and results-oriented dialogs about urgent topics for small and large groups in real-time without ’human’ online moderators. During the virtual-led and structured working process all participants are equal. It also bridges value-gaps between online and offline collaboration / participation in a wonderful unique way.

For the final selection PoliticsOnline and the World E-Gov Forum invited people from all over the world to review the 20 finalists and to electronically vote for the Top Politics & Internet World Changer of 2006. Among the finalists there were many very large online-portals, online-magazines with several million members and users. Even the president of South Korea was one of the 20 nominees. Many people, networks and organizations worldwide supported our nomination and voted for us, forwarded information about the poll to others and crossed their fingers for us. More than 18.000 votes got us into the Top 10 World Changer Award. At this point HUGE THANK YOU to so many people from all over the world. We are very GRATEFUL! What an honour to be among all these global top-class winners!

Please see at the Internet pages of PoliticsOnline:
>> The Global Top 10 Award Winners
>> Profiles of the 20 Finalists

Book about Innovative Workshop Concepts

Workshops, conferences and discussions are generally the biggest time consumers in enterprises. In most cases, they are not well prepared or structured and the organizers often lack the necessary skills for holding an efficient workshop or conference (offline and online). Many books have been published on this topic, however none compares with this publication in terms of its comprehensiveness. Book title: "Innovative Workshop-Konzepte - Erfolgsrezepte für Unternehmer, Manager und Trainer"

Gabriela Ender is one of the co-authors. Title of her article:
"Echtzeit-Konferenzen mit der OpenSpace-Online® Methode - Ergebnisorientierte Beteiligung via Internet"

Currently, the Book is only available in German
260 Pages with Illustrations
ISBN 3-937461-03-5
Euro 49,95
>> www.usp-publishing.com