Problem Statement

There are many contributors to the Open edX platform that participate in a variety of ways - writing code for the Open edX software, translating the project, people performing Quality Assurance tasks, members of the Marketing working group, documentation writers, and more. While previously the Core Contributor Program has focused on code contributors, we want to send the message that all contributors to the platform play a meaningful role and deserve the designation Core Contributor.

Core Contributors have a set of Rights and Responsibilities to the Open edX platform. In exchange for those Rights to contribute, we ask for some Responsibilities: this will include signing a Program Agreement and following the responsibilities of the roles that are laid out below.

Who can become a Core Contributor?

What specific roles required is detailed in the below Role Descriptions section. In general, however, people wishing to be Core Contributors need to show sustained, active performance in the role prior to being nominated as a NTC. We call this the “3 Cs”: Commitment, Conduct, Caliber. These people follow the Code of Conduct, are respectful of other community members, and are generally polite and welcoming. That means if you wish to be a Core Contributor, you should begin by joining the Open edX project and participate in a way that’s meaningful to you. Reach out to us if you don’t know how to begin!

How to become a Core Contributor?

Please familiarize yourself with the contents of OEP-54: Core Contributors, which discusses the program and how nominations occur. To become a core contributor, you will need to be nominated and provide evidence of how you’ve demonstrated the “3C’s” as defined above. That is, what have you already contributed to the Open edX community, and at what quality (Caliber), how have you interacted on pull requests, in writing (Discourse, wikis, Slack, etc), and/or in working groups (Conduct), and how long have you been an active member of the community/how do you intend to actively continue to contribute as a CC (Commitment)?

Core Contributor Role Descriptions

Roles are listed below; the person listed next to the role is the person most highly responsible for the definition.

Axim Legal Requirements: Common for all Core Contributor Program Participants

We are asking that all Core Contributors, regardless of role, complete the following requirement:

Sign a Core Contributor Program Agreement, sent to you by Program administrators when you are invited to the program. This Agreement covers all NTC role types, so if you switch to a new role or add on responsibilities of a second, you will not need more paperwork (exception: the Committer role requires a bit more paperwork)

We are additionally asking that, for those Core Contributors contributing on behalf of an employer, all employers of Core Contributors sign the Revised Declaration of Commitment to the Core Contributor Program to demonstrate that they are willing to spend part of your time working on the Open edX project.

Project manager (leading Open edX projects and/or working groups) - Sarina

Community Contribution Project Manager - Sarina

Translation Reviewers - Eden

QA - Sarina

Marketing WG members - Eden

Documentation - Sarina

Product managers - Sarina

*Note: As we are in the early stages of building a product organization for Open edX, it is expected that no one currently has very much community Product work to showcase in their portfolio or as part of their Commitment. Thus, we expect it may take some time before any member of the community is a candidate for the Product Core Contributor position.

UX/UI - Sarina

Forum moderators - Sarina

Forum moderators have the “moderator” capability in the Open edX forums. Additionally they may serve as Community TAs for one or more courses hosted on a Axim-hosted Open edX instance.

Content Authors - Sarina

This role refers specifically to those community members with authoring permissions on a Axim-hosted Open edX instance.

Please note: The Course Author role is separate and distinct from the Course Administrator and Course Data Manager roles, and there is explicitly no guarantee that a Course Author will be approved to serve as an administrator or data manager on any given course, including a course that they authored.

Course Administrators

This role refers specifically to those community members with admin permissions for one or more courses on a Axim-hosted Open edX instance. Admin permissions are defined as permissions which allow you to view sensitive learner information such as learner email addresses, learner course grades, and problem submissions. A person with an in-course designation of “Community TA” does not fall under this umbrella but rather would fall under the “Forum moderators” CC distinction.

Code contributors - Sarina

The right to commit code directly to the Open edX project is not granted lightly. Please see the following set of pages which dives deeper into the rights and responsibilities of an Open edX code contributor: Coding Contributors Materials

Release Manager - Sarina

See discussion thread about new role

A release manager is elected by the BTR group for a six-month period; this person should already be a coding CC.

What are a Core Contributor’s access & responsibilities?

CCs may need access to…

Should we adopt a “Champion” model?

For certain, the 2U/edX UX & Product Management teams would like their CCs to have a designated point of contact/mentor within the building, in order to advance a consistent platform product vision (for example, adhering to style conventions like Paragon)