KIRCHOFF, BRUCE. Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, P.O. Box 26174, Greensboro, NC 27402-1674. - Open Space Symposium.
Open Space is a symposium format that allows participants to determine
the content and organize the sessions on the day of the event. Open
Space will allow us to incorporate more discussion into our meetings,
to deal with subjects that are new, and to include topics that cannot
be easily accommodated in traditional lecture formats. The impulse for
Open Space comes from the observation that the most valuable parts of
a conference are the informal meetings that take place during coffee
and meal breaks. During these times we meet old friends, discusses our
research, and makes plans for the coming year. Open Space is designed
around the idea of a structured coffee break. An Open Space symposium
begins with a brief introduction of the concept of Open Space and a
preview of the activities to follow. Participants are then asked to
come forward to suggest topics for discussion or presentation. Each
topic becomes one of the sessions of the symposium. The person who
suggests a topic becomes that session's convener. The convener is
responsible for the session. She may lead a discussion, present a
lecture, or simply open the floor to contributions from the people in
attendance. After presenting their idea for a session, the conveners
post their topics to a time/room grid, thus scheduling it for later in
the symposium. Participants continue to come forward until the grid is
filled, or there are no more suggestions from the floor. The main
duties of the session conveners are to start the session and to assure
that a record is kept of any discussions. Because this is the first
year of Open Space, we have prepared two sessions in advance. These
will focus on characters states (Peter Stevens) and a mentoring
session for graduate students (Nancy Dengler).
Key words: characters, coffee, discussion, graduate students, mentor