The Open Competency Network (OCN) Competency Explorer aims to make skills and competencies readily available to humans and machines by developing a membership trust network (Trust) of open registries holding one or more competency frameworks and by enabling search and retrieval of those frameworks and their competencies from any registry node in the network. The Open Competency Network broadly defines the concept of a competency to include any attribute required to perform a work role including knowledge, skills, attitudes, attributes, habits of mind or practice and tasks. The Network defines a competency framework as an instance of a logically related set of competencies based on a specific competency framework model that has been encoded using a recognized metamodel standard such as, but not limited to, 1EdTEch’s CASE, Credential Engine’s CTDL-ASN, and University of Washington’s ASN. Since the OCN Competency Explorer standard does not require a registry to natively use any particular metamodel, it relies on a transformation, or interchange service to transform instance data following one metamodel into instance data following a different metamodel. In the T3 OCN instance based on this specification, the transformation service used is Rosetta Lens; by Eduworks. The mappings upon which such translation services rely have been provided through an instance of the OCN’s Data Ecosystem Schema Mapper tool that maps property semantics between publicly recognized competency framework metamodels.

Phase 1: Network architecture and protocols design (October 2019–April 2020)

Draft Chapters of the draft specifications for the OCN Competency Explorer are set out below. We recommend reading the “Getting Started” guide first. The documents will remain a work in progress through the prototype and pilot phases. During this phase the project was known as the Open Competency Framework Collaborative (OCFC), and the tools as a Search Service.

Chapter 1: Getting Started
Chapter 2: Glossary
Chapter 3: Directory Data Model
Chapter 4: Handling Requests
Chapter 5: Transaction Log & Entry
Chapter 6: Trust Node Member Onboarding
Chapter 7: Class and Property Definitions
Chapter 8: Trust Member Policies (Licenses)
Chapter 9: Competency Framework Models
Chapter 10: Appendices

This site is maintained on the GitHub repository at Github.com/OCF-Collab. Please post comments or report issues in the issues forum there.

Phase 2: Prototype development of the Phase 1 design

Prototype was finished and tested in December 2020. Watch a short video demonstrating the Protptype. This activity was part of The T3 Innovation Network Pilot Projects Competency Data Collaborative Work Task 5.2.

Phase 3: Pilot development with new and enhanced functionality

Current development of the service is being handled through the Open Competency Network (OCN) into early 2023. The OCN is a network under the umbrella of the T3 Network of Networks.