The Technical Oversight Committee met on Dec 13, 2022 with the following members in attendance
- Ed Zarecor
- Xavier Antoviaque
- Anant Agarwal
- Ferdi Alimadhi
- Ignacio Despujol Zabala
- Ashley Bradford
- George Babey
- Samuel Paccoud
The agenda for the meeting was
Discussion of possible conference locations for the 2024 Open edX Conference
We discussed an early proposal to host the conference in 2024, and brainstormed other potential hosting options. We identified some additional sites that we think warrant outreach. Members will discuss with potential hosts between now and our February meeting to determine viability.
Historically we have followed the pattern of hosting in the East Coast of the U.S., West Coast of the U.S., and Europe every three years. We discussed other possible destinations to broaden the reach of the conference and a basic assessment rubric that included cost of hosting and attending; difficulty in arriving including distance, visa requirements; strength of ties to the project; and other factors.
The TOC’s relationship with the broader Open edX community and ways we can clarify and expand TOC involvement
We discussed ways to better integrate the TOC into the regular activities of the project and provide more transparency into the work of the TOC.
We expect this to be a process of continuous improvement, but will focus on a small number of things immediately. Specifically:
- We will publish a summary of each bi-monthly TOC meeting in a timely fashion for review and comment by the community.
- We will establish a regular cadence for Working Groups to present to the TOC. We will structure this regular touchpoint to establish bi-directional communication channels between working groups and the TOC.
- We will propose a Town Hall like event for the whole community to meet with the TOC at the Open edX Conference in March.
- Increasing TOC participation in existing project norms like the OEP process. In this case, members wanted to clarify that when participating in conversations about architecture or best practices in an OEP, that we speak as individuals, neither acting as the voice of the TOC, nor our employers.
If community members have thoughts or proposals about how to better integrate the TOC with the broader community, please share them.
A retrospective of the community election format
We discussed the feedback we have heard so far about the first round of community elections and agreed that there are some opportunities that we would like to address for next year. Specifically, we like to focus on:
- Simplifying the presentation to reduce confusion about categories, voter registration, etc.
- Allowing broader participation from existing community members who are not Core Contributors or instructors.
- Improving reach and voter turnout.
A subset of the TOC will propose some specific changes focused on these opportunities and will present that to the community in the Spring of 2023.