The Advancing Open Competencies (AOC) Workgroup is a chartered, standing Workgroup open to T3 Innovation Network members interested in open competencies. Input ranges from broad advocacy to use cases and requirements for how people and organizations benefit from openly licensed competency and skill data. This standing Workgroup is chartered to:
make advocacy recommendations and craft information and resources to advance open skills and competencies to diverse audiences;
use outreach programs to build connections with the broader competency and skills ecosystem;
contribute use cases that scale competency and skill data;
review the status of the Competency Explorer and the Data Ecosystem Schema Mapper (DESM) tool, and
define requirements for refining and scaling the Competency Explorer.
The AOC Workgroup may define task-dependent Project Plans as needed to accomplish specific goals.
AOC Workgroup Chair
Naomi Boyer, PhD, Executive Director, Digital Transformation, Education Design Lab
Naomi Boyer Naomi identifies product solutions that support the successful deployment and scaling of the Lab’s 21st Century Skills Badges and related assets by facilitating the dialogue between the Lab, educational institutions, industry, and product vendors. She utilizes her technology background, higher education administration experience, and community engagement techniques to design solutions that work within the blossoming digital credential ecosystem. Naomi has national experience on the creation and implementation of competency-based education initiatives and worked locally to develop a collaborative, cross-institutional micro-credentialing system to address the industry expressed need for employability skills.
nboyer@eddesignlab.org, @NaomiBoyer on Twitter, LinkedIn
The AOC will meet the1st Wednesday of each month. Occasional, temporary adjustments may be made. Below is the calendar for 2nd half of 2022. Meetings will continue into 2023.
July 20, 2022 @ 9 am, PT / 10 am, MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm, ET / 4 pm UTC / 5 pm UK (Invite sent 7.11.22)
August 3, 2022 @ 9 am, PT / 10 am, MT / 11am CT / 12 pm, ET / 4 pm UTC / 5 pm UK (Invite sent 7.11.22)
August 17, 2022 @ 9 am, PT / 10 am, MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm, ET / 4 pm UTC / 5 pm UK (Invite sent 7.11.22)
September 7, 2022 @ 9 am, PT / 10 am, MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm, ET / 4 pm UTC / 5 pm UK (Invite sent 7.11.22)
September 21, 2022 @ 9 am, PT / 10 am, MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm, ET / 4 pm UTC / 5 pm UK (Invite sent 7.11.22)
October 5, 2022 @ 9 am, PT / 10 am, MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm, ET / 4 pm UTC / 5 pm UK
November 2, 2022 @ 9 am, PT / 10 am, MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm, ET / 4 pm UTC / 4 pm UK
December 7, 2022 @ 9 am, PT / 10 am, MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm, ET / 5 pm UTC / 5 pm UK
AOC Standing Items
1. Please mark yourself as present in the Roster. To be eligible to vote a participant must have attended at least two of the last four meetings, not including the current meeting.
2. Ensure you are familiar with the current T3 Network of Network Guidelines, in particular:
§5.5 Network of Networks Legal and Intellectual Property - “In particular, by discussing, distributing, or otherwise disclosing any content, materials, or other information (collectively “Disclosed Content”) through participation with the T3 Network, participants represent and warrant that: (i) they own all rights in and to the Disclosed Content, or, if the Disclosed Content is subject to third-party intellectual property rights, the participant has all necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to share the Disclosed Content; (ii) the participant is legally entitled to post the Disclosed Content, and (iii) the Disclosed Content does not violate any law. To the extent that any Disclosed Content is subject to any form of intellectual property or proprietary rights, by disclosure through participation with the T3 Network, the participant provides a license to the T3 Network and all participants for use of such Disclosed Content pursuant to the CC BY 4.0 Creation Commons license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The T3 Network’s policy is to comply fully and strictly with relevant international, national, and state antitrust laws.”
