OpenClinica Community Virtual Forum

Part of creating a leading open-source solution that is free to use and develop is the active participation of diverse users and software developers in the development process. The OpenClinica Virtual Forum is an open environment to share ideas, promote collaboration within the community, and determine future direction for the use and development of OpenClinica.

Next Meeting

11:30-1:00 June 28, 2011
Register/Inquire

We expect to hold these forums on a bi-monthly basis.
View minutes from prior meetings

Goals

1. Encourage sharing of best practices, innovations, successes, failures, and needs among community members
2. Make sure users understand the resources available to them for using and developing with OpenClinica (mostly focused on free and community resources in the areas of usage, features, resources, future development, and technology architecture)
3. Get participants excited about being part of a community in which they have a real stake
4. Provide the core product team with feedback and new ideas
5. Encourage community members to share and contribute their changes back to the project for the benefit of all
6. Better define processes that encourage contribution while maintaining high quality and methodical change control, and make sure those processes are easily understood by all contributors
7. Allow community members who put in the time to contribute to have a stake in OpenClinica's future, including a degree control over future product decisions and direction
8. Allow community members who put in the time to contribute to be recognized for their contributions publicly (if they so desire)

Format

The forums will be run using teleconference and webinar. Within this virtual environment, they will follow the structure of an "unconference". An unconference is a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose. 

Participants will drive the agenda and the focus will be on productive multi-party dialog rather than highly structured presentations.

In the first few forum meetings we will err on the side of more structure and relax this gradually as the capability for self-organizing emerges.

Guidelines for Participation

• Approach the forum with a constructive, open attitude. Remember we will have developers and users from diverse perspectives who may not always speak the same "language" but have meaningful contributions to make.
• Your ideas and suggestions are highly valued by the community. Don't be afraid to speak up!
• The best way to get recognized in the community is to contribute in the best way you can - beta testing, code, new feature specifications, best practices, or documentation.
• Be courteous and professional to all.
• Commercial pitches should be generally avoided but a reference to a service or product is okay if it will be useful to the community.
• Basic knowledge of what OpenClinica does is expected but higher level of expertise is not necessary. Some forum activities will require more in-depth knowledge.

If you are interested in learning more about the OpenClinica Virtual Forum or participating in future meetings please let us know.