On Thu, Aug 16, 2001 at 03:57:12PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I suppose I'm commiting the evil of thinking like Microsoft, but I'd
> like to make sure no one develops a way to make Perl certification
> a money-making scam along the lines of so many other certifications,
> and the best way I see to be certain of that is to be there first.
>
> In other words, cut off their air supply.
The first Perl Certification Authority was Klortho the Magnificient (IIRC),
and for the low, low price of $3 (to cover materials and a donation to the
FSF), you could become a Certified Perl Programmer, a Certified Perl Bigot,
or a Certified Visual P++ Programmer, Certified Perl Monger, etc.
This was Dominus' idea three years ago at TPC2. I don't think he's
done it recently, mostly because of a lack of tuits (the template needs
to be converted to a PostScript or something).
So, in terms of first player advantage, it doesn't matter because
it's been done already. Obviously by someone who didn't want a
scam artist to invade the field, who also thought such certifications
are worth only slightly more than the paper they're printed on.
Other Perl certifications already exist today, and for the most part
they are not recognized as having any value, except to the certifying
authority (e.g. BrainBench).
That said, depending on how you look at it, either we were there first
three years ago, or someone is working on the money-making scam already.
Either way, these existing certifications are having little to no
impact on the community (except for those who can point to Klortho and
prove they parted with $3 at TPC2).
Forgive me if I don't agree that "cut[ting] off their air supply"
is a valid argument. :-)
Z.
