[BSDCert] steps to become a bsd training center

[Pablo Sánchez]

The reply bellow are my thoughts about what should be done and should not be 
considered as BSD Certification Group position. I'm just a member of the 
Brazilian-Portuguese translation team.

institutions should be certified by government or other organization.

 1 - Why should Government be involved if they hardly know which is the 
right choice for technology and they are usually ruled by principles that 
are either corrupt or idealogically wrong? The only Organization involved 
should be the BSD Certification Group. This is a certification driven by and 
for the BSD community, not governments or politicians. We (I believe) are 
far beyond from that... When people get together as community, not as a 
nation or not as a government rulled by laws that no longer express what and 
who they are, it transpasses all frontiers and all politics. We, together as 
one, are the community. I think having all the instructors certified as 
Associates by the group should be enought... but that's just me talking...

But becoming a certifying institution should not have a high initial 
> up-front cost, for example, it costs $10,000 to give certification. 

 2 - Price for the certification itself is still under discussion (as far as 
I know). Actually, the certification translation teams where asked to 
prepare surveys to ask the communities around the world how much would be 
expected to be the price for taking the tests. About becoming a certifying 
institution, as far as I know, no one except the BSD Certification Group is 
the certifying institution. Maybe, you're asking about providing place for 
the certification to be taken, and courses to be taught. In this case, I 
believe all Certification payment should be directed to the Group, and 
taught should be controlled by other means (like all teachers should be 
Associates, and the certification institution should be veryfied for 
security issues - like, do they have the required infra-structure?). Also, I 
believe all certitication exams should be video recorded by the institution 
and the video should be sended to the Group... but, again, that's just me 
talking.

This would keep non-profits (like ours) in developing countries (like the 
> Philippines) in the running, and spread BSD knowledge as far as possible.

 I agree. BTW: I'm from Brazil. ;-) Actually, even if the center do have 
profit-ends, I believe the model for this should be as low on profits as 
possible for the centers, to avoid commercial exploitation. Even if it costs 
only US$ 10,00, if the tests are hard enought, this should be enought to 
prove that the professional being certified has high BSD skills. Off course 
US$ 10,00 is too low, it was just an example on how I think we should keep 
price low, and tests level high. Afterall, this certification is about 
proving who is an expert on BSD, and not about making money (althought all 
profit is good if we can keep the certification alive).

-Any ideas on what a center will have to be or do to offer certification?

 Read above my thoughts:
1 - all teachers should be associates
2 - all exams should be video recorded
3 - centers should be security certified (certification environments should 
be highly controlled by specifications provided by the group)
4 - Costs should not be high, but tests should require high skills, to make 
it worth.

-Any ideas on costs?

 I believe that all money for the certification test should be sent for the 
group, and money collect for teaching should be split 70/30 (center/group), 
since I also believe all material for teaching should be prepared by the 
Group (I mean, content, not the printed material ;-)). So, if you have a lot 
of certifications you pay more, if you have less, you know it.

-How can we best prepare so that we are ready when the standard becomes 
> available?

 I want to know the answer for this question as well. Anyone could reply 
this e-mail and criticize my thoughts?
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