Open spaces... and clashing views

While a lot of the sharing of ideas from across a complex continent still largely depended on on the traditional ten-minute, LCD projector-based presentations there was some space with a difference too. "Open spaces" is a way of volunteered sharing of information and ideas. Whoever feel strongly about a subject, presents it to others who volunteer to tune in.

While a lot of the sharing of ideas from across a complex continent still largely depended on on the traditional ten-minute, LCD projector-based presentations there was some space with a difference too. "Open spaces" is a way of volunteered sharing of information and ideas. Whoever feel strongly about a subject, presents it to others who volunteer to tune in.

If they get bored, they walk out. Or flit between groups like "butterflies" and "bees".

Planning for this involves getting consultation participants to come up with topics. And there were many: ranging from Free Software (many here prefer the media-friendly ‘Open Source’ term), to software freedom, localisation issues, gender in ICTs, ICT for peace, human rights and legal issues in relation to the internet, knowledge sharing through the media, liberate the airwaves, how to engage with governments, infrastructure, pro-poor ICTs and the digital divide, and more.

The ‘spectogram’, a way of getting people to take controversial stances over controversial topics, and a method tried out in other NGO circles too. Thursday morning’s plan provocative topic was "pirated software is illegal, immoral and unethical". Now, with such a heated subject, you can expect some strong words to get exchanged.

And yes, there actually were one or two supporters for the proposition.

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