What if O'Reilley (or someone) set up a website that did free (or low cost) online certification?
Before a single nay-sayer jumps in and kills the idea, remember the question is not "HOW?" the question is "WHAT IF?" If the "what if?" gives a satisfactory result, the "how?" will simply follow. "What if?" is not a technical question like "How do I get all the keys in a hash?" "What if?" is a question asked without an answer. The idea is that the answer comes out of brainstorming, kicking the idea around, throwing it into the Bazzaar, and seeing what comes out. That sort of conversation has thus far been impossible on this list. No one has been able to kick around the idea of certification without getting pulled down into socialism, a complete shattering of the perl community, cat/dog sexual relationships, the end of teh world as we know it. So I know a lot of technical types have a hard time being in a space with no answer, but that is exactly what is required. "What if certification were made available that had no negative costs to the programmer but was respected enough in the business world that top-down decisions from managers would pick perl as the language of choice?" What if? Put your mind in that frame. Give up your attachments to the outcome and take on "what if?" What if it were this way? Once you get to that point, then answer "what if?". Post it on the list as part of a group inquiry. It is out of that conversation that the "How?" will eventually emerge. If you simply focus on "It can't be done" then you'll kill the "What if?" and you'll never get to "How?" What if some company like O'Reilley took on perl certification that was free for perl programmers, but was of a caliber that it was respected in the business world? We can have a website like CPAN which has how many megabytes of free stuff to download, what if someone had a website that had free certification testing? What if it was meant to serve the community rather than to make money as trainers/certifiers? what if it promoted perl in the business world? What if it were really that good? All the benefits and none of the negatives? It's no more crazy than to suggest that someone put together a complete operating system that is freely available to everyone on the world. What it requires is a community spirit, and a little bit of generousity from its members to grant it the possibility of being. What if? _______________________________________________ Boston-pm mailing list Boston-pm@mail.pm.org http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
