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From: Larry Smithmier <baboshka@olemiss.edu>
Subject: WANTED: Announce:Linux Certification Open Letter
Date: Mon,  2 Nov 1998 13:06:34 GMT

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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    _/_/_/  _/  _/  _/   _/_/_/ _/  _/







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