Re: Debian Professionals Association, last try
Hello Lalo
On 17 Mar 99, at 12:31, Lalo Martins wrote:
> > I see the "Debian Professionals Association" as an association of
> > people who earn their living deploying Debian. Perhaps the only
> > requirement for membership should be that the members spend a
> > certain minimum portion (25% ?) of their paid working
> > day/week/month deploying Debian. We could also have student
> > members for students who work with Debian - unpaid.
>
> Hmm I disagree. The idea was "an association of people who earn
> their living from a work that depends on Debian"; suggested
> areas of membership till now are, besides consulting: teaching,
> and administrating (as in, the sysadmin of a site that uses
> Debian internally for some important task).
No, I think we agree on the idea. Just the word "deploy" should be
replaced with something that encompasses the wider meaning.
I am not sure if the membership should extend to people who "use"
Debian to do their work - like graphic artists, word processor
operators and html designers - but who's main area of skill is
independent of Debian. Or we may want a different grade of
membership for these people.
> > Later we can work out a system of verifying the claims and posting
> > proof of that verification on the database.
>
> Some consultants on the list seem to think a certification would
> be very important; as the job of an association is to provide
> benefit for its members, then (if (benefit? certification)
> (create certification-process)).
>
> For teachers, I can assure you that an "official" set of
> debianpro curricula (with titles, like "basic Debian course",
> "Debian-based network administration course", etc) is definitely
> a benefit, and is the closest thing to certification that is
> important for us - saying "my courses follows the official
> debianpro curricula". A teacher certification process would be
> another added bonus, but less important (eg can be left for
> later).
This is very important. But first we need an association. Then we
can start endorsing things. Remember that endorsement is only as
strong as the reputation of the association.
Ian Forbes
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