From: Larry Smithmier <baboshka@olemiss.edu> Subject: WANTED: Announce:Linux Certification Open Letter Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1998 13:06:34 GMT -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Posted for Tobin Maginnis <ptm@linuxcertification.org> Hi, My name is Tobin Maginnis and I am an associate professor of computer and information science at the University of Mississippi. About a year ago, one of my students (Les Driggers) asked if there was a Linux certificate, I smiled and said "No Les, there is no such thing." But the more I thought about it (combined with my belief that university computer science curriculums are broken), I decided this was a way to do something "real." About six months ago I began discussing certification with my students. A Web page was begun in August: http://www.linuxcertification.org Since then, over 200 study guide "objectives" have been developed as well as an article was written and accepted for publication by the Linux Journal http://www.linuxcertification.org/art5.html We recently attended the Linux Showcase conference in Atlanta to describe our actions and here we are! To be honest, we had not predicted the amount of interest this effort would generate and we are playing catch up. We see our primary mission as initiators. We do not care to discuss the theoretical, sociological, or philosophical aspects of certification, we just want to do something, anything that will get the ball rolling. (Usenix/Sage has been talking about certification for over three years. Exams are not predicted to occur before the year 2000). Once we have created something concrete then the Linux Community can appraise it and make specific suggestions for change. To that end we are currently soliciting Board members. Comments from the community will be in the form of the Internet RFCs, posted for public comments and submitted to the Board which will make recommendations to the Linux Certification Organization. We, in turn, will interpret and implement the board recommendations. The Board will also review our implementation and make additional recommendations. We have begun dividing the Linux knowledge domain into a "matrix" of uses where installation, internet connectivity, local area and intranet connectivity, configuration and system administration, and security are "rows." The "columns" are groupings of various packages such as the kernel, shells, general utilities, text processing, development tools, networking, etc. Each intersection of "use versus package" will have three levels of proficiency along the lines of Linux Certified Professional (LCP), Linux Certified Administrator (LCA), and Linux Certified Engineer (LCE). Using sendmail as an example, an LCP should be able to to configure a e-mail forwarding file, an LCA should be able to configure a virtual e-mail domain, and an LCE should be able to set up virtual e-mail return address. For more information, please visit us at: http://www.linuxcertification.org - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Larry Smithmier _/ Microcomputer Consultant _/ _/ 109 Powers Hall _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ University, Mississippi 38677 _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ Phone: (601)232-5683 _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ email: baboshka@olemiss.edu _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ - -- This article has been digitally signed by the moderator, using PGP. http://www.iki.fi/mjr/pgp.html has PGP key for validating signature. Send submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: linux-announce@news.ornl.gov PLEASE remember a short description of the software and the LOCATION. This group is archived at http://www.iki.fi/mjr/linux/cola.html -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3ia Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBNj2uWoQRll5MupLRAQEjOgP/dePY+RxH3xJ6TBZHry841uT0iEKkF4Mx QaA1SWse1p0mzQkTQdslKiz9fKttNvLlD8HgwfdbDuUWnA2Pi+8k2wonWRjSmGz8 HUE6b4oe/1VtzH/YIJ6XcTbrpofJlYZR1MHF8dbdWRVHDBEH0jqCdY9YfhSYgXBa 2qdnMZzp5jw= =cs42 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----