The difference between certification and professional seems very blurred. here.  In my opinion to be certified one need only to prove they have a specific level of knowledge, this is an inventively different discussion than professional.  It is reasonable to assume that a professional has the required level of knowledge but, they are expected to have more.  Not only demonstrated ethics but also a certain level of involvement in an appropriate community is expected.    I also have some difficulty with how one would globally establish consistency when it comes to matters such as the quality of the hour spent mentoring.
The closest parallel as I see it is while an engineer may have graduated from a university and proven to their professors  that they have an adequate level of knowledge, they usually have to wait for several years and have accumulated some experience and frequently are required to write one or more exams on topics such as ethics.  some areas also may require other personal standards or evidence of continuing education. before they will grant professional status. Other regularly recognised professional groups also has similar procedures.
The danger as I see it is trying to make a certification too broad sweeping.  The challenge in setting a global standard on just what comprises an appropriate level of knowledge is enough of a challenge with out bring other "professional" aspects into the discussion. Thinking of some that I have meet in the IT world, while they frequently have a greater body of knowledge than I, there is no way they would be classified as professional.
For the record I am a professional in another area, I see my professional designation as entirely separate from the courses and exams I took to establish my level of knowledge.
Norm


From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Atom Powers
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 7:51 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BSDCert] Why Linux needs a mentor program

I would love to see some sort of involvement requirement for the cert. Such a requirement could depress the number of people that will take the exam just for the title, making the cert more valuable while at the same time improving BSD and adding to the community.


On 9/20/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

This is something the Group has considered for the "professional" (more advanced) certification and ties in a little bit to the recent discussion on pre-requisites (though that discussion was for the "associate" or less advanced exam).

What does this list think of requiring the "professional" candidate to do more than just pass an exam? As in, requiring another something such as:

- so many hours of involvement in one of the projects (assisting with docs, advocacy, ports/packages, resolving bugs, etc.)

- so many hours of mentoring (either on lists, IRC, in one's local community, in a user group, etc.)

- other (give suggestions here)

Dru

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