Caveat Emptor. <br><br>The Drupal community can discuss this until the proverbial cows come home to no discernible effect.<br><br>Whomever pays for Drupal services/dev work, (not the Drupal community itself)
will ultimately decide any certification's inherent value. I'll be upfront here -- I'm not a fan of certification and think that Cisco has it right only to the extent of testing/certifying at the very, very highest levels. The M$ certification process, as most know, is just a joke: as long as you/your firm pays (and of course continues to pay over time) truly significant $$ for it to any myriad of sycophant firms that can/would probably give you the answers straight up!), it really spans the spectrum in terms of quality. Cisco's entry level CCNA certification really is dubious, although surely one of the most profitable because of a simple numbers game, and I know this from experience working with such as a PM (some of those at the CCNA level with little experience and a good memory can typically parrot back answers (I harp on the Token Ring stuff cuz its just a shining example of the tests futility) but ask most to do practical, real world implementations such as subnettting a bunch of VLANs and more often than not, the typical response is much more often a duh!, blank stare that is offered in return). The highest levels of Cisco certification are (as it should be) very, very difficult to obtain and results in an almost certain level of competence, but remember, this is a very difficult achievement and represents the creme de la creme. If the Drupal community wants to honor the best of the best by awarding certs similar to the top Cisco certifications, I'd (in this case, as a customer) buy that anyday because you *really do know* that the bozos have been eliminated and practical, real world laboratory exercises and tests have been passed. It's the sycophant firms that I think the certification "deniers" object to here, but clearly I can't speak for anyone but myself.<br>
<br>Just as those who (meaning buyers of services) use certification in
an absolute fashion will likely get burned at some point, those who do
not even consider a certification are of course equally vulnerable. At
the end of the day, it likely won't matter a whit and somebody/some
company might very well profit handsomely by doing the creating/testing
of the actual certification. OSS software is too plastic by it's very
nature to certify. For the sake of discussion and obviously
exaggerating here, but do you really want to hire a developer who
is/was certified in Drupal 6.x when the current version is now Drupal
15.5? Sounds like a great way for the cert company to make gobs of
cash by having 9 different certifications to me. Kinda like a very
half-baked M$ strategy to me and doesn't sound like any remote
resemblance of the OSS philosophy either. <br>
<br>
I think that many are concerned about some type of artificial economic
barrier -- having to pay someone to take a test/tests that may or may
not provide value and could be in conflict with the general OSS
mindset. And the only completely, directly tangible benefactor is the testing/certification company,
right? A sticky wicket indeed. Can't have it both ways...I do believe that if you do good work and keep your clients happy,
what else matters and who really cares? Gets back to fulfilling the clients requirements again....<br>
<br>
Ultimately, I don't think it matters either way, and as usual it is the grey area in between that needs to be dealt with in a sensible way. But everyone knows this already, so my apologies in advance for stating the obvious.<br>
<br>Kevin<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 2:27 PM, Jeff Greenberg <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jeff@ayendesigns.com" target="_blank">jeff@ayendesigns.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I don't think that Dries saying he found his comments to be insightful necessarily means he agrees with every word. That said, even North Korea didn't tell Hillary Clinton to STFU. Perhaps if, instead, he had offered that the person is funny looking, like a bag lady... kidding. Lighten up people, we're supposed to be on the same team, even if we don't agree.<div>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Sam Cohen wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
ok, so it's acceptable on this list to say "shut the f*!k up if you don't agree with me?" Or do some of you just don't know what STFU stands for?<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div><div><div></div><div>
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