Proposal for the certification body

[Greg McCarroll]

Attached is a draft proposal

As soon as JS gets a chance to set up the mailing list, i suggest
me move the discussion there.

-- 
Greg McCarroll                          http://www.mccarroll.uklinux.net

Title: Proposal for the formation of a non-profit Perl certification body for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland

DRAFT Proposal for the formation of a non-profit Perl certification body for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. - Greg McCarroll ([EMAIL PROTECTED])   Purpose of document. This document is a suggested plan for the formation of the body described in the title and later in the text of this document. The plan is aimed at the creation of a framework body in a short timeframe (approximately one month). Description of the body. The Perl certification body for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland is initially limited to promoting Perl within the UK and Ireland via the process and effects of certification. It is limited to the UK and Ireland so that it can be established quickly without the need for full involvement of the wider Perl community. It is hoped that they shall observe it as an experiment in this area. All code produced will be freely available. The questions database will be freely available to other non-profit certification bodies. The restriction of the question database is for two reasons. Firstly it shall not be public, as that would allow students to have access to all possible questions. Secondly it is not available to profit certification bodies, as there is a potential for confusion/misrepresentation of their certification with regards to this non-profit certification endeavour. If at a later time a certification body in the wider Perl community is created that is non-profit, the body proposed here shall endeavour to integrate with this body. It is a non-commercial body and shall inherit its operating framework from Yet Another Society (http://www.yetanother.org) which has already been active in promoting non-profit Perl activities. Initial actions. Seek approval for doing this activity within YAS. (This action is to be carried out by Greg McCarroll.) Establish a mailing list for discussion of this proposal and the body as a whole. (This action is to be carried out by Jonathan Stowe.) Advertise the existence of this mailing list within UK and Irish Perl communities. On this mailing request/nominate volunteers and form a committee, requesting that organisations do not have more than one member representing them on the committee. The committee should have no more than 11 members.   Proposed initial actions of the committee. Review of the content of this document, especially the following action points. Definitions of the content of the competency sections and subsections. Taking the proposed 3 competency sections � Core, Web and Database, each of these will be explored in order to identify competency subsections with them. Examination of existing publicly available books and materials for recommended reading material for each competency subsection identified above. Producing definitions of question types. i.e. prediction of output, multiple choice, problem solving, etc. Establishing a "questions database" web application. And allowing the general community to submit questions. Categorising these questions with the criterias identified in actions 2 and 4 of this list. Putting structures in place that "examinations" can be produced and executed, with the results being recorded by this body. Evangelise and promote the use of this new certification mechanism.