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Since the gift of Open Space Technology (O ST) was discovered by Harrison Owen more than 20 years ago, this method for facilitation of smaller and larger groups has found its way into all parts of the world.
Nobody knows how many people actually apply it in their work as facilitators, teachers
, managers, priests, community activists, consultants, etc. Even less is known about the number of workshops that have been facilitated either entirely or partly by using OST. My conservative estimation is
that more than 1000 facilitators have applied OST on more than 20,000 occasions. Fortunately, we have some indicators - thanks to the work of Michael M Pannwitz. In his world map (which can be accessed at
www.openspaceworldmap.org), you will find 113 countries highlighted as “OST countries”, i.e. countries in which OST has been applied, by 237 practitioners. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The international OST mailing list counts 456 subscribers (http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html).