Well then, go for it. Do not, however, expect the Drupal Association to endorse or franchise it. I think that there is little enthusiasm for becoming involved in this among either the General Assembly or the Board.<div><br>
</div><div>Cary Gordon</div><div>Drupal Association Board Member<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 11:27 AM, Domenic Santangelo <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:domenic@workhabit.com">domenic@workhabit.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div class="im">Brian Vuyk wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I tend to think a Drupal certification would be a bad thing as well.<br>
<br>
1. Clients being what they are, if a certification becomes somewhat<br>
common, it will become much more difficult to get freelancing work<br>
without it.<br>
2. For that matter, every IT / tech recruiter posting a job<br>
description on any job sites will now require it.<br>
3. Certificate exam would need to be retaken every time a new version<br>
of Drupal comes out.<br>
4. Unless cost is very low, this is an added barrier to entry for<br>
small shops and freelancers.<br>
</blockquote></div>
All valid points. Here's the thing: I believe that a Drupal certification in some form is inevitable, whether tomorrow or in 5 years. We have the opportunity -now- to start it, guide it, and make it what we (as devs and consultants) think it should be, rather then retroactively trying to affect changes once some company or foundation builds it. There have been many good points in the thread about being company-centric rather than developer-centric, devaluing developer skill, etc -- we can mitigate most (all?) of these things if we take the reigns now, rather than trying to jump in once someone else does.<br>
<br>
One way I've thought about the implementation would be something like this:<br>
-Create a board consisting of sub-boards for (say) 4 core competencies within Drupal: Code, Theme implementation, Contribs, Theme creation quality and creativity.<br>
-Using that board, rate applicants on each competency. Many applicants will be 8/10 in code and 0/10 in theme creation and vice-versa. This allows each applicant to be graded on his or her strengths as well as weaknesses.<br>
<br>
Just a thought.<br><font color="#888888">
<br>
-D</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Cary Gordon<br>The Cherry Hill Company<br><a href="http://chillco.com">http://chillco.com</a><br>
</div>