Building Commons Discussion Forum

[Jayma Brown]

Anyone have any experience with Open Space Technology for leading discussions? Someone just told me about it today and suggested I use it to facilitate input on our local park which is slated to be re-designed.

I would greatly appreciate any tips on using it.

Also, any input on when a designer should be engaged in the process would be greatly appreciated. Right now the city (Richmond) has developed basic specifications (RFP) for the park and has narrowed down the designers to one, but there has not been any open community input solicited. The selected design firm will be paid to gather input after they have developed a preliminary design.

[dyoung]

Hi, Jayma,

I apologize for the hugely belated response. Yours is the first entry in the discussion forum for a long while and I had become very lax in checking it. In fact, Karl's wife, Nicole, just emailed me to suggest that we take it off-line.

I do have some experience of the open space method and think that it would be VERY appropriate and effective for a participatory planning session. By now you have probably found the guidance you were seeking, but if not please contact me.

I'd love to hear from you in any case to learn more about your work in Richmond, whether you used open-space, and how it went.

Diana Young
dyoung@sfo.com
510 655-8252