Our participants in the Estonian workshop from Russia are spreading the message of POP [Practice of Peace] now, two weeks later here in the Kola Peninsula of Russia. I arrived with my friends from the Estonian Fund for Nature to Murmansk and held one day OS for Saami economical communities network. About forty representatives from different communities gathered from all peninsula, some of them arrived by boat hundreds of kilometres away. They have been conflicting between each other more than ten years and were much suspicious for the seminar we were to hold. The space was opened, working groups got started, "bees" and "butterflies" made their duties and after three sessions the peace was re-established! Conflicting counterparts made several proposals for co-operation and for building up some common body for further co-operation. The international Open Space event "Earth and People" was agreed to be called together on the 27-29 of June this year, to be held out in nature in the middle of Kola Peninsula under topic: "How to live in Peace with Earth?" All participants are invited to take with some delicatessen foods from their home place to offer for the common consuming. After the event, the communities are inviting participants in small groups of 5-10 persons to follow for a week to their places to learn more about their ways of life, their stories and traditions.

From an Open Space event in Estonia and Russia
facilitated by Mikk Sarv
mikk@elfond.ee

I really found the Open Space experience very helpful since it brings people, including the experts on the issues, together to share their experiences and brain storm on the issues. Next conference can be Open Space by itself. I felt that I got much more out of the Open Sessions than the tutorials for which I paid so much!

From an Open Space event in the United States
facilitated by Michael Herman, Michael Herman Associates
http://www.globalchicago.net

In 1993, my colleague and I launched an organizational experiment. Our intention was to create two organizations--one in Haiti and one in the US--which would work together to promote justice and peace by fostering transformative learning among Haitians and North Americans. We chose a non-hierarchical structure at a staff level with hopes of avoiding paternalistic tendencies which frequently characterize international development efforts, and lead to disempowerment and ineffectiveness. After nine years in Open Space, Beyond Borders and Limye Lavi Fondation continue to function without a hierarchy and have become models to other organizations working in Haiti.

From an Open Space organization in Haiti
co-founded by facilitator John Engle, Beyond Borders and Limye Lavi
englejohn@hotmail.com and www.beyondborders.net/experiment.htm

The entire conference was a wonderful experience. I had real reservations when you started talking about Open Space, wondered how it would work, would the groups be intellectually challenging. Some were, some were not, but the liberating factor of being able to get up and move on more than made up for this. Some, where I thought I would bumblebee were interesting enough that I stayed put. Others finished early and I wondered around until something caught my eye. In others I, with the approval of the group, went over to check with another group to see if we were duplicating each other, we weren't, and then came back and reported to the group. It is truly remarkable…This was my first experience with this. I liked the diversity of the people there. I found most of the people who convened groups were not experts on an issue, but were ones who wanted to know more about the issue. And somehow those with expertise and information found their way there.

From an Open Space event in the United States
facilitated by Lisa Heft, Opening Space
http://www.openingspace.net