3. Meetings are recorded, recordings are made publicly available.
October 5, 2022
The October 5, 2022 AOC discussed the following topics. The meeting video and audio recordings and chat are saved in the 10-5-2022 AOC Google Drive Folder. Meeting follow up is posted to the AOC Google Group.
Complete the Network Charter, Competency Explainer, and Decision-making Process Online Consensus Form
TAW Update - Steve and Phil
Competency Explorer Project Plan was submitted to the T3 Steering Committee and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Next step is for the Chamber to contract development.
competency schema mapping and additional mappings coordinated with Data and Technology Standards Network and Jobs and Workforce Data Network
Dashboard configuration development is complete.
Administrator data import/export is in process.
Mapping interface development is complete.
Public page for viewing mappings is being tested.
Next Steps
Review the updated Advancing Open Competencies Charter and think about, and provide your input on our next tranche of work aligned to the Charter's scope, and objectives.
Review the C3 Connecting Competency Communities Webinar Series
The Competency Explorer Project Plan is moving forward. The TAW deadline for voting on the Competency Explorer Project Proposal concluded on Friday, August 12, 2022.
The Project Proposal has two deliverables (1) Ensure that a demonstrator instance of the OCFC Competency Explorer is maintained for the duration of the project. (2) The incremental evaluation and development (if possible) of enhanced capabilities for competency search and retrieval.
The deliverables will be technology demonstrators, not polished production-level user experiences.
The process is modeled on Feature Driven Development, an agile methodology suitable for such explorative projects.
The feature list is a "wish list" of new capabilities, not all will be implemented. Some will not be feasible given the distributed and heterogeneous nature of the data, level of funding, and various organizations involved. The project will implement some features and identify why others cannot be implemented.
Some important Assumptions and Risks are detailed at the end of the project proposal. Next Steps: Provide overview to (1) T3 Steering Committee this week, and (2) Chamber contracts with Learning Tapestry to build off their prior work and begin work on the deliverables.
RWSC Charter: Proposed Charter Updates
A clean draft of the RWSC Charter that uses comments and suggestions from RWSC members, is ready for review.
Renames the RWSC to Advancing Open Competencies (AOC) Workgroup
We can include an explanation of how Competencies is used broadly. See draft "Competency" meaning explanation to link to from the updated Charter and house on the the Wiki.
Some of the goals are to consolidate details that were in the original version to ensure it has longevity and have achievable objectives that are measurable.
Details of programs and projects can be documented separately using T3 Project Plan templates, on the T3 OCFC Network Wiki, and via the T3 Hub.
Next steps: (1) review during today's meeting and make any agreed upon changes, and (2) provide to Workgroup members and provide two weeks to complete the AOC Workgroup Charter Online Consensus Form.
The July 20, 2022 RWSC discussed the following topics. The meeting chat, video and audio recordings are saved in the 07-20-2022 RWSC Google Drive Folder. Meeting follow up is posted to the OCFC RWSC Google Group.
Review required reading from T3 Guidelines Section 5.5 (above).
Apologies for absence: Jeanne and Naomi are busy elsewhere.
Meet Taylor Hanson, Executive Director, Policy & Programs, US Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Taylor recently joined the Chamber and will be working with all of us on T3 Innovation Network.
RWSC Calendar
The RWSC calendar is updated to continue meeting the 1st and 3rd Wednesday each month and the time has been moved to start one hour earlier to support more people joining meetings across international time zones.
Meeting invites were sent through September 21, 2022, and invite for the remainder of the year will be sent soon.
Competency Explorer was selected as the name for the search service. Going forward any materials or references will use Competency Explorer.
T3 Innovation Network Mid-Year Meeting.
Thursday, 4 August 2022, 09:00 - 16:00 (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, located at 1300 I (Eye) St NW, Washington, DC 20005.
(New) OCFC Required Features page collates these required features / capabilities, and groups them thematically.
The next step is to collate these new required features / capabilities into a funded T3 Project Proposal.
The Project Proposal as well as the above requirements documentation will used to develop the scope of work for a contract with the developer.
