[BSDCert-Announce] BSD Certification Group Newsletter -- November 2006

[Announce list for the BSD Certification]

                    BSD Certification Group Newsletter
                              November 2006

Contents

    * 1 New Sponsors
    * 2 New Webmaster
    * 3 New BSDCG Member
    * 4 Exam Weightings
    * 5 Update on Test Delivery
    * 6 Website Statistics
    * 7 Mailing Lists
    * 8 About this Newsletter

                               1 New Sponsors

  We're  pleased  to  announce  two  new  bronze  sponsors:  The FreeBSD
  Foundation and Marketbridge Technologies.

  The  FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is
  committed to supporting and building the FreeBSD Project and community
  worldwide.   The   Foundation   gratefully   accepts   donations  from
  individuals  and businesses to help fund various activities to support
  the  project  like  managing  intellectual property issues and funding
  development   projects,   to   supporting  technical  conferences  and
  developer   collaboration.   The  Foundation  board  is  comprised  of
  volunteers  that  are  actively involved in FreeBSD and also respected
  researchers in their areas of expertise.

  Marketbridge  Technologies is an advanced technology firm specializing
  in  network,  security  consulting and training. Marketbridge provides
  strong   expertise   in   open  source  and  industry/vendor  specific
  technologies.  Marketbridge  performs  onsite  and  local instruction,
  including consulting services, throughout North America.

  Keep  an  eye  on  the  Sponsors  page of the website as several other
  sponsors  will  be  added  over the next few weeks. If your company is
  interested  in sponsorship, please use the contact form on the website
  to request details.

                               2 New Webmaster

  Randi  Harper  has  accepted  the position as the BSDCG web developer.
  Many  thanks  to  those who applied for this volunteer position and to
  the  retiring  webmaster,  genoverly, for all of his great work in the
  past.

                             3 New BSDCG Member

  Axel  Gruner,  a member of the BSDCG German translation team since its
  formation,  has  recently  joined  the  BSDCG  as a voting member. His
  updated  bio  is  in  the  BSDCG  section  of  the Meet Us page of the
  website.

                              4 Exam Weightings

  The  exam  weightings  for  the  seven  BSDA  Study  Domains have been
  determined  from  our  psychometrician's analysis and will be added to
  the Certification page of the website. They are:

  13%
         Installing & Upgrading the OS and Software

  11%
         Securing the Operating System

  15%
         Files, Filesystems and Disks

  16%
         Users and Accounts Management

  12%
         Basic System Administration

  15%
         Network Administration

  17%
         Basic Unix Skills

  Detailed  exam  objectives  for  the Study Domains can be found in the
  BSDA  Certification  Requirements  PDF which is available for download
  from the Certification page of the website. The initial BSDA exam will
  contain  100  questions, meaning you can expect 13 questions assessing
  the  objectives  listed  under  the  Installing  domain,  11 questions
  assessing the objectives listed under the Securing domain, and so on.

  Details  regarding  the type of questions, including sample questions,
  will  be  published  once the test delivery solution is finalized. The
  required passing score will be published once the initial psychometric
  analysis of the exam questions is complete.

                          5 Update on Test Delivery

  Due  to the high costs associated with commercial online test delivery
  solutions,  the  BSDCG  has  assembled  a development team to create a
  custom  solution.  Sponsorship  will  definitely  speed up development
  time;  if your company is interested in providing either developers or
  financial  assistance, please contact the Chair using the contact page
  of the website.

  We   should   have   more   details   regarding  test  delivery,  test
  availability, and test cost by the end of the year.

                            6 Website Statistics

  Online webstats are available at
  http://webstats.bsdcertification.org/.

                               7 Mailing Lists

  If you are not on the announcements list, please sign up at
  http://lists.nycbug.org/mailman/listinfo/bsdcert-announce/.  It  is  a
  closed list for announcements from the BSD Certification Group.

  The general discussion list is at
  http://lists.nycbug.org/mailman/listinfo/bsdcert/.

  The  announcements list had 191 subscribers and the general discussion
  list had 748 members this month.

                           8 About this Newsletter

  The  BSD Certification Group newsletter is published every month, near
  the middle of the month.

  Thank  you  to  Dru  Lavigne  for contributing to this newsletter. The
  editor is Jeremy C. Reed.

  If  you  have  any news items related to the BSD Certification, please
  let  us  know  by submitting via the contact form on the website or by
  sending  an  email  to newsletter at BSDCertificationGroup.org. Or if you
  would  like  to  volunteer for the translation team please send a note
  with the subject ``translation'' on the website's contact form.

  Do  you  read this newsletter? Please let us know if you read the PDF,
  webpage,  or emailed version. Any comments or advice? Is it useful for
  you?