Announcing the OpenMRS Distributions Program

Community
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As OpenMRS has matured over the last decade, we have seen more and more applications built on top of our platform. We’re thrilled with this continued development and to further support it, we’d like to introduce the OpenMRS Distributions Program.

A Distribution is defined as a particular configuration of the OpenMRS Platform, OpenMRS modules, and (optionally) other integrated applications, that can be installed and upgraded as a single unit. We categorize Distributions based on their target audience, as either General-Purpose Distributions, Targeted Distributions, or Implementation-Specific Distributions.

The Distributions Program aims to actively encourage and support the development of OpenMRS distributions by:

  1. Improving access to and usage of Distributions
  2. Helping community members judge quality and appropriateness for use in their context
  3. Incorporating technologies and approaches from distributions into the Platform and Reference Application
  4. Engaging Distributions with community processes, leveraging community knowledge, and sharing lessons learned and best practices

We will help publicize Distributions by highlighting them on the OpenMRS website, wiki, and inviting them to present on regular forums. We also invite Distributions to leverage OpenMRS infrastructure for discussion forums, and our translation community.

As we kick off the program, we’d like to highlight an initial set of Distributions that are active in the OpenMRS community:

  • the OpenMRS Reference Application, a General-Purpose Distribution
  • Bahmni, a General-Purpose Distribution including other HIS components
  • eSaude, a Targeted Distribution for the Mozambican public health system
  • KenyaEMR, a Targeted Distribution for the Kenyan public health system
  • UgandaEMR, a Targeted Distribution for the Ugandan public health system

Learn more about the Distributions Program, and the available OpenMRS distributions at http://om.rs/distributions. If you’d like to get involved in the program, reach out to @janflowers and @darius.

The Distributions Program is a key part of OpenMRS’s Strategic Goal #3 from our 2016 Operational Plan. Learn more at http://om.rs/strategicgoals.

We look forward to getting community feedback, both as comments on this Talk post, and in person at the 2016 Uganda Implementers Meeting.

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