Since its launch in 2020, Torus has rapidly attracted a diverse community of users and contributors, from industry and academia.  Arizona State University’s Center for Education Through Exploration and Inspark Teaching Network have become foundational parts of the Torus Community, and exceptional contributions continue to emerge from KTH, Unicon, Wyeworks, Gogo, Substantial and many other individuals and organizations.

As an open source project, decisions and priorities for Torus are driven by the community.  Our annual release cycle reflects the calendar (and need for stability) of the U.S. post-secondary system.  A larger strategy is established and published each year, after input and discussion from the community. This strategy drives our 4 annual releases, which align with the academic calendar:

• 2 Semester releases, before the Spring and Fall terms, encompass greater changes, and may have a more substantial impact on students and educators. These releases have higher stakes for our users, and so have an extended testing cycle; code is frozen for 3 weeks of testing before release.
• 2 midterm releases occur during the Spring and Fall terms (normally in March and October). Features are selected for these releases with careful attention to the potential impact on live sections. These releases are considered option, and have a code freeze and two week testing cycle.