Update RWSC Charter
Finish review and make updates to the RWSC Charter by Friday, July 29, 2022.
All comments and suggestions will be used to develop a new clean charter that we'll review during the August 3, 2022 meeting to refine and finalize.
Review the Charter, and in particular, the following sections, make suggestions and comments in this copy. We can reconsider the name of this workgroup and update the Charter as needed in respect to the OCFC Network. We can also identify new activities to support updated scope and objectives.
Please provide your suggestions and comments for the RWSC Charter - Please provide suggestions and comments directly in the document by Friday, Jul 22, 2022. The sections highlighted in yellow are open to revision. Copy of Approved RWSC Charter for Review and Updates May 2022.
The RWSC calendar is updated to continue meeting the 1st and 3rd Wednesday each month and the time has been moved to start one hour earlier to support more people joining meetings across international time zones. CALENDAR: MAR 2022-DEC 2023.
Thank you to all who participated with the survey to name the competency search service. The top three search names were: Competency Explorer, Open Competency Explorer (OCE) tied for 1st place, and Competency Discovery Platform (CDP) in 3rd place. Competency Explorer was selected based on the likelihood that not all competencies will be open and having a two word name keeps it simple and not an acronym. The TAW has completed the search service use case review and will use Competency Explorer as the name with the project plan to begin development.
Thanks so much! Jeanne Kitchens, OCFC RWSC Facilitator
June 1, 2022
Topics and Meeting Resources
The June 1, 2022 RWSC discussed the following topics. The meeting chat, video and audio recordings are saved in the 06-02-2022 RWSC Google Drive Folder. Meeting follow up is posted to the OCFC RWSC Google Group.
Provided the survey to the OCFC Network during the May 18, 2022 meeting.
15 responses received so far.
Google Sheet with total points and percentage of points - Top 4 names are shown in the Top Four Search Service Names chart below.
Totals points are based on adding up the the total points for each name. E.g., if
Two additional search names were submitted: (1) Credential and Skill Meta-Registry, (2) Open Skill and Competency Search Service
One comment was received: Mainly I don't like ones that would use an acronym that is already being used, or ones that are long/hard to remember. That's why I like GETSC, it sounds like what it is.
Review and update OCFC RWSC Charter:
All Charters are up for review because objectives were framed as in the pilot period that has ended.
Review the Charter, and in particular, the following sections, make suggestions and comments in this copy of the original, approved charter. We can reconsider the name of this group and update the Charter as needed in respect to the OCFC Network. We can also identify new activities to support updated scope and objectives.
The meeting chat, video and audio recordings are saved in the 06-02-2022 RWSC Google Drive Folder. Meeting follow up is posted to the OCFC RWSC Google Group and Google Group Email t3-ocfc-rwsc@credentialengine.org.
Please participate with the following three items:
Review, add suggestions and comments to the RWSC Charter
See item 6 above in the June 1 topics for more information on sections to focus on.
Think about and provide suggestions for how a speaker series or other forms of advocacy could align to advancing open, human and machine readable competency data via any of these options: (this) Google Group, via the Charter (linked above), or email Naomi [[1]] and Jeanne [[2]].
Set meeting frequency, day of week, and time of day - Complete the RWSC meeting time options survey with some options that will make the meetings earlier in the day to bring in more international time zones. See the current OCFC Calendar. Please respond no later than end of next week so we can get the meeting schedule on calendars.
Complete the new search name survey narrowed down to the top four name suggestions (seen in the chart above).
May 4, 2022
This meeting provided an update on the TAW process using RWSC developed use cases for the OCFC search, provided a survey to get feedback on naming the OCFC search, and featured a presentation by Eduworks on SkillSync AI services. The presentation provided additional context for the RWSC discussion about supporting AI use cases for scaling competency data.
Guest Presentation by Robby Robson, Elaine Kelsey, and Elliot Robson with Eduworks (Presentation slides 9-12 and starts at about 8:18 mins in the above linked video)
