OpenMRS Stages of Community Engagement - OMRS Stages

Owned by Burke Mamlin
Last updated: Nov 19, 2020 by Jennifer Antilla
3 min read

Background

In 2015, we introduced OpenMRS Developer Stages both to recognize developer skills and increase community engagement. Over the first year of usage, we realized that developer skill level and community engagement are not always aligned (e.g., a highly technically skilled developer may be only minimally involved with the community and a person with relatively modest technical skills may be highly engaged and leading aspects of development). In June 2016, the developer community decided to untangle these two goals: recognizing & encouraging (1) increasing OpenMRS development skills vs. (2) community engagement. This page reflects the stages of community engagement initially introduced within Dev Stages.

As of yet, we do not have formal processes defined or implemented for assigning and handling stages of OpenMRS Community Engagement. If you would like to help the community design & implement these stages, please let us know by posting your interest & ideas on OpenMRS Talk.

Stages

These are in DRAFT for the sake of preserving the stages of community engagement removed from OpenMRS Developer Stages. The use of these stages is under consideration, but has not been implemented.

This is mechanism by which people involved in OpenMRS can progress from a new community member (/omrs/null) to a leader (/omrs/5) as their contributions and engagement within the OpenMRS community progresses. The purpose of OMRS stages is to help clarify where people are in their journey, motivate people to become increasingly engaged, and help us recognize when people are becoming more engaged with the OpenMRS Community. OMRS stages are meant to serve the needs of the community by more explicitly recognizing levels of engagement.

Stage

Criteria

Expectations

Example Role(s)

Stage

Criteria

Expectations

Example Role(s)

/omrs/null

"Community"

  • OpenMRS ID

  • Introduced

Community members are expected to be nice. We're all in this together!

  • Can communicate well and show respect for others

  • Willing to be opened

  • Community Member

/omrs/1

"Learner"

  • Is learning about OpenMRS

A learner is expected to have engaged with the OpenMRS community.

  • Student or Intern

  • Working on an OpenMRS-related project

/omrs/2

"Contributor"

  • Making contributions to OpenMRS

  • Active ≥3 months

A contributor is expected to be making meaningful contributions to the community, but is not expected to be thinking about needs beyond their own or their own organization.

  • Wiki Editor

  • Developer on a sprint

  • Translator

/omrs/3

"Cooperator"

  • Working with others

A cooperator is expected to be thinking beyond their own needs or their organization's needs, including how their contributions affect others in the community and helping coordinate community contributions.

  • Helping develop a community solution

  • Release manager

/omrs/4

"Collaborator"

  • Helping in community activities (forum(s), sprints, etc.)

A collaborator is expected to be investing in coordination of efforts across the community to help create community benefits that go beyond the sum of the pieces. Usually, a collaborator depends on the work of other organizations or other organizations beyond their own are depending on their efforts.

/omrs/5

"Leader"

  • Assigned one or more roles within the community.

  • Mentoring others

  • Engages with implementation(s)

Leaders are expected to be significantly invested in the community, helping drive changes that benefit the community, and mentoring others.

  • Overseeing one or more community objectives