RadicalxChange Annual Conferences 2021 — Experimenting with Open Space unConferences & RxC TV

Our work with social technologies is well-known in contexts like property management and decision-making, but arguably the most generative and fundamental arena for improving democracy is helping people have better conversations! So for our annual gatherings last December we experimented with Open Space unConferences where participants, not we organizers, co-create the agenda and take ownership of their time together. Instead of asking people to travel the world for one big, multi-day event –– a format we feel is losing currency–– we experimented with day-long conferences in three different locations: Taipei, online and Denver.

These events were supplemented, sparked, and inspired by RxC TV, a creatively “TV-themed” programming with captivating episodes including a diverse group of artists, intellectuals, and technologists, as well as segments that served as “commercials” for democratic tools and visions of institutional reform.

RxC TV Day 1

RxC TV Day 2

RxC TV Day 3

What is an Open Space unConference?

The method comes from veteran conference go-ers who consistently felt the most valuable interactions and creative energies were generated not by panels but the in-between coffee chats and networking spaces. The idea was essentially to make these the whole event.

The day starts with an Opening Circle in which the facilitators explain the format and attendees propose sessions they wish to host and add them to the agenda. When there is limited space–if an event has 5 rooms and 5 hour-long time slots, it has space for 25 sessions–similar sessions might be combined. Then everyone decides which sessions to attend and moves to the right rooms to begin.

The discussions in Open Space unConferences are subject to five principles and one law:

1. Whoever Comes Are The Right People

2. Wherever It Happens Is The Right Place

3. Whatever Happens Is The Only Thing That Could Have

4. Whenever It Starts Is The Right Time

5. When It’s Over It’s Over

The Law of Mobility: If you are not learning or contributing, move yourself to somewhere that you will.

The day ends with a Closing Circle where people from each session recount the discussions and everyone reflects on the process.

Looking Back

Taipei, Taiwan (December 4th)

For our conference in Taipei, we couldn’t be more honored to have partnered with the inspirational hacktivists of the g0v task force, jothon. They are the leading experts on civic tech organizing, and we’ve learned enormously from them at every step of the way!

The event was held at the Taipei Innovation City Convention Center, and focused on new technological affordances for democracy and strengthening civil society, as well as current social issues in Taiwan (which were all the more vivid in light of a nation-wide referendum that was soon to take place). Audrey Tang, and legislator & rockstar Freddy Lin kickstarted the event with opening remarks, and the brilliant open space facilitators ShufangTsai & Tara Hsueh helped lead the flow of discussions, so participants were able to dig deeper into each topic, build up meaningful connections and generate ideas for future collective action! Here are a few of the topics that were discussed:

• How to achieve a genuine Open Government along with the public sector?

• Democracy Infrastructure and Ecology

• Whose culture? What are collective memories? Who has the power to control?

• Can NGOs release NFTs to solve the donation conundrum?

• Should domain names be deleted by force?

Notes from each of the sessions can be found here. Participants came from various backgrounds, such as humanitarian groups, media, politics, social welfare, art and culture, which created a diverse atmosphere!

Online (December 10)

For both the online and Denver events we had the joy of collaborating with our friends Kaliya Young, Heidi Saul and Dounia Saeme, all deeply experienced open space facilitators! The online event welcomed over 250 participants from around the world to QiqoChat, a delightfully simple integration of Zoom breakout rooms, Google Docs, and chat. We found the online space to be great for structuring interactions, organizing the agenda, and seeing which participants were in every session.

24 sessions were held, including:

• Self-Sovereign Identity

• Polis and Taiwan fan-club

• Decentralization of Value: How individuals and groups can live outside the maze of incentives

• California Cannabis Reform Initiative & RadicalxChange Voice

Here you can find all the session notes as well as group reflections, which suggest participants were sold on the format:

• I can’t imagine participating in a typical conference again.

• I was encouraged to call a topic and so I did. This is the first time sharing my ideas in a public forum and I am so fortunate to have found this community

• This is sooo much better than trad-confs

Attendees zoomed in from 6 continents!

QiqoChat’s agenda wall and breakout rooms

Denver, Colorado (December 17)

For our final conference, we picked Colorado, since it is quickly becoming America’s most forward-thinking laboratory for democratic innovations. With deep roots among both conservatives and liberals, the state is a model in building consensus, from using quadratic voting in the state senate to pioneering the legalized cannabis industry to being a leader in Web 3. And as the first Omicron wave reared its head, we felt justified in the decision to limit the number of participants at the Hyatt Regency, to safely host a full day of in-person conversations.

A large majority of participants proposed sessions–a good problem–so we needed to combine many of them, including three different ones on memes! All in all, 39 sessions were held, including:

• Building on the Transformative Potential of Citizens Assemblies

• Blockchains for Social Good

• DAOs as Digital Cooperatives

• Regenerative Crypto Economics

• Language & Evidentials

• Governance Archeology

Notes from “Governance Archeology”

Here you can find all the session notes and group reflections. The reviews were, again, glowing:

• RadicalxChange Denver was one of the most significant collaborative events I’ve ever attended. What transpired today was special.

• I was reminded how much creative energy is out there and how many amazing, impactful public goods projects are just a connection away.

Looking Forward

As the reviews show, Open Space unConferences are a great way to help people, especially those of us who are shy or introverted, feel comfortable standing up and sharing their thoughts and feelings. But within any given session, there might be conflict, or poor listening, or someone who tends to dominate the conversation. We largely avoided these problems, and the Law of Mobility does offer the right to exit, but looking forward we should put more attention on improving the nature of in-session conversations. The nice thing is that social technologies are often complementary and can be weaved together.

Dynamic Facilitation, for example, is a method of facilitating meaningful conversations that hear every view and push conversants toward dynamic consensus. To be sure, the method requires a very wide range of skills, such as understanding not just logical but emotive participation, reflecting back what is heard, finding points of commonality, and managing group dynamics so people don’t get shut down. But an environment is created that accommodates and reconciles difference; criticism and conflicting views are uplifted and embraced as points of leverage because there is lots of information in criticism. The effect can be transformative (see MacLean’s Panel) and in the end a point is hopefully reached where, as indigenous people say, “We talk until there is nothing left but the obvious truth.”

Dozens of other methods, like World Cafe and Wisdom Councils, are also deserving of inquiry, experimentation, and research (see the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation and Participedia for comprehensive catalogs).

Stay tuned for more documentation and information about how to bring Open Space unConferences to your local RxC chapter!