The reply bellow are my thoughts about what should be done and should not be considered as BSD Certification Group position. I'm just a member of the Brazilian-Portuguese translation team.
institutions should be certified by government or other organization.
1 - Why should Government be involved if they hardly know which is the right choice for technology and they are usually ruled by principles that are either corrupt or idealogically wrong? The only Organization involved should be the BSD Certification Group. This is a certification driven by and for the BSD community, not governments or politicians. We (I believe) are far beyond from that... When people get together as community, not as a nation or not as a government rulled by laws that no longer express what and who they are, it transpasses all frontiers and all politics. We, together as one, are the community. I think having all the instructors certified as Associates by the group should be enought... but that's just me talking...
But becoming a certifying institution should not have a high initial up-front cost, for example, it costs $10,000 to give certification.
2 - Price for the certification itself is still under discussion (as far as I know). Actually, the certification translation teams where asked to prepare surveys to ask the communities around the world how much would be expected to be the price for taking the tests. About becoming a certifying institution, as far as I know, no one except the BSD Certification Group is the certifying institution. Maybe, you're asking about providing place for the certification to be taken, and courses to be taught. In this case, I believe all Certification payment should be directed to the Group, and taught should be controlled by other means (like all teachers should be Associates, and the certification institution should be veryfied for security issues - like, do they have the required infra-structure?). Also, I believe all certitication exams should be video recorded by the institution and the video should be sended to the Group... but, again, that's just me talking.
This would keep non-profits (like ours) in developing countries (like the Philippines) in the running, and spread BSD knowledge as far as possible.
I agree. BTW: I'm from Brazil. ;-) Actually, even if the center do have profit-ends, I believe the model for this should be as low on profits as possible for the centers, to avoid commercial exploitation. Even if it costs only US$ 10,00, if the tests are hard enought, this should be enought to prove that the professional being certified has high BSD skills. Off course US$ 10,00 is too low, it was just an example on how I think we should keep price low, and tests level high. Afterall, this certification is about proving who is an expert on BSD, and not about making money (althought all profit is good if we can keep the certification alive).
-Any ideas on what a center will have to be or do to offer certification?
Read above my thoughts:
1 - all teachers should be associates
2 - all exams should be video recorded
3 - centers should be security certified (certification environments should be highly controlled by specifications provided by the group)
4 - Costs should not be high, but tests should require high skills, to make it worth.
-Any ideas on costs?
I believe that all money for the certification test should be sent for the group, and money collect for teaching should be split 70/30 (center/group), since I also believe all material for teaching should be prepared by the Group (I mean, content, not the printed material ;-)). So, if you have a lot of certifications you pay more, if you have less, you know it.
-How can we best prepare so that we are ready when the standard becomes available?
I want to know the answer for this question as well. Anyone could reply this e-mail and criticize my thoughts?
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